Im getting ready to install and put on air a p15 am station.
I will have it located on a 3rd floor balcony. I have ran into a grounding issue, since I cant run a wire to a ground rod.
I can either use the electrical outlet grounding or the steel
water pipe that feeds the sprinkler system in the complex.
The steel pipe Im not sure if it goes into the ground or not or
if it connects to plastic pipes somewhere along the way.
Im getting ready to install and put on air a p15 am station.
I will have it located on a 3rd floor balcony. I have ran into a grounding issue, since I cant run a wire to a ground rod.
I can either use the electrical outlet grounding or the steel
water pipe that feeds the sprinkler system in the complex.
The steel pipe Im not sure if it goes into the ground or not or
if it connects to plastic pipes somewhere along the way.
I will be using a Rangemaster Transmitter on this installation.
Hoping to achieve at least 1.5 mile radius out of it.
Any advice is welcomed. Thanks
Hi,
I strongly advise you not to use a water pipe for a ground for safety reasons. Primarily, you do not know if it is grounded and you might create a shock hazard for yourself and anyone working on the system. Even if it is grounded, the hazard exists if it is disconnected for maintenance and the plumber could be injured.
I have no advice about your RF grounding. Perhaps you can contact Rangemaster for advice.
Neil
out of curiosity, how will the plumber be harmed? I am only asking because I used the water pipes for Manteca Local Radio, and never got so much as a minor buzz from the pipes.
I'm not being confrontational - please dont take it that way, I am wondering because I was planning the water pipe ground when I get my station back on the air...
As a side note: Without the water pipe grounding, MLR got about .25 miles radius. With the water pipes: alot.
Hi,
Good question so I will try to provide a good answer. The danger comes from the electrical equipment which is connected to the pipe. If the equipment has high leakage or a line to chassis fault, the ungrounded pipe will be at 120 volts above ground. I have seen this happen in a hospital, no less, where the electrical ground wiring was bonded to the plumbing and people were getting shocked by a sink!
The plumber can be injured if he disconnects the pipe and gets between the grounded pipe and the energized pipe.
Another concern about the pipe is something else may be connected and with a fault will energize the transmitter ground.
Cold water pipes are required by code here to be bonded to the electrical service ground stake, and their use for electrical grounding is not permitted.
Neil
Ah - ok.. so for my purpose, I was probably ok to use it. My house, where the only thing I had grounded to it was my radio. That and I had attached my grounding line to the pipe where it went into the ground.
I'll pay attention to that when I do the new one as well - I'll even go ahead and stick a warning tag on the pipe at the backflow valves so that any plumber will know to give me a call before performing any work there.
by MRAM 1500 kHz
I ran into a situation at my father-in-laws house along these lines.
His water heater needed replaced. When I disconnected the supply lines from the tank, arc-spark. Seems that the neutral connection at the house service entrance was bad. That being the case, the majority of the load current for his house was finding a path to ground through his water lines and the connection at the water tank was a big part of that connection.
Had I been hanging onto both pipes when they disconnected I'd have received a pretty hefty shock.
We put a jumper between the supply lines so that next time there'd be no surprises. The electric supplier was called to repair the neutral.