Ah... I see. No wonder some fat and slow RVs like to drag a tail behind.
For some reason we Vanagons almost never ground ourselves.

Somehow HAM and RV seem pair up always. If you see a guy setting up a
field station the station is almost alway on the side of an RV but never
a Vanagon. Vanagoneers in the eyes of HAM are nuts. They don't ground
properly their Vanagons. I think we Vanagoneers eat burgers but those
RVers don't.

Well, I like HAM a lot. I forgot what I did and FCC sent me this paper
that said KG6ETA. But they said "technician" although I am really an
engineer. I have always wanted to engineer my vanagon into a grounded
field station. I got a Transworld 1.2KW solid state HF power amp. My
Halicrafter transmitter can drive it nuts if not grounded. Unfortunately
I do not have a receiver and because they said technician I have not
established a ground tail to begin with yet.

Why Vanagons have never seen to pair with HAMs I don't know. Sam, perhaps
you can explain. Does your vanagon drag a tail?

David

--- Sam Conant <samcvt@COMCAST.NET> wrote:

> 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
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ____________________________________________________________________________________
> > Got a little couch potato?
> > Check out fun summer activities for kids.
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>

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