I ground my CB radio base station antenna. Amazon affiliate links Antron A99 Base Station Antenna (with Ground Plane Kit) www.amazon.com/Solarcon-Omni-... Antron A99 Base Station Antenna www.amazon.com/Solarcon-99-Ba...
Haha I see there are a lot of comments about soldering that ground connector. Some are right, some are wrong. I have done MANY grounds as a RADAR Tech and the vast majority of that has been on mobile radar systems, military. I can set up grounds on any kind of soil from super soaked to desert. Star pattern, single, 3ft to 12ft deep. Different places call for a different ground. What I can say here is that filling the gap with solder isn't helping. Isn't hurting...until it gets hit by lightening..it is possible you would lose that ground connector and antenna. In NC I have seen lightening strike a VHF and UHF pole antennas that were properly grounded but it still completely destroyed the elements. Shattered..into pieces... melted... Anyway, for the ground cable to connector what you can do is put a bend on the end and try to have the bend so that the tip come about even with the top of the connector hole. Then crimp that. If you are worried about gaps then fill it with silicone or better yet heatshrink or self-adhesive friction tape (rubber). So, take your right hand and curl your index finger tip and touch your thumb's first knuckle - basically make an O with your hand. Now take your left hand and extend the index finger and stick in into the O of the right hand. That is what you have there. A loose connection or one that can be tweeked left and right and I guarantee you it will loosen, it has one pivot point and that makes it weak. Now, curl your left hand index finger (like pulling a trigger) and stick that bent finger into your right hand that is now tired of holding the O. It makes a nice tight fit, right? And when its crimped that mechanical joint is going nowhere. Love your antenna though. Most important part of the radio system I believe is the antenna. How is your tx and rx with it ? Done any range trials ? I am recently getting back into the radio thing. Stopped in '98 when I got orders overseas and then the wars kicked off shortly after and have been kinda busy since... Now that I am retired I reckon I may as well get back to it after having sold or gave away my giant light blue antenna that melted my neighbors' TV's haha. Just did an install in my Jeep and now thinking SSB in house and another in wife's truck...then maybe we can ditch these damned cell phones! Good luck, buddy! I hope your antenna is still in good shape and performing well. Who knows, maybe one of these days I might catch you in dx land!
Great idea to ground anything ... The more the better . A good friend of mine played radio for many years has since passed always Put the coax end in a glass jar if lightning storms were present . Also put graphite around his antenna base / ground rod
Nice video. Job well done and thought out. The only suggestion I would make is that if you were to hear, or hear of, thunderstorms coming, you might want to disconnect the coax from the rear of the CB. Even with a properly grounded antenna/coax, a close strike to one of the nearby trees can send a very strong spike of energy into your radio making it toast, as you said (referring to a direct antenna strike). HAM radio operators are very familiar with lowering wire antennas to the ground and disconnecting from the radio's when lightening is approaching. Once again....Nice video.
The next time you do any antenna work, try using Penatrox "A" compound on your connections. It not only water proofs, it is an anti-seize compound and it also improves the electrical conductivity of your connections. Also, with Penatrox "A": "Less is best"! However, never use it on the center pins of a coaxial connector as it can be forced out of the hole and create a short! But do use a small amount on the outer threads of the SO-239 connector! It also prevents Galvanic reactions between dissimilar metals like when joining copper wire to aluminum masts. It is available at most marine supply houses and from DX Engineering/Summit Racing.
One Safety trick I always do is keep my main feed end of coax in a glass jar when not in use & during storms. This alone can save your equipment from static discharge.
@@miguelsalami thanx for the reply...so the coax that I plug into the back of my cb base...just unplug it & place that end into an empty glass jar do it doesn't get fried ???
