[TCML] My woeful RF ground experiments and lots of questions.

[Jeremy Scott <supertux1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

So I tried pounding a short section of copper pipe into the dirt outside of my garage. It didn't go so well, my 'soil' is mostly clay with lots of large rocks. There's just no way I'm going to get anything more than a foot into the ground without augering a huge hole first and the only places that would be acceptable to do that are far away from where I'd be running a coil. 

In my garage, I have a cold water faucet. The copper pipe for this runs about 20 feet from the faucet before entering the concrete foundation of my house. About five feet or so from where the pipe goes into the foundation, the green ground wire to the fuse box (a few feet away) 
is tied in.

What am I risking if I connect the coil's RF ground to the faucet in
the garage? I am guessing that the path of least resistance seems to be straight to the pipes in ground and presumably not through the ground 
wire into the fuse box and connected appliances, although I could be wrong. 

Most of my 'sensitive' electronics like the TV and computers are all on 
surge protected battery operated UPS units -- I'm not so worried about frying electronics as I am the risk of electrocution.

Could I put an RF choke on that ground wire? What about simply disconnecting the AC ground wire while the coil is running? Should 
I bite the bullet and tear up the yard and make a nice ground?

Are there any easier ways of making an RF ground that don't involve
pounding rods into solid clay?

Thanks in advance,

-Jeremy




      
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla