Fred wrote: And secondly, which now makes much sense, that no secondary ground rods are to be used! - for one's electrical service in the home or facility. Multiple grounds, can create shock hazards. And as Don pointed out - a separate ground rod, if used at all, may be useful for one's RF antenna system, and that is all. But for ESD - the single home and facility ground connection - is the ONLY one to rely on for ESD safety.
------------------------ I just went through that with an electrical contractor myself. There seems to be a lot of contradictory information. As the contractor pointed out, there must be only one mains ground in a building, but that does not mean there are no other grounds! The phone company often installs a ground rod at their service entrance that is not connected to the mains ground. The cable TV company may drive in a ground at their service entrance to ground their cable. Add to that any iron water pipe that runs into the earth to the water meter, etc., and there may be several separate grounds in the home even without adding a grounded Ham antenna! Those grounds do present shock hazards if anything goes wrong with the mains ground or if the hot side of the mains circuit is exposed so that someone can touch it and any grounded conductor. That's why GFI interrupters are important in locations where secondary grounds are often encountered such as kitchens, laundry rooms, basements, bathrooms, outlets in out buildings such as garages, etc. If one grounds a Ham antenna at the at the antenna tower or mast, maybe the shack also should have GFI protection. I don't have such a grounded system so I haven't asked a contractor that question. Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
