Station Grounding

[KC8FAS]

I have a question about station grounding. I know you station ground wire to rod should be as short as possible. My ham shack is about 15ft away from my home eletrical service ground rod. Would this be ok to run my wire to this location or should I put a new ground rod just outside the shack. I have read if you do this both ground rods should be boned together. What would be the easiest way.

 

[cabletech]

Just run a #6 or #4 wire from the main ground rod to a point inside your radio room for the common connection for all your equipment and you will be fine.

The bigger the wire the better and yes you need to go directly to the main ground rod.

 

[sloop]

There are basically 4 reasons to ground your station and grounding for each one is slightly different. There is grounding for 1. AC protection, 2. lightning protection, 3. RF grounding, and 4. antenna grounding (to create the other 1/2 of the antenna such as a vertical). The best thing is to go to American Radio Relay League | ARRL - The national association for AMATEUR RADIO select 'websearch' and type in "station grounding". The site will list information on how to do each of the above types of grounding. Best of luck.

 

[SCPD]

Station grounding

This website has a lot of good info on grounding and other things. Page 2 has a pdf just on ham radio station grounding.

White Papers and Technical Notes

 

[majoco]

Wyandotte - very interesting web page - reading this should be compulsory for the rabid electricians who scream that "every ground must be bonded to the service ground at the entrance point" when ever this subject crops up!

 

[daveleonard]

Common ground plate

Should the common grounding plate for all the ham shack equipment be located inside the shack or must it be outside.

 

[daveleonard]

Common plate

Not only do I need to know where to put the common plate, inside or out, or does it matter, I also need to say that there is no house ground here. Welcome to third world electrical practice. I have asked my wife to ask an electrician why, is there something about 220bas opposed to 110 that I don't know about? Strangely, no house here in the barangay has a line from the house box to ground. None. She does not understand my concern since everything works fine and no one else has one. I'm just going to take care of my shack, line and antenna grounding. If I can get someone to run a house ground I will. Its hard for a foreigner to get anybody to do anything here especially when your "go between" doesn't see the need. Ignorance is bliss here until a good overload or lightening strike. Beats me!!!!