Hello all, grounding question regarding main service panel.

[KD6SBR]

My mistake, the 50 amp, controls the garage equipment MAIN, (there is a sub panel in the garage also) AND is the MAIN breaker for the house, I don't use the garage too much these days, and I will look into the receptacles you have mentioned above. like I stated before, you know your stuff, where I don't, at least in the electrical field.

73 de kd6sbr tom

[KJ6NTB]

I have to echo K8MHZ's comments about $6.00 ground fault circuit interrupter receptacles. There have been many chinese knockoffs of late, with counterfeit UL labels. Leviton started in Tesla's era and knows how to manufacture electrical devices safely.
On the subject of RF grounds, please take a look at Steve Uhrigs' site: www.swssec.com. look in the 'white papers' section and see his thoughts on grounding radio stations. As an electrician of thirty four years, I thought I knew all about earth,grounds,bonding and the like. Ham radio continues to show me how much I have yet to learn! Keep asking those questions and trying out new things to get on the air. As an EmComm specialist in wildfire country, I have found that radio gets out when nothing else will!
73
KJ6NTB

[KD6SBR]

KJ6NTB,
thanks for the advice, as K8MHZ, recommended, I am looking into "Leviton" GFCI outlets, at Lowes or Home Depot, will also check online, I won't be doing the WHOLE house, but from what I read, usually the kitchen, garage, bathrooms, and my shack JUST IN CASE. well come to think of it, it's close to the WHOLE house (lol).
I am still not sure about keeping my ground connected my radio equipment which goes to my SPG, which is 4' from my radio, because my house outlets are NOT grounded at all, I have been here for 13 yrs, and no problem since, but you never know, there is always a first time for everything.

thanks for the help, That's why I come to this site for answers, now I am sounding like a RS commercial (lol).

best 73,
kd6bsr - tom

[WA9SVD]

You will still have to bond this to the AC mains grounding electrode system. This is very important! Having more than one electrode system and not bonding them together is a huge hazard if there is a surge, like lightning or a power company failure, like lines crossing or a transformer failing.

Grounding is NOT bonding!!!!

Somewhere you need to actually run a wire from your grounding system to the home's grounding system. You can't just do that anywhere. You MAY be able to bond directly from your entrance plate to a water pipe, but that depends on the construction of the water system.

Yes, disconnecting is good! To be as safe as can be, the gear should only be connected to power and antenna when being used. Bonding for metal enclosures, etc, should remain intact for equipotentiality.

You can build a system that has been demonstrated to take many direct hits, as Tom W8JI has done. Take a look at his site. He has more money in lightning protection than I have in my HF station. Which is totally disconnected and has NO grounding system at all. None, no connection to the earth at any point.

My antennas are inside the house and the power supply is protected by a GFCI. None of the receptacles have a ground wire, and judging from the lack of ground wires in your picture, I suspect that you have no ground wires either. If you have 3 hole receptacles and only a hot and a ground, that is bad and potentially dangerous.

Since I own my house, I just replace the two wire receptacles with GFCI receptacles where I need ground fault protection. You can also buy GFCI devices that you plug in. I use them on construction sites. They are only about 10 bucks.

Even with indoor antennas, a nearby lightning strike can still induce damaging currents into ANY system. A direct hit isn't necessary to cause damage. In this case, as in horse shoes and hand grenades, "close" is good enough. (At least from the lightning's standpoint.)

[KF5LJW]

Code requires the water pipe to be used if it is on the premises, no Ifs, Ands, or Buts. To add to that if this is an older home with all copper or steel piping going out to the water meter, there is nothing you can add to improve it much.

The actual ground (dirt) impedance is not to important in terms of safety performance, and almost useless with respect to RF and lightning frequencies. The impedance of a ground system is in the power frequency range of DC to about 300 Hz depending on the type of test set used to measure it with. In a residential setting the impedance varies widely from several thousand Ohm's to some as low as maybe 20 Ohm's. It is for this reason the NEC forbids ground to be used as a conductor because ground is a very poor conductor.

You can try a simple test, James Bond Electricians trick used to measure the ground impedance, but do so at your own risk. Take a short ground rod and drive it into the ground leaving the top exposed so you can connect a clip to it. Now run a piece of 12 or 14 AWG conductor from one of your 15 or 20 -amp breakers in the main panel and connect it to the test rod you driven into the dirt. Turn the breaker on and measure the current flowing. Take 120 Volts and divide it by the current and you have your ground impedance of your home Ground Electrode System (GES). So if you see say a whooping 12 amps, you have an excellent ground system of 10 Ohm's which telephone companies pay $100K+ to obtain.

Now stop and think about what I just said. What will 10 amps of current flowing in a 15 or 20 amp breaker do? Nothing! That is why the NEC forbids ground to be used a conductor as it is not capable of clearing an over current protection device like a fuse or breaker. Only high voltage can ground be used as a conductor. By high voltage i mean 4160 and up. That is utility voltage, not home or commercial.