On Wed, 19 May 2004 11:17:47 +0100, "Steve (another one)"
wrote:




Thanks for this, sorry if I wasn't clear.

The boat is steel so a short copper strap from the tuner to the hull is
easy. However, it's harder to do the same to the M700 neatly. Everybody
stresses the impoprtance of a wide strap to the tuner but rarely mention
the radio itself, those that do say it is 'good practice' to connect it
to the same ground. I was wondering if I could get away with a lighter
wire or thin self-adhesive copper tape for this.

Steve


Steve,

The radio itself doesn't need any ground connection in order to
perform. The main reason for connecting it to a ground is to eliminate
stray RF from getting back into the radio and causing problems.

If an installation performs ok with no ill effects without a ground on
the radio then not to worry.

In your case with a steel hull I would bet that you won't have any
problems. In most cases stray RF comes from having poor ground systems
for the tuner and allowing RF to be carried on long ground leads and
get coupled to dc leads etc. With a steel hull you have about the best
ground system that can be had on a boat.

The only problem that may arise is if your antenna runs close to the
radio itself or the dc power leads to the radio and RF is picked up by
them and gets into the radio.

It never hurts to have the radio grounded well though in case of
lightning coming to it via the coax from the tuner.

Regards
Gary