Thank you for the explanation of why all the grounds have to go back to the panel.

Something crazy is going on with my L7. I bought it used. The first time I used it the output was a little lower than what I thought it should be. About 900 watts out on 40 and 80 and a little over 1500 on 20. now I can only get 200 or 300 0n 40 and 80 and 1000 on 20. Ive connected it to a dummy load to see if it might be something else in my station. Now Im starting to jump to conclusions.

Perfect rf ground is a myth. Or rather, very hard to perfect. Safety and lightning ground otoh....thats shit is real and very important.

Its been ages for me as far as code goes. Isnt there something about the water pipe coming in can be used as ground? Im probably way off. I cant remember

Jim Saw a video regarding the use of RG6 for amateur use. Why spend more. RG6 is a lot cheaper. I just don’t buy it. Can you do a video comparing RG6 vs traditional coax for amateur use? 73 Phil K1PJR

I’ve always tried to speak clearly about types of ground or returns. The way “ground” is used Willy Nilly can throw the best of them of and muddies the water in my honest opinion.. Simple is good!

I’ve always tried to speak clearly about types of ground or returns. The way “ground” is used Willy Nilly can throw the best of them of and muddies the water imho.

TidRadio H3 much better radio easier to read display for us old guys too

Hey Jim, I have Drake L7B and am planning to change the tubes. Is there anything to measure and adjust inside the amp? Or do I need just to replace them with a new ones? Is there any checklist to follow? Thanks for the video, 73!

I fitted an earth spik eth other day for the random wire antenna unun... made a big difference on 40m for my tansmission - lower radiation angle and less noise on receive.. my radio and ATU are grounded with flat braid to the radiator pipe. I do need a choke though.. some odd RF issues on 80m.

Hope you feel better soon.

Good points. Earlier this year a new LED desk light that had a variable touch sensitive strip would cause interference if turned on. In daytime I didn't use the light, so no issue but in the evening there was crap on HF. It took about a week for my brain to figure out the culprit. Thankfully Amazon allowed me to return the lamp. Hey, you're looking good! Merry Christmas OM and a Happy New Year! AA7MO

I just bought it this is my first radio and first step to that hobby I'm going to get me GMRS license and get into this radio world. I read your story about health problems I wish you all the best and thank you for this video.

Hope your treatments are going well. Does anyone know what happened with this? I got my license a couple months ago and just found this video

USED, buy used

There were questions about electrical grounding on my extra exam last week.

That is a good demonstration, Jim. Anecdotally, I've found these supplies to be a problem at MF and HF, but also interfered with FM broadcast in one situation. It would be interesting to look at how much QRM is radiated, vs. how much is conducted back in to the ac line. In the latter case, we may have a chance to defend against it, but identifying the culprits is a good start. Thanks for an interesting and informative video, Ed KO6BLM

#3, I do like it the most. I think #2 is the most natural sounding.

I am newly licensed and looking to upgrade to General so I can actually do HF. Thank you for the information. KK7WKP

It seems like a good test that doesn't require instruments would be to turn on your HF rig with all the wall warts unplugged. Sample the noise floor across all bands and jot down the results. Plug in thd wall warts and sample the noise floor again and compare to the "clean" readings. I'm planning to eliminate my wall warts and replaced them with a single 13.8v supply connected to step-down outlets for all the USB and low voltage gear, but that's for clutter reduction as much as noise. All the wall warts in Jim's test are in the shack. Given that the HF antenna is likely some distance from the shack, how much power is it going to pick up from these devices. Is RF noise being fed back through the AC line from the wall wart to the HF rig's power supply and then through the power supply DC to the radio? I'd be concerned about wall wart noise affecting my HT in the samd room, or my AM broadcast band receiver, but is this noise likely to propagate to the HF rig?

How does W6LG keep his long balls from sticking to that cheap chair?

I grounded my base station like a cell site, using a single point ground system with #2awg solid, and ground rods the 5/8” x 8ft every 6ft. That main ground made a halo around the house, grounded to the antenna, and then came into my house and went to a copper buss bar. I also used polyphaser surge arrestor. All my equipment was grounded to the same ground bar as well.. I built cell sites for a living and saw the amount of work went into building a proper ground system. It takes a lot of work to do it properly. The main thing to remember is to ground all the equipment and antenna and coax to a single point ground system.

Dose anyone know of this grounding thing also refers to human grounding too like being barefooted in the grass

❤Thanks

GROUND is a term for referrence point in a specific application....like four apples are exactly the same..in saying you have four apples. Each apple is unique like four different people!!!

Hi Jim, Always great information. Shows the reason why companies like Palomar Engineers are in business selling RFI suppression kits that do work. You are looking well. Stay safe. 73 WJ3U

This is highly important information and often overlooked. Thank you for sharing this analysis. I'm curious how these results would compare to Jameco AC/DC Linear Regulated Power Supplies (the classic transformer type of wall adapter). Thanks again. ~ 73 ~ AC7WH

My family really like when I go down to the radio room. I throw all the breakers except those 😊

Thanks Jim

A lot people saying solar panel causing significant noise. I have drove under a newly build solar panel for parking lot, to test how much noise they really make. When you get it from a good supplier they make no noticeable interference from hf to 440. A lot has to do with quality control

Heath... Heathkit fame?

