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- Another method many hams use to ground their station equipment is to connect
- the ground wire to a cold water pipe, but caution is in order here. If you
- live in an apartment or have your shack in the attic, the cold water pipe
- near your transmitter may follow such a long and winding path to the earth
- that it may not act as a ground at all. It may, in fact, act as an antenna,
- radiating RF energy, which you do not want it to do. Beware too, of the
- nonmetallic cold water pipes being used more and more. PVC and other
- plastic pipes are effective insulators. There may be a piece of copper
- water pipe running close by your station, but if there is a piece of PVC
- pipe connected between that spot and where the water line enters your house
- from the street, you will not have a ground connection. +
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