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Ground Foil

Dec 6th 2013, 22:04

KF5ZBH

Joined: Oct 15th 2013, 10:39
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
I'm a newbie to the Ham Radio hobby.
At this moment, I'm in the process of "gathering" and "reading" on what I would need to ground my radio. Do I apply both copper foil in addition to copper wire?
I just purchased an ICOM 7200. Well above my head but I have to start out learning somewhere.
Perhaps someone could direct me to past articles written on this subject. I'm like a child...I also need pictures! I have tried to locate the process on YouTube to show the whole process but had no success.
Articles on ARRL? YouTube?
With kind regards,
Dianna
Dec 8th 2013, 21:36

tilley119

Joined: Dec 26th 2011, 01:01
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
1st run a wide copper ground strap from radio to the ground rod , if possible add more ground rods spaced less than 1/4 wave apart.
Dec 9th 2013, 13:51

W1VT

Super Moderator

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0

Here is the ARRL Web page on Grounding.

http://www.arrl.org/grounding

In particular, Tom, W8JI has excellent pictures that show your options in bonding your station ground to the service entrance--this connection is perhaps the most important aspect of protecting your station against lightning--lightning will find a path to ground one way or another--it is your job to insure that it finds a safe path that does not endanger your home or family--which you can do by following NEC code requirements.

Tom Rauch W8JI has excellent pages on station grounding.
http://www.w8ji.com/station_ground.htm

At my station, I put lightning protection ahead of RF performance--the station ground is line of sight to the service entrance, even though this means a much longer cable between the rig and flagpole antenna. While I initially had some issues with RF on the coax shield, as 20M radials and a few ground rods a long distance away were barely adequate on 10M, I made the problem go away by adding more radials to effectively ground the antenna on all bands.

Zack Lau W1VT
ARRL Senior Lab Engineer
Dec 9th 2013, 16:29

KF5ZBH

Joined: Oct 15th 2013, 10:39
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
Thank you so much!

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