Great job JIM !! Yes them SMPS units make RFI and change a bunch from load and no load and from unit to unit. Best just use a tiny SA and go around and find them. I find some solar charge controllers like MPPT can be a source of RFI and changes from brand to brand . Also DC to AC inverters can be a source of RFI . Home appliances like a LG inverter drive washing machine . VERY BAD RFI . Ferrite can help . Them phone chargers draw power and make RFI just plugged in and no load on them. 73

You can get an overall idea of total household RFI by powering a radio from a simple battery (not something like a Jackery power bank) then throwing the main circuit breakers for the house. You’ll know if there is a significant difference right away between the house being powered and not powered by mains. Easy Peasy.

2 details - The difference in noise between UL and non-UL listed devices is huge, but the price difference is not. Look for a UL version of the one you need. Also, the device does not need to be powering anything in order to emit this noise. As soon as it is plugged into your live outlet, it'll generate HF noise.

First Jim,,, nice to see you… 😊 😉 you’re looking somewhat better… Wall warts, are a source of noise, I was listening to a station on 40mtrs I think it was and could hear a buzzing…. I’d recently watched a Mr Carson’s Lab KZbin about these things so I turned it off at the switch…it was for a LED light and the noise disappeared…turned it back on and saw that the S meter noise went up 2 s points and the noise continues until the capacitor in the wall wart discharges…Now, it’s only on when I’m working on something and I don’t take my phone into the shack anymore… switch mode power supplies generate noise that’s why they have a tuner knob, the old design linear power supplies are quiet but more expensive and heavy, very heavy,,, we have to accept some noise because of all the gizmotrons we have including shack computers and their monitors…I’m in the process of trying to decide on what to buy ( I’m pxxs poor btw 🙂 ) so a used Dell / HP / old Apple Toshiba/… Samsung = NO …. Apparently the newer gizmotronics are noisier. Cheap Chinese kkkkkrapp ….. I rely on my Elmer’s for advice to make my decisions. BTW my dear Jim, that’s one cluttered desk 🤔 Gordon H Bennet how do you keep track of what yer’v got 😵‍💫 .73. Best wishes to you and everyone. 💙 G0uvl

I did the same experiment with my TinySA and a 12V DC 'smart battery ' charger, the noise was horrendous on HF. Using 3 turns on a type 43 ferrite material didn't help.

Merry Christmas Jim! I was trying to listen to a weak AM broadcast signal around 670 kHz with my HF receiver connected to an outside loop antenna. I encountered a broadband signal that centered around 678 kHz that wiped out stations +/-40 kHz either side. I took my Tiny SA and started sniffing around to locate the source. It turned out to be coming from a recently replaced SMPS in a desktop computer near my receiver ($20 from Amazon!). It produced harmonics well into the HF bands too. The switching hash was being sent out via the AC line and could be detected several hundred feet from my house on a portable radio. I had a Corcom line filter in my junk box and installed it in the line going to the computer. That eliminated all the hash and all is well now. It's impossible to eliminate the garbage coming from all the switching power supplies in everything from wall warts to TVs to LED bulbs. I had one of those duplex outlets with built in USB ports and it's terrible. Had to get rid of it. The noise floor is getting worse every year with the proliferation of cheap and poorly designed electronics from China. It used to be the worst problem would be ignition noise from a passing vehicle or an arcing power line insulator. It's amazing how low the noise floor drops when we have a power failure, that is until all the backup generators fire up!

Mike Holt has a the perfect educational video that destroys her position. It is over an hour long but very very informative on this very subject. Around the 20 minute mark and forward it explains a lot. His video title is: Grounding - Safety Fundamentals and it is one he did free because of its importance.

Mike Holt has a the perfect educational video that destroys her position. It is over an hour long but very very informative on this very subject. Around the 20 minute mark and forward it explains a lot. His video title is: Grounding - Safety Fundamentals and it is one he did free because of its importance.

Thanks Jim, Be well from an 80 year old, W2CH, and 81 year old KC2NKU, my wife She just renewed after 20 years licensed, and I within a little over 2 years, when hopefully be licensed 65 years in February 2027. HiHi. 😊😊

Hi Jim, good video identifying typical power supply noise in the shack. Wish you a very merry Christmas and healthy and happy new year, KC2GRN

So, how far away from the Ham shack do they need to be? If the wall wart is on the other side of the house, should I worry about it?

hamclock is a free download on the internet it will run on just about any flavor of linux. I run mine on an ubuntu desktop now but I used to run it in a Hyper V machine on my windows laptop. There a plenty of tutorials online for installing configuring and running the app on various platforms. I think the original developer of hamclick has passed I'm hoping his successor whoever that may be will keep the project going.

hello Jim - very interesting. I wonder if the leads of the individual acts as an antenna to radiate the noise. Great to see you looking so well. Hope you have a lovely festive season. 73 de Ger

Happy Holidays to you and yours Jim. 73 de KH6DC

Thx jim. Blessings. Merry xmas ✌️👍🇺🇸🙏

I got SMP whith and whithout filter, typical china to not filter, that is annoying allot!!!

Hey Jim! Hope all is well with you. Nothing but old school transformer PSU's here. Astron's, built like a battleship Hihi! As for the wall wart's and domestic switch mode stuff. I've been lucky thus far! A merry Christmas & Happy new year to you and yours! 73, Tom G2NV.

Thanks Jim, another great video

Again, superb analysis ! Have to go check my outlet for my radio setup. Great to see you. Wishing you and the family a Merry Christmas. ❤