Grounding When Portable (

[@anonhollmuller4032]

hey Dave:) want to tell a short storry of my youth. we standet about 5 meters of the shorre of rhe mediterran see. we putted all our ground Material in to the sea....was quite fun....bevore a thunderstorm reach our van excellent Everything. but then spark after spark occour to ur 10m vertikal.... we decided at this point to disconnect the antenna....by unsrew the pl259 appears a nasty Shock ...the plasma was therre until the operator become paralysed.. we cut the cable (on the face side was dancing blue sparks. my collegue recovered within minutes . but always remember the power of natural phemenons...this time it saved most of ewipment and our lives. Sorry for my poor english!

[@AdamosDad]

If you happen to have a grounding bar, and you are allowed to dig a shallow trench, just cover it with a few inches of earth and wet it down, that would work for a temporary ground that could easily be pulled out and taken along.

[@johnk23705]

Hi Dave, great video. The only thing I don't agree with is running the ground side of a power connection from your radio directly to the battery negative terminal. If there is a problem with ground bonding straps in the vehicle, the power from other powered things in the vehicle may run through your radio as it has the best ground when attached to the negative battery terminal. I think this would apply if any part of the radio or antenna is in ground contact with the body of the vehicle. It's usually recommended to run the ground side to a grounded body mount near the front of the cabin and the positive to the positive terminal on the battery. This was a tip from a radio installer who has seen radios destroyed. Enjoy your content !

[@russ_vee_jr4199]

😢You are Absolutely Correct......

[@andrewpoellnitz872]

I was having issues with RFI getting into the sound card of my IC-705 while doing PotA. I added 15ft of grounding strand laid on the ground. No m9re RFI. Thanks Dave!

[@petercarty6379]

Dave it was great to bump into you at Pacificon . I was doing Security at door for the Antenna Seminars . Peter cheers

[@angpar8449]

Hello Dave. Another great video! When you get the chance, can you make a video of antenna setups for apartment dwellers who don’t have balconys? That would be awesome I’m sure there are a lot of us out there. Thanks !!

[@jimsmith1166]

Thanks Dave. That answers a question I've had for some time when operating a remote field day station each year.

[@joewilson2258]

What do you think of using tent stakes to ground the ends of your radials ? I use 8 radials with ring lugs on the ends and use wire type tent stakes at each end and seem to get better receive and transmission output signal .

[@leestanphill1]

Thoughts on how the body of an airstream trailer would work for a HF counterpoise ?

[@indrajitR]

love you dave, nice to see you after long time ( as i did not watched you for 6 month due to pandemic reasons. )

[@kb9jqu]

Dave thanks for answering my question in your video! 73 Curt

[@dougearnest7590]

For about $20 you can get a probing rod (used by plumbers to find pipes underground) - it has a rounded tip on the probe end and a t-handle at the top to assist in pushing it into the soil and more importantly, pulling it out. They are made of steel and are around 3 to 5 feet long.

[@jimcoon]

Hi Dave. Thank u so much for all your amazing content. I have Parkinson’s and have been a bit overwhelmed by grounding, etc. I also live in a strict HOA. So… to get on the air I am going to start out “backyard portable”. On a table under cover on my patio. I WILL be plugging my transceiver into a power supply that will be plugged into 3-prong outdoor electrical outlet. I will connect radio to wolf river coils vertical antenna that I can deploy then take down. Given that I am plugging power supply into household A/C outlet, will I still need to ground the radio? Thanks again for all you do for me and others. Jim

[@MrJohnBos]

I use my FT-850 outside on my picnic table hooked up to a tri-band OCF dipole. No ground and no RFI in the shack and it works great. My very first QSO was to France and I'm in Boston! I have tried using a counterpoise connected to the radio ground lug but it didn't seems to make any difference.

[@timgoad5750]

Dave, The easy way to pull up a ground rod is grip the top with an 18 inch pipe wrench. Rotate the ground rod several turns then continue rotating the ground rod while pulling upwards on the pipe wrench. The ground rod will screw upward out of the earth. Tim KA9AMO

[@paulhastings3109]

Using a farm jack and loop it around the grounding rod. I have pull 4 and 6" fence post out of the ground 4' 5' deep.

[@expert244]

If you had to use a temporary ground rod, a tapered rod like a long spike with an attachment point on the top for a HiLift or lever for removal would be nice. But I don’t use one for portable…

[@grzesiek1x]

But nobody says anything about other portable devices like radio controlled devices for flying models for example! Where do I have ground there? I understand that for comminication a good ground helps receving very weak signals but what about devices that cannot be grounded? Like models or WalkieTalkies etc. But commercial ones work very well so there must be a way to go arround it 🤔 Yesterfad I made a test with ot without ground for radio controlled model and the range with ground is huuuuuge more but of course there is such construction issue that it is not possible if this is temote controlled small toy for example. What to do then? Thanks for help.

[@francismcclaughry3794]

the reason it is there. was because I had three wires running . two along the house and one out to the back forty. when I got struck by lighting it did not go down the tower. it brought down my gvir it was unhooked from any radio

[@BretChilcott]

Good work Dave. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 73, AC0AE

[@nerdinium]

How about a short rod - 4 feet or even 2 feet - and pour water or even salt water (in the right places like a beach) on them to increase conductivity? A mediocre ground is better than none. Also a sheet of chicken wire will capacitively couple to the ground just like a mag mount on a car.

[@KN4YEM]

Hey David Casler!!! THXU for this video 73

[@alv6530]

I just use a 12" steel tent stake. Using 100w or less and not being up long enough to be a lightning hazard, that seems to be sufficient

[@Steven-re7xt]

Quite by accident. I found that as i hook up my rig to the cars p/s that satisfied the ground. Got a 50% boost 😊

[@bergerc0961]

You Mentioned a 40 foot piece of wire as a counterpoise what diameter should this wire be

[@marcisberzins]

say, 1/2 of a mm or more

[@johnward7894]

Thank you 😊

[@francismcclaughry3794]

yes. I have one in my back forty and I mow around it.

[@glenmartin2437]

Thank you, Dave. NOQFT

[@jamesoberg8912]

Need an antenna static bleed off connection. Don't be Ben Franklin.

[@charleswoods2996]

What!!! No fantastic dry eraser diagrams? Why, I am terribly disappointed. X-P Good video, KD8EFQ/73

[@FornoDan]

My car gives interference, I use a seperate battery. My laptop, battery antenna, radio are not grounded

[@daveN2MXX]

Any "ground rod" installed by an amateur radio operator in the field for a short operation is likely suboptimal.

[@rayh592]

Suboptimal can be better than nonexistant. We do our best to create the best possible conditions within our ability. That is why it is called amateur. It is also why we go out in different conditions and test and experiment.

[@daveN2MXX]

@@rayh592 Yes and no....the problem becomes when someone has the false sense of security that their station is "grounded", when it really is not. But you are correct...radio amateurs often say and do things which are pointless and/or decrease the effectiveness/ safety of their station....to each their own. I think most people would learn more from watching Dave's videos vs. studying for the exams!

[@furonwarrior]

Thought it said grounding with a potato. lol

[@anonhollmuller4032]

again dave :) i follow your Videos from Germany. could i may be participate on your giveaways anyhow? i am willing to take the Shipping cost to bavaria! if no ,ok! your Channel is insiring and produktiv ×! so best 73 , dg2r?