Electrical Safety, Grounding and Bonding Tips for amateur radio stations

[@mitchellmoss]

Wow. I would have really loved to have seen the full course.

[@QuaabQueb]

Great vid, however a correction at around 2:27 A current passing through the heart can cause ventricular fibrillation (not "deflibberation") Which is an irregular heart rhythm and the heart must be DEFIBRILLATED using an automatic external defibrillator which automatically analyzes the hearts rhythm and applies a precise electric shock to correct the heart beat back to normal.

[@you2tooyou2too]

Yes, It is related to the word "fibre", because the heart muscle 'fibers' are all contracting randomly on their own, rather than being synchronized by the normal nerve pulses that trigger periodic unified muscle contractions, like a fist milking a cow. An electrical (or even mechanical) shock which depolarizes the heart nerves, so they cannot generate a proper sync pulse, allows the muscle fibers (which want to beat anyway) to start contracting individually (but more slowly) on their own, asynchronously, like a ball of spastic worms. Under the right conditions, a careful electrical pulse can reset all the muscle fibers & nerves at once, and if the nerves can then generate a proper sync pulse, so the heart is back in business (perhaps, despite some damage).

[@Scott-hb1xn]

My fun with learning how shocking equipment can be was about 10 years ago when I was working tracing a short on a Hallicrafters transmitter... I was working with the chassis fully out of the case, late at night(after I got home from work at midnight), and separating the transformer leads from the chassis until the fuse stopped blowing... When I finally separated the correct pair, I immediately started tracing the harness from the transformer- it was the heater string... Well, I leaned over the still hot(!) set, and rested my right hand on the chassis, and traced along the heater chain to see if there was a short (there wasn't- spoiler alert- it was the transformer internally shot). As I went, I felt a tickle, then a burn from the right side of my chest, which went up my chest, and down my back and right arm- which spasm'd and threw me away from the chassis. My entire back locked up and released (and cured a long term back issue by resetting my back!) and I could not stop breathing deeply for about two hours. Afterwards, I realized all the things I had done wrong (and never fail to tell my A&P students when I talk electricity, in hopes they don't follow that example) I also realized that had I put my LEFT hand on the chassis, and traced with my right, that voltage would have tracked left to right... 120VAC stepped down to 6VAC... Work the math...

[@lawrencemiller3829]

Glad you survived. Back in the day I was working on a powered commercial AM/FM radio, chassis out and upside down. I rested my left hand on the chassis and noticed a burning sensation on my left hand. I pulled my left hand up with no damage, B+ was only ~ +350 VDC:)

[@bobn6rlg689]

Mike, This was excellent. Is the follow up after the break available? Thanks!

[@brucekempf4648]

So for 40 years, I have had dipoles into the house never grounded. Never a problem. My ham friend decided to do the whole grounding and bonding of everything in his shack. He had a nearby strike that fried everything he had bonded. He said he will never bond again.

[@terrencefranck2167]

Excellent five stars

[@macgyver5108]

Hmm, my "tower" is a HUGE Fir tree that I hung my antenna in... How exactly do I bond my tower to my system?!

[@you2tooyou2too]

I think he said, the bonding is for DC/AC, not lightning/RF.

[@macgyver5108]

@@you2tooyou2too (it was a joke!) according to the National Electrical Code or NEC... ALL externally mounted antennas must have a ground rod as close to the point of entry into a home/building, including Sat dishes ETC, and those ground rods ALSO need to be bonded to the main ground rod of the building, all of which is for lightning protection... Lightning is a tremendous form of "DC" BTW... 😉

[@James_Bowie]

Regarding the Article 810 tower bonding issue, surely whoever wrote that Article 810 can provide a written explanation for its inclusion in the Code.

[@sameernelson3979]

Wow good stuff.

[@izzzzzz6]

I put each hand on a different heat sink on a 1000W audio amplifier. I wasn't thinking that the voltages were live and opposite on the heatsinks. Got an evil shock and blew the amp, now the protection light always comes on. Anyone know what i should look for? Could it be simply the main driver transistors? I think my heart is better than it was before but you could get unlucky! (dead). Saw a nasty safety video once where a bunch of guys are wheeling a scaffold tower inside a large factory or power station. Like flies on a HV fly trap. Nasty!

