You definitely should not have your tower ground and house ground tied
together. Even a nearby lightning strike can cause the two grounds to
develop very large voltage differences. Having these tied together is setup
for a disaster. During lightning season, anytime my shack is not in use, I
disconnect everything to the shack including all grounding. This guarantees
my shack is isolated from a nearby lightning strike.
Carl Moreschi N4PY
121 Little Bell Drive
Bell Mountain
Hays, NC 28635
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Menzel" <retire@means.net>
To: "'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment'" <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 11:26 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion RF issue
I agree with others on this, it seems that the only time I suffered from
this was with very high swr, significant voltage drop, or the wrong antenna.
The Orion must have a solid 25 amp supply, so if it's only say an Astron
RM25 you need to make sure that the radio is the only thing on that supply.
An RS or RM 35 is a better bet, yet.
I guess that would be my recommendation, as well, but I'm curious about your
tying your shack ground to the tower ground; I remember well, many sources
stating that under no circumstances should the two be connected.
Anyone else have an opinion on this?
It would seem foolhardy to me to do so, as a strike on the tower would be
instantly transmitted to the station grounds and could cause significant
damage...assuming of course that all other precautions had been taken,
unplugging equipment, etc., but I never unhook my ground system on my shack.
Curious.
Larry, N0XB
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]
On Behalf Of Natan Huffman
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 10:16 AM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Orion RF issue
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today I took delivery of an Orion with version 2.056 firmware and
integrated, with great ease, the rig into the station. Unfortunately I am
having an issue while on 80 meters where my antenna is near the shack and
only up 50 feet. The station is grounded well as is the house with each
having two 15' ground rods and short ground wires < ¼ lamda at 80) . These
grounds are tied into 4 more at the base of the tower about 50' away from
the shack. I doubt the problem (white screen when transmitting) is due to
lack of grounding but rather the presence of a strong RF field generated by
the 80 antenna. Just for fun (done in 4 degree wx) I disconnected the large
bus to the tower base and no change. I also checked VDC at the plug in the
back providing power and it's fine.
This problem is not seen on two other transceivers in the shack when used on
80, which also suggests the problem is RF from the antenna. Might there be
some remedy so that I don't have a white screen when transmitting?
Thanks in advance,
Natan W6XR
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