Wow, that's great work! But, now I'm confused and I am having second thoughts, wondering if the radio (indoors) is grounded to the ground wire, via the power plug of your 12v transformer, (that's running your radio) and the coax is grounded to the ground of that same plug, making the coax to be grounded to the house, is it nessesary to run a copper wire from a ground rod to the coax, that's connected to the antenna? Seems to me, like it would be a nice (copper) lightning rod, (as high up as it is) attracting the lightning that's looking for the least path of resistance to your 11meter radio? Because your coax Is grounded to the pole, (up high) where your antenna is, I thought about a semi- truck, is not grounded to the ground-ground, except the negative battery & the rubber tires and wheels. I see/hear more about trees being hit by lightning because the trees are deeply rooted into the ground, than I hear about a semi-truck being hit by lightning. (Do you understand, what I'm saying? Can someone (that knows) clear this up?
Thanks for the information, I have established a station ground for my radio equipment so my question is do I even need to ground my antenna separately at the mast or tower if I always disconnect from my radio equipment before any storms or anything like that? Are usually watch the weather pretty closely around here in the summertime because I live in a high lightning strike area, if I don’t disconnect then my wife does it for me one where another my stuff is not connected during thunderstorms, so I am wondering if establishing a antenna ground will do me any good or not
first of all I'd like to thank you for your videos and for sharing your vast knowledge. i would appreciate getting your input as to spark arrestors attached to the base of the antenna and then the coax to the arrestor. then, of course a wire strap from the grounding screw of the arrestor to the conduit. is this overkill? are these arrestors really worth it? and lastly, do you think they would mess with the SWR. btw, i'm planning on using a solarcon max 2000. thanks again.
I have my scanner antenna mast ( 40 feet tall) grounded in 3 different spots. One near the metal mast itself..grounding rod and #6 wire, about 12 feet away from the mast..same type rod and wire, and on the grounding rod that's by the meter loop. I also have the braided shield of coax going to ground. Seems like a lot of trouble to some, but the aftermath of a direct strike is worse. Even feeder strikes can make a mess of things. Better safe than sorry.
Grounding does help with noise. But be sure, a little wire to a ground rod will do NOTHING to stop a million volt lightening strike. A lightening strike will follow the coax straight into the house, not to mention it will blow your antenna to pieces.
My hope was just that, by using an 8 gauge copper wire to a grounding rod, it would be a shorter and stronger path to ground than the coax. Sure, my radio might get toasted, but hopefully the coax will just burn in two before it has a chance to burn my house down or something.
I'm new to all this and my question was where to mount the ground wire? This was the first video I found that showed to put it on the mast. That's what I thought but most people leave that bit out. Thank you for being thorough.
A current can actually develop between the two different metals of your mast (the galvanized pipe and the aluminum of the antenna. It's called "Galvanic Current" and it can cause rapid corrosion. They make a paste for it. Essentially when the 2 metals become wet they act like a battery.
Disconnecting antenna when the radio is not in use is highly recommended. Also attach the shield of the coax to the ground system at the bottom of the mast and add another ground rod near where the coax enters your home (grounding bulkhead) with the shield also connected at that point. This avoids a considerable step voltage that *will* exist between the coax shield and earth potential where it enters your home if you get hit either directly or indirectly. Replace solder with Harris 15 Sil-foss silver solder. 73
I think some of you guys get carried away with this stuff and if I did not have first hand bad experience with this I would believe you. My Shakespeare antenna got vaporized by lighting back in 87 but it was grounded enough so that it protected everything else underneath it including my Superstar 3600 which I did not even disconnect. There were shards of fiberglass all over my block and a neighbor had actually seen the stuff flying around like confetti right after it hit. Know what I had grounding out the thing? one single line of Radio Shack 2 AWG insulated copper wire connected to a 6 foot copper grounding spike. That's it. I still have the radio btw and it's still working great.
