Ground
A ground is a fundamental part of a properly equipped station. Without a ground, you are at risk of damaging your equipment or worse, causing physical harm to people around the device as a radio station changes the way your inhouse electric circuit behaves in case of a lightning strike.
What a ground ground is not
A ground is not the regular electric supply ground: you need a separate ground that is not connected to your electric supply ground.
A ground will also not help with reception (unless you have a special antenna or an installation problem) or reduce the risk of a lightning strike. It will however reduce the chances of damage occurring. Besides, you should not use a station ground as an RF ground (but you can use an RF ground as a station ground).
Building a proper ground
A proper station ground will be a copper strip that runs through your station's rigs and serves as a tie point for the ground leads of all radio equipment within your shack. That station ground is then connected to a non-electric supply ground. Such a ground may be a metallic cold water pipe (not plastic, not hot water!) or better yet, a custom-made ground rod, connected through a gage 6 or smaller (gage, not size).
Cold water pipes
Cold water pipes can act as a ground rod, as long as the house power supply isn't also connected there. (Hint: talk to your electrician if it's so, that's not supposed to happen.)
Ground rods
A ground rod is made of copper-clad steel. It should generally be driven into the soil at least 10 feet (3.25m).
Ground plates
A ground plate is also a valid ground. It's a plate of copper-clad steel made of a 30cm per 30cm square, buried 45cm below the soil.
Connecting to the ground
As mentioned above, the station ground itself is a braided, 14-gage copper strip that runs within the shack. You can use the braid from spare RG-8/U coax if you have extra.
The station ground needs to be connected directly to the ground built above, and that connexion must be as short as possible. If the ground is a quarter of the wavelength or an odd number multiple of the quarter wavelength, it will start emitting RF energy and can cause severe burn.
It is therefore a challenge to connect your ground properly for anybody building a station on the second floor or similar higher ground.
External links
- Good article about problems a ground protects from
- Canadian Amateur Radio Basic Qualification Study Guide - source for some of the specifications for the ground here