EVERY ham station needs an effective ground for safety purposes. If your
shack is wired to NEC standards and your equipment meets all standards
for power wiring, etc. then you have all the safety ground that you
need. But, this type of ground is rarely effective for r-f purposes and
in many cases will cause more problems than it attempts to resolve.
In over 55 years of ham operating, I have never had a station with an
r-f "station ground." I agree with Dan that they are just one more hole
to drill.
More importantly, attempting to "ground" the station by running a wire
to earth ground is almost doomed by definition. If it seems to work,
then your problem was not solved by the "ground" itself.
The place to start keeping RFI out of the shack and the XYL's TV and the
kid's stereo is at the antenna. Wherever possible use balanced antennas
properly designed and installed. It is almost a truism that a ground in
the station will rarely if ever correct a problem caused out at the
antenna.
72/73, George W5YR - the Yellow Rose of Texas NETXQRP 6
Fairview, TX 30 mi NE Dallas in Collin county QRP-L 1373
Amateur Radio W5YR, in the 55th year and it just keeps getting better!
Icom IC-756 PRO #02121 (9/00) Kachina #91900556 (12/99) IC-765 (6/90)
Dan wrote:
>
> Ah who needs a good ground, it's just one more hole to drill in the wall! :)
> To be perfectly honest the only case where I found a ground was needed was on
> my old tube type gear. Would get an rf bite on my old ts 520 if I didn't
> ground it. Never bothered with it much on modern stuff.
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