#6 in a series of ham radio videos for beginners

TelescopeMan does a show and tell on his amateur radio station grounding system. Ideally the ground rod would also be connected to the main electrical ground, but in this case the electric ground is on the opposite side of the house and also blocked by a concrete patio sidewalk and driveway. If you can also ground the rod to the main electrical ground this is best practice. However the system shown would bleed-off static charges that accumulate on outside wires and antennas during wind, snow, and rain events.

Additionally the long wire ground acts as a counterpoise for the 127ft end fed antenna, along with the 50ft of coax running from the antenna box to the line isolator shown in the video.

I still disconnect my equipment coax and unplug from the wall when a lightning storm is imminent. Since installing this grounding system RFI has been eliminated from inside the shack.

TelescopeMan