I to had a fiberglass 8ft antenna vaporised in to fine shards all over the neighborhood,I had mounted mine to the top of a tree in my backyard using ham tower sections and had run a proper grounding copper wire down to a 8ft ground spike at the base of the tree ,I was home when it was struck by a massive bolt of lightning as I live in central Fl on the coast we get a lot of them, Personaly I think adding one or two more ground spikes spread out away from your house may be a good idea,What happened with mine was the lightening strike ran down the ground wire like it was supposed to but apparently there was so much power from the strike the 8 foot spike was not enough to keep it from jumping from my ground wire to tv cable wire and phone wire running in to the house where it continued in to the house and burned up my big screen and other console tv and every VCR or electronic equipment hooked to my tv,s,I also happened to be on the phone at the time and it cut me right off, and scared the heck out of me so figureing lightening does not strike in the same place twice I recalled my friend I was talking to big mistake as it was then struck a second time, I had no phone service after that.But I think having a couple extra ground spikes may have saved some of my equipment and my radio was just fine still use that base station today
extra grounding rods of course will not hurt, but I do believe some people get carried away with the grounding situation , mainly with other things. In my situation the grounding wire was not near any other wires of any kind so I was lucky it had nothing to jump over to. Yeah, lightning can strike many many times in the same place. In fact if it hits one spot it's more likely to hit the same spot again. You live in the lightning state btw. Florida has more lightning than anywhere else in the world. I saw that segment on the weather channel lol.
That will be better than nothing for sure , brazing is much better than wilder, the solder will melt at the temperatures that can be generated by lightning.
Thanks for this informative video. It actually answered a couple of questions I had about grounding... so, WELL DONE. Nicely edited and put together too
I need help with severe noise on my rx just took cobra 142GTL to the dr and the dr said in perfect help. I have isolated it to antenna related. Swr is 1.1 1.2 102” on mobile coax run thru window. When run in car I only get car interference as expected. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Ed R
I always set up my grounds by digging a hole and stack a couple of concrete blocks that had a large, single hole in it. Then I pounded my ground rod down until it was slightly below the top of the blocks and attached the cable from the antenna mast. I’d make a cover for the blocks from a board that had a notch for the cable and some wood strips on the bottom, to keep the cover centered. During the summer, when things were dry, I’d go out and put my garden hose into the block and leave it out there for a while on a slow trickle, just to keep the grounding area wet.
nice job , I just reinstalled my A-99, whats the minimum height the mass should be ? I just put mine on a 25' telescoping pole. Right now it's right at 16'. 825 Dallas
I would put 4 guy wires mounted on the metal tubing of the antenna mast ,have each of the guy wires clamped to 8' copper ground rods burried in water softener rock salt, also put a 4:1 ballun at the coax connection to antenna to keep the coax from turning into a radiator itself, with glue infused shrink tubing covering the coaxial connector to antenna connection. Having the antenna 100% perpendicular to earth wouldn't really matter given the fact that your terrain (earth ground) what I can tell, isn't 100% flat , your radiation angle won't be affected due to the fact you have an artificial earth (being your ground plane).
The use of a Balun is redundant with an antenna with a ground plane (counterpoise). The main reason for using the GPK-1 kit with the A-99 was to decouple the coax from the antenna. A 4:1 Balun would create a major mismatch between the antenna and radio! If you do use a Balun (actually an Unun in this case, unbalanced to unbalanced) a 1:1 Unun is the best choice as it will maintain the 50 impedance of the system while a 4:1 would transform the 50 ohms to 200 ohms.
I have a workman B100 base station antenna I just put up with 100ft of new coaxial cable. The swr is super high like over 3. Will grounding the antenna lower this swr reading? The antenna itself has no way to adjust the swr on it no rings etc.
No, grounding the antenna won't bring down the SWR; I mainly do it as a lightning/static buildup preventative measure. If your antenna doesn't have any kind of ground plane, and it's designed to use one in a base station setup (like if you used a 102 inch whip as a base antenna), then yes, adding a "ground plane" would bring down the SWR, but I'm fairly certain that grounding it to a grounding rod wouldn't. If you have SWR over 3, then there's a short in your coax or something serious. Issues with antennas are hard to diagnose without actually looking at them, but generally speaking when I see SWR over 3 there's usually a short somewhere from a piece of coax that was strained too much, kinked, ran over a sharp edge, etc. Try swapping out your coaxial cable and see if that fixes it.
You could try grounding it and see if that helps. I did some googling and a couple of people who bought this antenna also had really high SWR until they grounded it, so you could give it a shot. You could also try using some large gauge wire to make a temporary ground plane connected to the metal mounting bracket just to see. I have personally never used the Workman B100, so I don't know a ton about it or have any experience with it.
There's a stark difference between "rf ground" and "earth" ground. Realize that your Radio also needs to be earth grounded as close to the source as possible as well. As as far as lightning is concerned; it's an uncontrollable element of nature and will pretty much do whatever it wants. 1 little ole measly copper pipe and some wire isn't going to stop a 170 million volt charge of lightning. It helps dissipate ground charges which helps. Ive seen lightning do awesome things. Ive nearly been struck several times and have personally witnessed 5 people killed by it. Please, don't mess around. unplug everything and stay away from it during storms. I use a grounded antenna switch with a grounded dummy load on the opposite end plus lightning gear.
When grounding anything such as this antenna as well as other grounding needs you should never copper coated steel, you should always use solid copper only, solid copper will last much much longer and will also make a way way better connection for ground, I do this sort of thing for a living with very very high voltages sometimes upwards of over 4000 volts and I have seen copper plated grounding rods actually melt rite down into the dirt where we have dug around where it went into the ground and have pulled out copper and steel mixed together as it melted and it would be anywhere from the size of a tennis ball up to softball sized. Also if you ever decide to do anymore grounds this way above, the best way to do it is to actually put the lug end/copper eyelet into a vise just to hold it steady and don’t smash it put while it’s in the vise fill the end we’re the wire goes in with solder as your first step fill rite to the top then let it cool, and then get you grounding copper wire ready then heat up the eyelet with propane torch and when it’s hot enough to where it looks like liquid then just simply insert your copper grounding wire and hold it in place while the solder cools down and becomes solid again this will be a way way better connection than you’ll ever get by crushing the eyelet around the wire then soldering it, but you should never ever use copper plated over steel for a grounding rod, I’ve actually even told people when they have called me about plated ground rods to instead of the steel with copper plating to just go to the hardware section of plumbing and by a section of copper supply line but get at least a 6 foot section and even though it’s hollow it’s gonna be better than the plated steel because at least it’s 100 percent copper, so there’s an idea for the next time you need a grounding rod.
That actually make a lot sense. I've often wondered if scratches on the rod from driving it into the ground would allow water to access, and therefore rust, the steel core, reducing its efficacy over time. Thanks for the tips, :-)
He used fricking #4 Solid Copper Wire! Code only requires #6, So he went above and beyond. High currents actually travel along the skin / external surface area of the wires. So # 4 has more area and can handle the high spikes in voltage and current from lightning. Also, grounding rods are copper clad steel and they meet code too.
They've been doing just fine so far. I take it down every other year or so to clean all the gunk off the antenna itself and re-paint it with clear coat, and the copper has darkened a little, but I haven't had any issues with excess corrosion or anything.
@@gerowen it seems as though you responded to my comment, at the same time that I asked it. I just now got your reply four weeks later that is odd. It’s good to hear that your galvanized and copper are holding up. I learned about those two metals not being compatible when I was in Plumbing in the 1990. Maybe house plumbing‘s more critical because water can find a way out.I don’t know 🤷🏼♂️
The coax must be grounded where it enters the house, and that ground rod MUST be bonded to the power company ground rod. These are NEC requirements. Thinking you can outsmart lightning by disconnecting coax when you see evidence of a storm is false security, because lightning can occur from storms 20 miles away, while it is still bright and sunny at your location.
That's interesting, I'll have to double check the regs and such because our power company didn't provide the grounding rods (there are two), my outside breaker box, service pole or anything. I bought all of that and installed it myself, then just had it inspected by a certified electrician before the power company hooked us up. I hadn't heard anything about antennas having to be grounded to the same rods as the house. If that's the case, there are a LOT of people around here who are operating their radios improperly, :P Thanks for the heads up, :-)
All external grounds have to be bonded to the power company's ground. Otherwise you can have surge currents enter your house via your coax, and searching for a path to ground THROUGH your equipment back to the power company ground. Bonding the external grounds together means there is no potential (voltage) difference as conductors enter your house. Yes, please investigate. That is what my post is all about. Verify. Good luck, you have the right attitude. A great site is w8ji.com Check him out.
