Antenna Grounding

A place to ask questions about base setup for CB radios or HAM radios. Talk about your experiences, seek advice, and share knowledge.
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GaRebel
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Antenna Grounding

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Post by GaRebel »

What is a good size ground wire for a base antenna? Or would the tower ground it enough?
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MDYoungblood
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Re: Antenna Grounding

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Post by MDYoungblood »

For grounding it is best to look up the electrical code where you live, just about everyone is different. Rule of thumb, the bigger the better. My minimum is 8 gauge bare or 6 gauge stranded. If using aluminum wire, go bigger.
My guess is your grounding a tower, at my last home I had 8 8ft copper clad ground rods spaced out around the house all cad-welded together with 500 (3/4” dia) copper stranded wire. Then as I installed an antenna on my property I just dug down and connected to the wire.

3’s

Greg
"321, West Manchester Township, PA"

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443 Arizona
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Re: Antenna Grounding

#409554

Post by 443 Arizona »

i put in an 8' groundrod right under the base, connected with short piece of bare battery cable. with extra clamps to ensure large contact patch.
then i ran a #8 wire from there into the radio shack to facilitate any external grounding of radios,
i also put a 8' groundrod in at my electrical box on the house, eliminated alot of static and fixed my GFI from popping, apparently things would get a little "shorty" in the house.
all in all, it works fine, had several hits of lightning so far with no problems, althou i like to unhook my radio during storms, i have surge protectors on other sensitive costly stuff.
overall it makes static go away.
and makes your "ear" hear, work better.,,, next, check florescent lighting ballasts for hum. new ballasts might be in order.
cheers, 73's,

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GaRebel
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Re: Antenna Grounding

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Post by GaRebel »

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