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bjstrudy@gmail.com

Joined: Wed, Dec 16th 2009, 11:47 Roles: N/A Moderates: N/A

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CONFUSED ON RF/AC GROUND May 30th 2012, 19:31 9 7,400 on 1/6/12

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CONFUSED ON RF/AC GROUND bjstrudy@gmail.com on 1/6/12
This is a new construction house. Brand new, go figure!
CONFUSED ON RF/AC GROUND bjstrudy@gmail.com on 31/5/12
Hmmmmm, I guess what's puzzling me the most right now is why they put the electric meter on the end of the house farthest away from the ground rod/concrete garage floor. I don't like the thought of a lightening surge traveling through my attic on it's way to ground. Thanks for all the input.
CONFUSED ON RF/AC GROUND bjstrudy@gmail.com on 30/5/12
I've only been a ham for about 2 years. I live in florida (lightening capitol of the world). Let me begin by explaining how my ac ground is set up from the meter. Instead of going to a copper rod in the earth directly below it, it has heavy guage copper wire that goes up the wall from the meter into the attic, then through the attic to the other end of the house (about 60 feet) and down the garage exterior wall into the cement floor of the garage. I've never seen a set up like that, but then I've recently moved to florida too. Up until now I've never really concerned myself with lightening because I run a dipole wire, and I always disconnect it outside when it storms (except when I forget to either unhook it , or hook it back up afterwards).

To connect to my house ground i would have to run a wire all the way around the side of the house into the garage to access the house ground rod.

For RF ground I use grounding strap to a copper tube with hose clamps. The copper tube is mounted to the back of my desk. No daisy chaining! The copper tube is then connected to an mfj window feed ground terminal via 1 inch grounding strap. On the exterior side I have copper tubing terminated (clamped) to an 8 ft copper plated ground rod. The total distance is about 6 feet.

Am I doing it right? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Bill
KJ4TOF

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