You obviously, like about 3 other people here, skipped through the video to find things to complain about, and therefore missed the part where it was crimped on with a hammer. Thanks for watching and contributing to my ad revenue!
If you want to be a Mr. Knowitall, you should atleast tell him why he should not have soldered the connection, but alas you are only here to complain and detract and you are not here to offer contructive criticism. That's disgusting.
There's nothing up here; we own all the land and there's no municipal water, no municipal gas, no municipal sewage, etc. The only public utilities we have is overhead electricity and internet. Thanks for watching! :-)
@@gerowen sounds like a awesome property that you have, good deal ! I’m a old utility worker , 26 years , power and phone so this stuff is “drilled” into my head, please pardon my paranoid ways 😂😆
@@appalachianunderground8474 It's no biggie. I was wrong, there is one thing buried, it's our water line, but I'm the one that put it there when we set up the well and everything for the house, so I know where it's at. It's good to be paranoid though because if I were anywhere else, I'd be a little more paranoid.
Ground connections should not be soldered. Always use clamps due to in the event of a strike the solder will melt and your ground connections will be lost.
Antron 99 does need to plane grounded.i had alot of sticks.i nerver heard of it.maybe for lightning.just need a accester adpater..on the base of the antenna
The antenna is internally grounded via the coax to the radio, so electrically speaking it's fine. The grounding rod is mainly just an attempt to give lightning strikes a shorter path to earth than through the radio that's inside my house.
and you now have (2) grounding points at your location.. 1 at your incoming electrical service and one you just installed...a big no no in every version of the national electrical code. For a really good reason! Think about what happens if.... the ground at your electric service opens up.....believe me... it happens.
Electricity only cares about one thing, path of least resistance. If your grounding wire has less resistance than anything else connected to your antenna guess what? that's where the eletricity will go. No need to go absoutely crazy with the thinking out of the box, worrying about whether or not not to use dielectric grease, soldering the connection, continuity, look it's not necessary (although that was interesting) Keep it simple alot of what you do here isn't even necessary. The lightning does not care how neat your connections look like, how much continuity is between point A or point B or how organized they are............... as long as a good connection EXISTS somewhere from the hardware to the ground THAT'S IT. Read my experience below in my reply to watt hairston and maybe you will see what I mean. Whatever you did looks great though. My favorite is how you hooked up the mast so you could service it easily whenever you wish. Good job .
Is not as much as "Grounded" as everything needing to be "Bonded" best to have several ground rods, connected together but the a single point to them back to all grounding needs, never tap in down the line, everything has a home run back to single point to the ground rod(s). Best to use stranded cable, as lighting consists of high frequency energy discharges will use more of the skin effect of conductors. Or flat copper strapping. If want to learn on light protection for radio equipment, commercially look at cell tower radio shack, Telco, grounding methods, better yet google Ham radio shack and antenna grounding. Best to clamp, solder does no good for lighting energy, Heavy grounding connections can be caldwelded. Also oxidation on copper is still conductive so is a non issue as long as not corroding into the copper.
You're correct! Grounding and bonding are two separate things. Having two separate grounds, like this video shows, It's not only illegal, it is EXTREMELY dangerous!!
The worst thing you can do is solder the ground to the ground bar! The copper is enough with a good crimp to Carrier a close strike or a direct strike! But using solder is a bad idea because it’s a lighter material and if you do get a close strike or a direct strike that solder will explode! Just crimp it! DO NOT SOLDER YOUR ANTENNA GROUND! BAD BAD BAD!
The solder was just to fill voids in the connection, I "crimped" it with a hammer before using the solder. I figured not only does it help with conductivity, but torching it and pouring molten metal into it will definitely keep water out.
