Well, I guess Dave, that you could attach a grounding strap beneath the
chassis which would drag along the road surface, as some commercial trucks
have done.  But, you're correct that the Westy makes a decent "faked" ground
nonetheless.
SamC
(N1PDL)
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Kao" <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 2:31 AM
Subject: Re: Grounds (was Quality Inverters)

> To me ground means ground (the earth). When I hang a long wire (antenna)
> for
> my HF transceiver the ground has to be physically connected to ground. If
> not
> I won't receive signal from far away or my signal won't reach too far. But
> you sure can fake it. For example when I set up a CB antenna on my westy
> The
> Westy chassis is no problem as a good ground for the antenna.
>
> Maybe this is just a different ground that has nothing to do with the
> ground
> you guys are talking about. Never mind. I don't want to steal the thread.
>
> David
>
>
> --- Jack <john.cook58@VERIZON.NET> wrote:
>
>> Not directly related to inverters but perhaps of some interest.
>>
>> A pet peeve of mine regards the word, "Ground".  As used in electricity
>> and
>> electronics, the word is an unfortunate historical artifact which, in my
>> humble
>> opinion, should be removed from use, since it's too often misunderstood.
>> It
>> implies some magic iso-potential conductor connected to earth which
>> rarely
>> exists outside of a text book.  Given common conditions such as high
>> fault
>> currents, fast rise/fall surges (e.g., sparks), that "ground" is anything
>> but
>> iso-potential. This misunderstanding can lead to serious problems, even
>> from
>> designers who should know better.  (This isn't even beginning to deal
>> with high
>> speed digital circuitry, analog instrumentation, A/D, D/A and RF
>> systems.)
>>
>> Much better to use the words, frame, shell, chassis, shield, common, 3rd
>> wire,
>> green wire, etc.  Those more descriptive terms provide better
>> understandings of
>> what the conductor is and (sometimes) what its purpose is.  In large
>> system
>> schematics, we might see the identifiers, frame-1, frame-2, frame-3,
>> shield-1,
>> etc., even though the connections may be tied together somewhere.
>>
>> Sorry to rant.  And sorry if the above makes little sense to you.  You
>> have to
>> have been there.
>>
>> //Jack
>>
>
>
>
>
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