Paul:
What you suggest, using a separate ground rod connected only to your
antenna tuner, is both unsafe and a violation of the National
Electrical Code.
Section 250.50 of the 2005 Code (on page 70-101) states: "All grounding
electrodes (read ground rods) that are present at each building or
structure served shall be bonded together to form the grounding
electrode system."
If two or more ground rods exist and are not connected together
(bonded) electrically a lethal voltage can exist between the two in the
event of a nearby lightning strike.
73,
Henry. WA2IRQ
----------------------------
Henry W. Ott
Henry Ott Consultants
www.hottconsultants.com
On Jan 22, 2007, at 10:28 PM, Paul wrote:
It sounds like what is being said is not to ground the chassis of
various rigs. That is, all modern rigs, power supplies, Home wiring
already have a common three prong plug and that should put everything
to a common "ground" just by plugging it in. This excludes such
historical anomalies like the early Astron power supplies that didn't
have the chassis grounded and are fixed by running a wire from their
chassis to the DC negative post.
So the rod I have pounded in the ground outside the shack should be
brought in the shack to connect to the antenna tuner only. Do I have
that right?
Because before I was running wire from the ground lugs of all the
rigs, and computer chassis to a single copper pipe behind the gear and
that pipe was then connected to the outside ground rod by another
wire.
I think I'm mixing old and new technology. Maybe a lot of this
grounding lore came from yesteryear when three wire power cables and
gear design was not the norm.
If I wanted to check if I should attach some gear to that outside
ground, would I put a meter between the outside ground wire and the
rig chassis to see if I could measure anything. If so, what would I be
looking for? Or put the meter between the chassis of two pieces of
gear. If they all use three prong plugs, wouldn't they all be common?
Thank you and 73,
Paul, K7NHB
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