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Old April 17th 08, 03:14 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
Telamon Telamon is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 4,494
Default Minimum gauge for groud...

In article ,
dxAce wrote:

Michael wrote:

"dxAce" wrote in message
...


Michael wrote:

"Drakefan" wrote in message
news:nbZMj.6329$eg2.2049@trndny06...
Michael wrote:
Hiya...

Been a while since I posted here. For the sake of noise suppression
as
affective lightning protection is almost hopeless without gas tubes,
what
would be the minimum gauge wire that you could use for a ground from
the
radio to a ground spike and from a matching transformer to a ground
spike
??? Yes, I know there is loads of info on the net, but I would like
some
active opinions as some recent discussions I have had on this has been
conflicting.

Also... I've gotten conflicting opinions on this one too. If you have
a
long wire or beverage set up on a matching transformer like the ICE
180,
there is a ground receptacle on the matching transformer. Would you:

A. Use a separate ground wire from the matching transformer to the
ground spike and another separate ground wire from the receiver to the
ground spike ???

or

B. Use one single ground wire from the receiver's ground port going
up
to the matching transformer and then to the ground spike ???


I know this stuff is antenna-101, but I'm interested to see what the
opinions here are

Thanx in advance !!!

Mike D.
Northern NJ
First, the balun shouldn't be up in the air. It should be close to the
ground at the lower end of the vertical downlead wire of the inverted-L
antenna. Then you can use a short, less than three feet, length of
grounding wire from the balun to the rod. The ground wire should be at
least 10-gauge, preferably larger, like 6 or 4-gauge. The coax should
run
on or in the ground to the house and then to the radio. This will
prevent
it from picking up noise on the coax shield, which can happen when the
coax is up in the air. It's not absolutely necessary to ground the coax
shield again near the radio if you follow the above advice.

Thank you for all the replies. My evil plan is this. Since I cant get
the
matching transformer away from the house, I will secure it to the house's
brick chimney. The chimney goes all the way to the concrete foundation
and
should make an excellent ground.

Please explain why you think a 'brick chimney' will make an excellent
ground.


How about, the best thing approximating ground that is available on my roof
???


A brick chimney isn't even close to approximating ground.


It probably just 20 or 30 feet above ground. Should be close enough
don't you think?

--
Telamon
Ventura, California