[BC] Keeping an eye on the ground

[BOYDSIRBOYD at aol.com]

SCOTT,
i couldn't agree with you more.
DAVE and i were working on WKJV here in west ASHEVILLE, having 
reflected problems with a HARRIS DX-50 (brought down to 25kwatts) and 
a HARRIS/GATES 1, we were pulling our hair out( which i don't have 
much on top anyway). the phaser was also having problems, what a mess.
then out of the blue it was mentioned that ever since they put a new 
cleanout line to the septic tank they have had problems.
well that opened the eyes real quick. we put in a new 4" copper strap 
from the transmitter room all the way to the first main doghouse on 
tower one, 340 feet. at that point i was able to retune it back close 
to the original settings and all the changing of the reflected 
stopped and no more popping noises on the air when it rained, or 
other funny things.
the phaser even looked better, except tower 2 has to be retuned to 50 
j0 at the input to the phaser. right now it's 85 degrees out of 
phase, which means the small dragonfly wings in the middle have 
shifted to the north.
to all out there a bad or half-donkeyed ground to the ATU will cause 
all kinds of funky problems. i have total proof of that.

In a message dated 7/27/2009 10:57:10 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
scott at lagrange-com.com writes:

It cannot be stressed enough to have the proper grounding for the
transmitter site.  I was recently call in on a troublesome transmitter site
where parts and pieces were getting blown out.  Over the past couple of
years, the engineer had replaced every piece of equipment and had extensive
rebuilding done on his SX5.  Nothing was grounded.  We spent three days and
went from the service entrance to the tower and hung a ground and/or ground
strap on EVERYTHING.  He has not had any problems since.

Scott Cason