Hi,

As a newbie I would like to know when grounding why is it not feasible to
use a connection to the mains electricity supply to the equipment. After
all this is a sure way to make sure that everything is connected to a common
ground.

Some books say use water pipes and others say don't, very confusing for a
beginner, any comments on to the best approach.

What about Ground Plane is that possible with a longwire antenna ?

Why does the grounding stake need to be far away from the house, what would
a typical distance be to be considered far.

Can the cable to the grounding stake be routed in the ground ?

Your respsone to the above questions would be appreciated.
Birderman

Some pipes are OK for a ground. But thay must be metal and only cold water
pipes. Hot water pipes are connected to the water heater which brakes the
connection to ground.

Bill, N5NOB

If you can be sure no wire, gas line or fiber optics are in the area, you
can drive a 6' piece of reinforcing bar into the earth, and use a grounding
block to connect to it for good earth ground. My understanding is that you
want the length of the wire connecting to the rebar as short as possible.

"Bill Hennessy" wrote in message
m...
Some pipes are OK for a ground. But thay must be metal and only cold
water
pipes. Hot water pipes are connected to the water heater which brakes the
connection to ground.

Bill, N5NOB

Warpcore wrote:

If you can be sure no wire, gas line or fiber optics are in the area, you
can drive a 6' piece of reinforcing bar into the earth, and use a grounding
block to connect to it for good earth ground. My understanding is that you
want the length of the wire connecting to the rebar as short as possible.

"Bill Hennessy" wrote in message
m...

Some pipes are OK for a ground. But thay must be metal and only cold

water

pipes. Hot water pipes are connected to the water heater which brakes the
connection to ground.

Bill, N5NOB





you want to consider what you want to ground, safty ground for
electrical appl. or your antenna. For an antenna you should try to stay
away from electrical pipes to minimize electrical noise. Use the
waterpipe instead as close to the house entrance as possible.
rw

I was always told NEVER to use the hot water pipe, it can be dangerous. A
cold water pipe could be fine.
Using the house ground can sometimes work, I have seen hams use the "tube"
that brings the wires from the roof to the box with great success. Other times
using the house ground causes what is known as a ground loop and you can get
all kinds of noises.
A good ground is usually a 6' or longer copper ground rod or copper tubing
into the ground and just attach the ground wire to that. Just make sure you
know what is under the ground before you start pounding a ground rod into it.
The shorter the distance from the radio to the ground rod the better.
As for getting that 6' rod into the ground, that isnt always easy depending
on your soil. A root feeder can be of help. It will really get the ground rod
started in easily and soak the earth underneath as well.
I have also seen several ground rods used. Just attach a heave copper wire
to each ground rod and then the main one to the radio. This gives more ground
coverage.
Craig N0BSA

Birderman wrote:

Hi,

As a newbie I would like to know when grounding why is it not feasible to
use a connection to the mains electricity supply to the equipment. After
all this is a sure way to make sure that everything is connected to a common
ground.

Some books say use water pipes and others say don't, very confusing for a
beginner, any comments on to the best approach.

What about Ground Plane is that possible with a longwire antenna ?

Why does the grounding stake need to be far away from the house, what would
a typical distance be to be considered far.

Can the cable to the grounding stake be routed in the ground ?

Your respsone to the above questions would be appreciated.
Birderman

Try the grounding article under antennas at the AMANDX site below. Simple easy
to follow ideas on a good ground that works
--
73 and Best of DX
Shawn Axelrod

Visit the AMANDX DX site with info for the new or experienced listener:

http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/index.html

REMEMBER ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN HEAR FOREVER

In article ,
"Birderman" wrote:

Hi,

As a newbie I would like to know when grounding why is it not
feasible to use a connection to the mains electricity supply to the
equipment. After all this is a sure way to make sure that everything
is connected to a common ground.

The mains electricity ground most of the time is to long electrically at
short wave frequencies. All conductors have an electrical property
called inductance determined by its length over its cross sectional
area. The ground wire in the cabling of just a few feet will be so
reactive to short wave frequencies as to cause the ground to appear not
to be connected on the other end of the wire due to its small cross
sectional area. The effect gets worse at higher frequencies.

Another reason is most electrical devices conduct noise currents to
ground using this wire so it will end up generating noise in your
receiver.

Some books say use water pipes and others say don't, very confusing
for a beginner, any comments on to the best approach.

If you are going to use a water pipe make it the one leading out of the
house into the ground as long as it is metal. Your best bet usually is
to have a separate ground system for the radio.

What about Ground Plane is that possible with a longwire antenna ?

There is a property of soil called ground conductivity. If it¹s good at
the antenna location you can just use one or two ground rods but if its
poor you would have to connect wires to the ground rod placed on or in
the ground under the antenna.

A good ground plane for the long wire would be another wire under it on
the ground.

Why does the grounding stake need to be far away from the house, what
would a typical distance be to be considered far.

You want to get it away from the electrical service supply ground so all
the noise in that system doesn¹t get into the radio input.

Depends on the ground conductivity but I expect that to translate to
several tens of feet at least.

Can the cable to the grounding stake be routed in the ground ?

Yes.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

That's called the riser and its suitability is dependent on how well
it's fastened to the meter box and how well the meter box is grounded.

When in doubt, do it by the book. 8' copper clad steel rod driven
into non-sandy earth. A coaxial grounding block (another reason RG-6
is ideal for SWL antennas) or an open wire lightning arrestor where
the feedline enters the building connected to the grounding rod with
splice free 10 g copper or 8 g aluminum.

On 05 Sep 2003 20:26:34 GMT, (DXer) wrote:

I was always told NEVER to use the hot water pipe, it can be dangerous. A
cold water pipe could be fine.
Using the house ground can sometimes work, I have seen hams use the "tube"
that brings the wires from the roof to the box with great success. Other times
using the house ground causes what is known as a ground loop and you can get
all kinds of noises.
A good ground is usually a 6' or longer copper ground rod or copper tubing
into the ground and just attach the ground wire to that. Just make sure you
know what is under the ground before you start pounding a ground rod into it.
The shorter the distance from the radio to the ground rod the better.
As for getting that 6' rod into the ground, that isnt always easy depending
on your soil. A root feeder can be of help. It will really get the ground rod
started in easily and soak the earth underneath as well.
I have also seen several ground rods used. Just attach a heave copper wire
to each ground rod and then the main one to the radio. This gives more ground
coverage.
Craig N0BSA