[Antennas] Ground rod questions (Ground currents)

Tue Jun 30 12:43:57 EDT 2009

That is great on paper. The reality is that at the main panel, ground 
and neutral are BOTH bonded in the panel.
The system in question was a wye distribution system. So the ground 
plays a bigger part than folks realize since EACH phase IS terminated in 
ground. This is a significant difference from a Delta system.
It was a 4160/2400 Wye in generation and distribution. Ground plays a 
VERY important part. The neutral is derived in a WYE system by tapping 
the center of the single phase 240VAC at the pole mounted transformer. 
Therefore the ground is WELL into the fray!
Bob - N0DGN
Loren Moline WA7SKT wrote:
> Bob,
>> The imbalance and supply voltages should be dependent on the 
> connections to the power company for both the power legs and the 
> neutral for the neutral is carried with the 2 power conductors from 
> the utility.
>> If there is a variance like that it tells me the neutral connection 
> back to the utility is faulty and you are depending on the ground to 
> carry the unbalanced current which if resistive would cause varying 
> voltage drops dependent on the current drawn by the load.
>>> Loren WA7SKT
>>> Member: ARRL and Pacific Northwest VHF Society
> Member: Hearsat Satellite Monitoring Group
> Location: CN86cx 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> > Date: 2009年6月30日 12:24:46 -0400
> > From: rbethman at comcast.net
> > To: Antennas at mailman.qth.net
> > CC: ve5ra at sasktel.net
> > Subject: Re: [Antennas] Ground rod questions (Ground currents)
> >
> > My brain passed gas!
> >
> >
> > We had weird fluctuations whenever a load was put on one side, (120), of
> > the 240V drops to each building. The one load side with the coffee 
> pot, OR the side with the refrigerator that we traded for would kick 
> in, that leg would drop to 80 - 90 VAC, while the OTHER leg would go 
> WAY up to 160VAC or more.
> >
> > That's what I should have finished. It was all tied up in the lack 
> of GOOD conductivity. When the tide came up it would get well. When 
> the tide was out, those were the funny things we would observe with 
> metering we installed at OUR service entrance. (Scrounged from an old 
> abandoned power plant.)
> >
> > Bob - N0DGN
> >
> >
> >
> > Doug Renwick wrote:
> > > Bob, can you complete the paragraph:
> > >
> > > We had weird fluctuations whenever a load was put on one side, 
> (120), of
> > > the 240V drops to each building. The one load with ...
> > >
> > > Doug
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Bob - NØDGN
> >
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-- 
Bob - NØDGN