Question on grounding (at the rig) - longish.

[Robert Myers]

Hi,

I want to ground my SB-401/SB-303 'properly.'  Everyone seems to have
there preferred method.  I have 100 feet of 0.5 inch braid (when flat)
to play with.

1. There is a cold water pipe running right over the rigs, so I could
just join this to the -401 Tx grounding bolt with say a mere 6 feet of
that braid, and have the pipe do the rest of the conducting to ground.
(The pipe is 1/2 inch copper.)

2. Should I run the aforementioned braid 30 feet over to where the cold
water feed pipe from the city enters the house?  Or does it really
matter that much.  Or should I do both 1 and 2 together?

3. Is there a better way?

4. Does anyone sell a giant snap on ferrite cylinder with a 1/2 in hole
in its centre that I could put over the cold water pipe, regardless of
where I attach the braid, so the very little RF (of the HF range) would
flow back in the 'upwards' direction should that also prove to be a
semi-good path to ground (it could flow that way even if it's not as
good as the typical 'direct' way back to the base of the city water feed
pipe.)

5.  What do you do if that length of braid happens to be 1/4 wavelength
at some frequency?  Isn't it now a high Z at your rig as opposed to a
low Z?  What do you do for that?  Do you run various lengths of
grounding braid from your rig to the cold water entry point (just
assuming for the moment that you chose that place to connect it -- i.e.
option 2)?

Note:  I'm not trying to make a reflective plane for an antenna, so I
don't think I need radials all over the lawn, but some people, even
knowing this, have mentioned doing just that -- suggesting that I forget
about the house's cold water pipe, and the I stick my own copper pipe
into the ground (and add radials, too).

Finally, does it really matter all that much how I do it?

Any comments or ideas would be greatly appreciated?
--- Robert Myers, VE3JQL.

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