The Basic lessons · Station assembly, practice and safety · B-003-019

Station Safety: Grounding, Fuses, and Capacitors

Learn how to ground your station to prevent shock and lightning damage, and understand why correct fusing and capacitor discharge are vital for safety. This lesson explains the physics behind grounding bonds, wire impedance, and proper maintenance procedures.

This lesson is part of SignalPrep Pro. The subsection's 11 exam questions are free to practise: practise B-003-019.

What this subsection asks

• For best protection from electrical shock, what should be grounded in your station?
• Established practice demands that all ground electrodes be bonded together with heavy conductors. What protection does this provide in case of a lightning strike?
• Why should you never use a fuse with a higher current rating than specified?
• Which of these materials is best for a ground rod driven into the earth?
• You need to work on a power supply that has been taken offline. What is the first thing you should do once the cabinet is open?
• Where should the green wire in a three-wire AC line cord be connected in a power supply?
• Your third-floor station has a ground wire running 10 metres down to a ground rod. You get an RF burn when you touch your HF transceiver while transmitting. What is the likely cause?
• You are using an HF off-centre-fed (OCF) unbalanced antenna. When you transmit on SSB, distorted audio and noise are heard from an outboard amplified speaker. What device could you install in the transmission line to mitigate this problem?
• What is a safe method to discharge power supply filter capacitors?
• On mains-operated power supplies, the ground wire of the AC line is connected to the power supply chassis. What protection does this provide if a fault occurs in the power supply?
• Why do fuses have a voltage rating?