besides protection from lightning, and maybe helping to lessen static, will grounding a CB base antenna affect its transmit performance?
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Grounding base antenna
- Thread starter Van Lifeson
- Start date
Van, you're likely to get a bunch of ideas with your questions...as well as a boat load of technical reading.
I never detected any differences in my efforts at grounding CB antennas, weather the idea was for lightning, static, or RF sometimes referred to as "Earthing."
I think, even if you physically ground your mast and/or your antenna somehow, you still have a conductor (the coax as a good conductor) that should be considered as well in the process of protective type grounding.
It is also possible that I did the wrong things with the ideas I tried to follow.
There is section above, at the top of the CB Antenna Section, entitled "Sticky Section." There is a thread in there about grounding.
Yeah what Marconi said, never saw any real difference in having the antenna grounded or not grounded. I ground the mast or tower with a 8 foot grounding rod. Antennas for the lower hams bands grounding its more significant.
Jay in the Great Mojave Desert
Jay in the Great Mojave Desert
And when the mast eventually and inevitably rusts or corrodes you may as well have a piece of wood stuck into the ground. It becomes a high resistance path and the coax cable is the low resistance path the lightning will take. Besides if the mast is not 6-8 feet into the ground the soil will dry out too much to be effective. Truthfully a single rod or mast as a lightning ground is quite poor but better than nothing. Just don't expect too much from it.
Will grounding an antenna affect its performance? Typically, no. This isn't to say it can't happen, but with most antennas, in most cases, you won't have a problem simply because you grounded the antenna.
Should you ground the antenna and its performance changes, either for the better or worse, it will mean that you had some other issue, or possibly potential issue that has been affected by said ground wire.
Most antennas, including antennas with a set of full length radials, this won't happen. But an antenna like the a99 with no radial kit of any kind, it is entirely possible that adding another path for RF to travel, or even changing an existing path, could affect its tuning and/or performance.
Grounding, actually, is a rather complex topic. You have several different types of grounds in an RF station, and they all have different requirements and act very differently. The lightning ground is only one of them.
The DB
Should you ground the antenna and its performance changes, either for the better or worse, it will mean that you had some other issue, or possibly potential issue that has been affected by said ground wire.
Most antennas, including antennas with a set of full length radials, this won't happen. But an antenna like the a99 with no radial kit of any kind, it is entirely possible that adding another path for RF to travel, or even changing an existing path, could affect its tuning and/or performance.
Grounding, actually, is a rather complex topic. You have several different types of grounds in an RF station, and they all have different requirements and act very differently. The lightning ground is only one of them.
The DB
Big Lou , Say What ? On Here ? After all the posts on grounding you should no better !
Grounding is your friend , not a rusty mast . jmo
Grounding is your friend , not a rusty mast . jmoI did not say NOT to ground, I did say if you have a metal mast pole in the earth you than have a grounded antenna. Yes you can ground in other ways and ALL grounding is good. I live in FL and I have used ALUMINUM FLAG poles for my antenna mast. If I dig down 1ft I hit water..I don't think I,m going to git any more grounded than that! and no rust.
Grounded or ungrounded, a base antenna should always have a choke or a balun installed at the antenna to block common mode currents from the coax shield. Not certain if this improves performance, but it's something that should be done.
- 399
- 399
This method of base antenna grounding was in SECRET CB Vol. 6, pgs 16 - 17. Looks like overkill, but is probably the best ground you're gonna get.
- 399
- 399
Blocking / eliminating common mode current level reduces the amount of ground plane loss, so I would say it is an improvement in my books.
You have to quantify your answers as NOT all cases are the same. What MIGHT work for YOU certainly will NOT work for some one in Texas with chert for ground or someone with rocky mountain land. that is why general statements are to be taken with a grain of salt and a healthy dose of education.
SIX-SHOOTER
ICOM CENTRAL.7610,9100,PW-1,HEIL FIN & HEIL PR-781
I have an 8' ground rod on all three legs of my Rohn 25 tower & it is only because my 160 meter half sloper antenna requires it.It is the 1st & only ground I have ever used on any station since 1965.I have seen several stations with lots of grounds blown all over a shack & a few that were not grounded as well.The end result was the same with a direct hit.The only grounding system I have ever seen that worked was with our local Amateur Radio Repeaters.At least twice the antenna has taken a direct hit completely blowing the antennas to tiny parts yet the repeater on the ground was unharmed & still running as if nothing had happened on the water tower where the antenna was missing.At the ground outside of the repeater room we use a PolyPhaser inline to a grounding system. Other gear on the same tower not using the PolyPhasers were destroyed inside the same room & they had a standard grounding rod with a large ground wire & were all destroyed & ours was untouched & had Zero issues.That is my personal experience with grounding so take it for what it's worth.
SIX-SHOOTER
SIX-SHOOTER