Date:         Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:31:57 -0700
Reply-To:     David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Grounds (was Quality Inverters)
In-Reply-To:  <46785CDF.16573.8DEEFB@john.cook58.verizon.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

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
>




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