grounding your ham radio equipment?

Question

any ham radio operators out there, here is a question for you. if i wanted to ground my equipment to ground buss bar would you use flat copper braided strap or solid strap or would you use copper wire. they say not to solder the straps or wire to buss , you must bolt it on.some say you can use braided strap and some say use wire. what do you say

Answer 1

If you're grounding it just for AC electric shock protection, use a solid wire. If you want lightning protection, use a solid metal strap and a solid wire.

You need the solid metal wire to meet electric code in most places if that is what you are going for. The solid metal strap is what works most effectively for lightning. The braided strap presents some inductive reactance to a lightning strike due to the weaving of the strands and is not as effective as a solid strap.

For lightning, keep the straps as straight as possible. No sharp bends, only gently curves.

Answer 2

A large copper wire seems to work best. Mostly because of the inductance of anything braided, and because a strap may be unwieldy. I believe that since it is an RF ground the standard house AC ground wiring codes don't apply (As long as you have a separate grounding location isolated from the AC ground). However there may be other codes applying to RF grounds that I'm not aware of.

Answer 3

I think that a braided strap would be used if you have the possibility of HUGE power going through it. For a ham, I wouldn't think that's a problem, so a wire should be OK