Ham Shack Phase II – grounding
This Event occurred Apr 22. 2017
Over the years I have read a lot about grounding and listened to *MANY* contradictory opinions on the subject. My mind keeps going back to a MARS Station I had put together on board one of the Cruisers I was stationed aboard – just knowing I had the linear amplifier properly grounded, and having some of the skin on the end of a finger turned “white” from stray RF. You don’t forget such lessons if you are paying attention. We have 8′ ground rods driven into the ground just outside the shack’s window by yours truly with a jack-hammer. I chose to use 3/4″ tinned copper braid leading into the shack as the primary ground path.
The ground strap comes in, underneath the MFJ “Window Pass Through,” then is connected to the copper tube to create a “common ground” point.
I tied off each of the ground straps, (fabricated last night”, with small Velcro straps, then attached each to the copper tube. This assembly will set behind the riser, and the Velcro will permit me to unroll/connect each ground strap to the Ham gear as needed.
Finally decided to mount the Alpha Delta “Delta-4” switch to the side of the riser. Will add ground strap later. This switch will be dedicated to HF antennas.
Brought in the little 30 Amp power supply, IC-7300 transceiver and MFJ auto-tuner and hooked everything up. (Still need to connect ground straps to the radio & tuner).
We will continue to use the old IC V-8000 as our 2 meter base until it gets upgraded with another unit. I will eventually be installing another antenna switch for VHF/UHF antenna selection.
Decided to do a simple power on test just to make certain everything is good to go up to this point. (It obviously is). No antennas currently connected, so the antenna switch is in the “common” position.
Took a nice break, then came back to hook up ground straps to the transceiver & auto-tuner. Thanks to all the pre-planning, it went without a hitch.
And… one more quick test to assure I didn’t mess anything up. Time for a bite of dinner!