I'am Your Newest Subscriber Great Videos. I Love My Antron 99. If I Had 8 Foot Ground Rod I Would Hit Water Here In Florida Tampa Bay. You Got A Shortie Mid Size Diesel Bus To Make Into A Motorhome. My SWRs Wouldn't Come Down Below 1.5 On 38. I Got Used Solarcon Ground Plane Kit At Ham Fest 25.00
Ya know you really should think about mounting a gopro to your head instead of putting your camera down and up all the time. Just something to think about
Uggggg! A separate ground is good to bleed static charges, but NOT for lightning protection. As a matter of fact, with a nearby lightning strike, you're better off without a separate ground. You need a SINGLE point ground! Remember, there are two separate things, grounding and bonding. In the event of a lightning strike, having two, separate grounds, can induce many millions of volts between your antenna ground and your service ground. This NEEDS to be bonded to your house service ground!!! Plus, NEC REQUIRES a lightning arrestor in-line with any antenna wires, cables or feed-lines before they enter a building or dwelling. You need to bond this ground to your utility ground with at least 6AWG STRANDED wire!! NEC does NOT permit solder in a ground system. CAD welding is permitted, solder is not! This is a dangerous and potentially lethal arrangement!! Please, please do not do this, ever! Consult NEC code. Check out Dave Kessler on RU-vid for basics and Mike Holt for grounding! Please!
You are creating a ground loop and defeating the purpose of the ground. Always use a separate ground rod (solid copper or a 1/2" O.D. copper water pipe, never copper plated steel) for your station ground and your antenna ground.
soldering ground connections is a big no. use ground clamp for pipe. also using a septet ground for radio is a big no as the voltage between the house ground and radio ground can be hundreds of volts. you need to run 6 gage wire from the radio ground to the house service ground. the national electric code article 810 references radio grounding. I would have a electrician run the ground wire to the house ground to have it right as there is a lot one can mess up. read up on the current national electric code then consult a electrician. take care
I mean no disrespect but if there were ever a video on what NOT to do when grounding an antenna, this is the video. As an electrical engineer I BEG anyone who watches this video to NOT do this!! Please 🙏🏼
I KNOW THIS IS OLD BUT IT YOU HAD IT ON A METAL POLE IT WOULD BE GROUNDED AND WOULDN'T NEED THE GROUNDING WIRE. Big metal pole in the ground is much better than a little wire. Also I always unplug everything and hang the antenna cable out the window. Even static electricity has been known to damage a set up. I think the thing I'd change is that wooden post to a metal one. Grounding problem solved.
CHRISTOPHER SMITH posted 11 months ago DONT USE DIELECTRIC GREASE IN THE HOLES. A polarized dielectric material A dielectric (or dielectric material) is an electrical insulator that can be polarized by an applied electric field. When a dielectric is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the material as they do in an electrical conductor but only slightly shift from their average equilibrium positions causing dielectric polarization.
grounding it is no good. let the lightning hit and blow up your radio. then you can buy another one. why you didn't ground it when you put it up is beyond me.
great for this guy for what he's doing but my God too much money too much shit for an antenna all you really need is to get a magnet base Mobile CB antenna and ground it to a piece of metal attach the top of your home or your structure wherever you want to do it and then run your coax through a window or some other way to your mobile CB unit powered by 12 volt power supply converter and there you go you don't need all this shit this is ridiculous
After watching this a second time after a years gone by I'm even more convinced this will literally do nothing to protect from a lightning strike. You need to isolate the coax by placing a good quality arrestor inline before it enters the house.
nice vid sir but for lichting helping dis just nothing only for working !!!!.After working 40 yaers working as electricien end 4 diplomas is dis myn conclusion. i hop you enjoy you your hobbu en greethins koenraad.Ps i dont also not believe in radials kids
Most of the Hams I've talked to act like their hobby is some kind of high school popularity contest and get plum uppity about it. I've literally had instances where one person would troll my RU-vid channel for CB related videos just to nitpick at things I said or did a certain way, make false claims about things, or just straight up call me names for no reason. I thought about it, and I may still, but if that's the kind of people I have to look forward to talking to, I think I'd rather stick with the one that doesn't require me to pay for a special license to use it.
