Bill and Paul,
Just a few quick comments:
1. Tinned braid has the advantage of the tin protecting the copper.
Weather elements affect bare copper quickly, and even tinned braid may have
to be replaced after just 2 or 3 years in some environments. (See comment
#4, below.)
2. I order to meet current standards, many modern vehicles already have
the hood bonded with braid to the main chassis body. My 1995 Grand Caravan
has such bonding.
3. Stripping braid out of old coax takes effort. Tinned braid is
available new at reasonable cost form various vendors. Check out Nemal
Electronics as one source. Also, many industrial electronics companies
carry braid in stock, in various sizes. Sometimes they carry small spools
of 25 feet, which would be just about right for this application.
4. I had great success years ago with grounding the exhaust of a 1973
Dodge van. That really made the HW-101 mobile rig happy. I used stainless
steel hose clamps as you suggest, Bill, but the environment under there was
so bad (midwest in winter) that I had to replace the straps about every 6
months. As I recall, I had to place straps at 3 different points of the
rather lengthy exhaust pipe to get all bands quiet.
Best luck, Paul.
73, Dale
WA9ENA
Bill Turner <w7ti@dslextreme.com>@contesting.com on 10/08/2002 09:55:58 AM
Please respond to w7ti@dslextreme.com
Sent by: rfi-admin@contesting.com
To: "Paul J. Pagano" <wa4aa@netscape.net>
cc: <rfi@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] 2002, Ford 4.6L V8 RFI, Need Help
On Mon, 7 Oct 2002 20:47:14 -0400, Paul J. Pagano wrote:
>Ground strapping everything is my next step! I'm not sure how to go about
>grounding all the side panels and doors. The vehicle is leased and I can't
>drill any visible holes. Can anyone reference an established procedure for
>this strapping process?
_________________________________________________________
If you choose not to drill the holes, ok, but I'm sure you could
get away with it and have no problems. Just use a #4 or #6
self-tapping sheet metal screw. When you turn the vehicle back
in, remove the grounding braid but reinstall the screw. If
necessary, paint the screw head to match the surrounding area and
nobody will be the wiser.
For braid, my favorite is to remove the shield from RG-58 coax
and use it. I prefer the tinned shield as opposed to bare
copper, but I suppose either one would work ok.
BTW, grounding things really does help. Don't forget the exhaust
pipe - being hung on insulated hangers, it's a natural radiating
element. There, instead of drilling a hole, I just sandpapered
down to bare metal and used a hose clamp to clamp the braid down.
Grounding the hood is important, too.
Bill, W7TI
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