Station Grounding

Hello all. Grounding in general can quickly become a highly technical discussion. For the Ham though, there are basic rules to follow in order to protect your valuable equipment, and for a direct lightning strike - forget it…

The only way to protect equipment from a direct strike is to disconnect all external connections - antennas and rotor cables from all equipment inside the shack.

Key considerations:

Ground all equipment by terminating individual connections to a common ground bus within the shack. The bus connects to your external ground system

All external (outside of shack) ground rods must be connected together to prevent ground loops

If you use an equipment rack, equip it with a bus as well and connect all rack equipment

A major source of equipment damage comes form static or surges resulting from a near lightning strike.  To protect equipment all antennas and other connectors entering the shack should be protected by surge suppressors, such as those offered by PolyPhaser.  Devices are available that can protect multi-wire cables, such as rotor control cables as well.

One solution is to install an equipment cabinet just outside of the station perimeter.  Install a copper bus or plate within the cabinet that is large enough to mount all suppressors.  This serves as a single entry point to the station for antennas and rotor cables. The plate is tied to a ground rod (close to the cabinet), which in turn is tied to all other ground points outside of the station.

When in doubt, ground it….

Use quality ground rods and ground wire. Solid copper ground rods in 3/4 and 5/8 sizes are readily available. For external connections between ground rods use #1 or #2 solid copper conductors

Periodically inspect the external connections and clear as necessary to ensure a good connection