"Drakefan" wrote in message
news:nbZMj.6329$eg2.2049@trndny06...
Michael wrote:
Hiya...

Been a while since I posted here. For the sake of noise suppression as
affective lightning protection is almost hopeless without gas tubes, what
would be the minimum gauge wire that you could use for a ground from the
radio to a ground spike and from a matching transformer to a ground spike
??? Yes, I know there is loads of info on the net, but I would like some
active opinions as some recent discussions I have had on this has been
conflicting.

Also... I've gotten conflicting opinions on this one too. If you have a
long wire or beverage set up on a matching transformer like the ICE 180,
there is a ground receptacle on the matching transformer. Would you:

A. Use a separate ground wire from the matching transformer to the
ground spike and another separate ground wire from the receiver to the
ground spike ???

or

B. Use one single ground wire from the receiver's ground port going up
to the matching transformer and then to the ground spike ???


I know this stuff is antenna-101, but I'm interested to see what the
opinions here are

Thanx in advance !!!

Mike D.
Northern NJ
First, the balun shouldn't be up in the air. It should be close to the
ground at the lower end of the vertical downlead wire of the inverted-L
antenna. Then you can use a short, less than three feet, length of
grounding wire from the balun to the rod. The ground wire should be at
least 10-gauge, preferably larger, like 6 or 4-gauge. The coax should run
on or in the ground to the house and then to the radio. This will prevent
it from picking up noise on the coax shield, which can happen when the
coax is up in the air. It's not absolutely necessary to ground the coax
shield again near the radio if you follow the above advice.


Thank you for all the replies. My evil plan is this. Since I cant get the
matching transformer away from the house, I will secure it to the house's
brick chimney. The chimney goes all the way to the concrete foundation and
should make an excellent ground. The ICE 180's housing is metal/ground and
it has holes to be secured to an external mount. I plan to use screws
directly into the brick. I also plan to use a separate ground wire from the
radio to a brass ground spike. I'll be using 16 gauge wire to do this. I
think this should be a decent set up. I'll have a coax lead going from the
matching transformer on the chimney into the shack. That will be 30 or so
feet. The receiving wire will be erected on the roof. I may just coil 200
feet around the top of the chimney to keep it away from the house. That
would probably be better then running it around the outline of the house as
far as noise goes. Noise is a big issue here in north NJ.

Thanx Again

Mike D.