Ham Station Sheet Metal Ground Plane

A ground plane is a reflective metal surface that the signal from an antenna bounces off of to better meet the antenna s design goals.

Ham station sheet metal ground plane. You can bond equipment together at rf by connecting each piece of gear to a copper strap or pipe with a short piece of strap or wire. Both of these should result in some level of electrical isolation between the antenna feed shield and the sheet metal. 5 we have poorly installed connectors or defective cables. A very large pizza sheet might be around a meter in diameter or iow 50cm in radius.

Dx engineering radio rf ground plane kits provide an effective method of reducing stray rf pickup by equipment and interconnecting cables. Ham gear usually has a ground terminal just for this purpose. It is found that for a monopole antenna like a quarter wavelength vertical the ground acts as a plane to reflect the radio waves so that an image of the top half of the antenna is seen in the earth. 3 the problem is not rf at all but is a dc power supply ground loop back into the audio system.

That s only 05 wavelengths at 30 mhz which is a tiny ground plane. As the name indicates the antenna ground plane acts as a simulated ground. The individual station equipments already have their own ground reference but when they are interconnected grounding each equipment to the main ground bus as shown in fig 1 creates ground loops. Antennas requiring ground planes are called ground plane dependent and having an appropriate ground plane can greatly affect performance.

Sometimes we set ourselves up for problems without knowing it. I guess what i m simply not clear on is how a mag mount antenna s ground plane is connected electrically. Then connect the bonding strap or pipe to your ac safety ground rod with a heavy wire. Why or when is a ham station ground necessary.

4 equipment has a design defect. Each time a ground loop is created a small inductive coil is formed the ground wire completes the loop. Copper strap is sold at hardware and roofing stores as flashing. Consider also that most cars have a coat of paint between the mag mount and the sheet metal.

It is possible to simulate this function by replacing the real earth. K7trf aug 19 2016.