what to do about static

[wenzeslaus]

grounding consists of a wire connected to the plumbing.

 

[dlwtrunked]

I connect a 25' random wire to the antenna of my portable battery powered SW radio. string it along the hall up in the air.

when I do that, there are a lot of staticy pops with the normal background static of radio reception. once in a while I get a big POP, sometimes loud enough to make me jump. I had to quit doing that because I'm convinced my radio is going to get zapped and quit working.

I'm pretty sure it's caused by static electricity in the air from the A/C. to test that theory, I set up the antenna outside. didn't get any static at all.

what can I do to reduce or eliminate static electricity on the antenna wire inside the house? besides turn off the A/C

I suspect you are hearing nearby lightening--if so, there is not a whole lot you can do about that with a cheap portable.
When these are bad, take a look at

Real Time Lightning Map

See lightning strikes in real time across the planet. Free access to maps of former thunderstorms. By Blitzortung.org and contributors.

www.lightningmaps.org

 

[MUTNAV]

grounding consists of a wire connected to the plumbing.

So you hooked it to the cold water pipe yourself or through a power outlets ground?

Just a question.

Thanks
Joel

 

[wenzeslaus]

So you hooked it to the cold water pipe yourself or through a power outlets ground?

Just a question.

Thanks
Joel

that is one of the stupidest questions I have heard in a long time.

 

[wenzeslaus]

I suspect you are hearing nearby lightening--if so, there is not a whole lot you can do about that with a cheap portable.
When these are bad, take a look at

Real Time Lightning Map

See lightning strikes in real time across the planet. Free access to maps of former thunderstorms. By Blitzortung.org and contributors.

www.lightningmaps.org

nah, I think it's farts from a UFO. they're electrified you know.

what did I write in the OP? I forgot ??

?? ?/ ?? ??
? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? duh

 

[wenzeslaus]

follow-up: turned off the AC for a while, connected a 30' random wire to the antenna, after 10 minutes of listening the lights flickered and it went

!!POP!!

and fried my damn radio

after 20 minutes it started working again

 

[Blueliner]

Some random thoughts:
I used to ground my DX-394 by clipping it to the cold water copper plumbing in the house. (Hot water pipes are often isolated to reduce corrosion in the hot water heater tanks). Using the electrical system ground is not recommended as it is subject to every potential short circuit, and any noise at any point in the house, including anything that is plugged into the house electrical system.

I believe this plumbing ground was more of a noise receiving antenna as anything running in the house increased the noise level. Since copper plumbing is run inside the walls, often in fairly close proximity to the house wiring, I'm convinced that it picked up all kinds of appliance and light noises from the wiring and brought it into the receiver via that plumbing grounding. I am NOT an electrician, these are only my observations.

I bought a stand alone grounding rod and pounded it into the soil at the other end of the house from the electric utility's' grounding wire. Ran my radio ground on the exterior wall of the house to that new ground rod. A day and night (figuratively speaking) difference. Noise floor is way down and signals appeared to be more numerous and stronger. Remove the ground and noise goes way up signals almost disappear.

Far from scientific, but it is definitely noticeable.

You can clip a long wire to a whip antenna, but you get everything hitting that wire including local noise, and static. Unless you can somehow ground your receiver (I don' think the Eton receiver in the earlier pic has a separate ground lug) you will continue to get the RFI on your antenna wire. If you can string it outside of a window away from inside, that might improve it some. Don't leave it attached to the radio when not in use.

 

[Blueliner]

By the way, falling dry snow can introduce a lot of static electricity on an outdoor wire. That could really zap the radio.