[@ericdreizen1463]

Run a connection from my station to my electrical panel? It's about 30 ft away. My goal is 800w @120v w/ a 1:1 SWR. I'm willing to do whatever to achieve that. Still, I dunno what the hell I'm doing! :(

[@zanelile2991]

If my antenna mast is - 100 foot away. At the mast I have spaced 3 grd. rods hooked to my mast. 100 feet is a long way for a grd. conductor. ? Is @8 bare copper enough wire. >????

[@K6ORJ]

@@zanelile2991 Read Motorola R-56

[@mikehannahs]

What is the song that is played in the intro of this video? it sounds like something i have listened to before, very awesome video i have learned a lot from this, never mind on the song i just finished the credits, i have listened to this song before, thanks

[@riottaba]

And I was always told it was 30ma that could kill me.....

[@James_Bowie]

110 volts is a while ago now.

[@you2tooyou2too]

I miss Ray.

[@EdGrasmann]

FIB/RILL/A/SHUN

[@k8byp]

National Electrical Code FORBIDS GROUNDING HAM STATIONS. A Ham license DOES NOT indicate qualifications in electrical wiring, grounding and LIFE SAFETY CODE

[@K6ORJ]

You surely are joking regarding the NEC, but if you're not, can you point to the section of the NEC that says this?

[@G0ogs]

Nice comb over

[@jamesleem.d.7442]

No such word as "per-if-ree-ul". Correct pronunciation PER-IF-ER-UHL or PER-IF-RUL, take your pick.

[@miketruculent8135]

MR TRUCULENT SAYS !!!! I also have my views about Westinghouse and Edison AC Vs DC. How can you compare which is best way to fry someone in the electrical chair. Mr Truculent supports Amnesty International, and is 100% against the death penalty. Even Russia has suspended the death penalty. The only country in Europe which still has the death penalty is Belarus. Why was the eclectic chair made of wood, surely it would work better if it had been made out of metal. Wood is an insulator.

[@jamesleem.d.7442]

FIB--RILL--A--SHUN is the pronunciation. It is not "fib-your-lation" or "fib-you-lation". Please !

[@michaelhowell8489]

Dee-fib-u- late😂

[@REKlaus]

Article 810 is for home / residential installations not commercial radio/tv systems. Much bad inflammation in this video. Do your self a favor , watch Mike Holt's grounding videos and the Contest University Grounding videos by Ward Silver. Way too much bad/dangerous information in this video.

[@K6ORJ]

From an electrical standpoint Mike Holt is very good, but i feel his understanding of the reasons for ground rods needs a little help. Ground rods serve 2 purposes 1. To keep voltage on the grid stable. 2. To dissipate electrical charges from the air to ground. They do not provide a path to clear a fault. Towards the end he did give the correct answer saying it is important that everything is bonded to the service ground. A good read for anyone putting up a station is Motorola R-56. It is hard enough to properly implement R-56 into a comercial station much less a HAM station but it does give a good base to start from. One thing that many HAM stations will do is sink a ground just outside the shack. This should never be done, because it sets a potential difference between it and the service ground through the house. All feedlines and ground should enter at the service so in the event of a lightening strile the potential between them is 0. That way the whole house rises to and falls from a million volts with no other path to ground from inside of the house. During the strike the potential voltage between everything inside of the house remains close to 0 volts. This is all spelled out in R-56

[@REKlaus]

@@K6ORJ Yes, I agree 100% with you on the grounding and rods. Mike only talks about grounding from the standpoint of the National Electrical code. While watching one of Dr Tamatha Skov's mini-courses on space weather, another reason for only having one ground rod occurred to me. During geomagnetic storms like we are having now thanks to a few healthy CMEs, you have currents induced into the earth which also could cause a difference in potential between 2 or more rods in the earth.

[@BikePractice]

Just an intro to a subsequent talk so an outline just raises the questions for discussion .... Waste of time . move on nothing to see.