LOL!, no, it was definitely not an insult.
the reason i asked is because noise from the AC mains is just not something we radio people even think about much.
it just doesnt usually happen unless there is a problem.
seriously, do a search here in the forum for noise coming from the house electrical system, and i doubt you will find too many threads on it besides this one.
your broadcast band AM radio may pick up some noise, but that is .54mhz, whereas your CB is 27mhz and shouldnt pick up the same noise.
so, as long as your main breaker box has a grounding buss in it, the neutral wire is connected to this buss, there is a ground wire going from this buss to the cold water pipe inlet, and there is also a ground wire going from this buss to a ground rod; then you really should take the house electrical system out of the equation.
you are going to drive yourself crazy looking for a problem that isnt there! LOL
bottom line; all of the ground rods that you have in the ground should be connected together. (i dont know about the garage install since its a different building, and maybe that ground rod doesnt have to be part of the "ground system" we are discussing)
everyone who grounds their station properly does it this way.
it does not cause more noise in your receive.
have you considered the transformer up on the power pole that feeds your neighborhood might be the source of your noise?
this happens quite a lot especially in older neighborhoods.
the power company doesnt consider it a problem because the transformer is still doing its job, its just doing it very noisily. LOL
if the transformer is the culprit and is creating noise in your radio; it is their responsibility to fix it, and it wont cost you a dime.
they wont want to fix it, but they have to by law.
FCC states that their equipment must not cause harmful interference.
that article you are referring to IS INDEED about RF ground.
what they are talking about is grounding all of your station equipment.
yes, we ground the equipment for safety, but the reason they state not to connect your station ground wire to a cold water pipe etc., is because if your ground wire is long enough,it can actually radiate like its part of the antenna.
in radio, we try to keep the ground wire that goes from the station equipment to the ground rod less than a 1/4 wavelength long.
for CB, thats about 8.5 feet.
honestly, people make a bigger deal out of that length thing than they really need to.
the chances of your ground wire being the exact right length to radiate on the frequency you are on are pretty low.
i have been studying this "grounding your station" stuff for years, and i will lay out exactly how to set up your radio station.
if you do it this way, you are doing everything you can to be safe from lightning, and have a good RF ground at the same time.
ok, you've got your antenna mounted on the roof, isolated from the mast, RF choke at the feedpoint, and the groundplane kit installed.(NO ground wire attached to the antenna bracket, the mast, or the tripod. NO ground wire ok?)
you run your coax down from the antenna to the polyphaser, and connect the polyphaser to the ground rod you put in for the antenna.
you connect the antenna ground rod to the ground rod for the house electrical system.
going from the polyphaser to your radio room you have a length of coax.
in the radio room, along the back of your radio desk or whatever, you install a ground buss bar.
each piece of station equipment that has a metal chassis has a 10ga. or bigger wire connecting the metal case of the piece of equipment to the ground buss bar.
a ground rod for your station equipment is installed as close to that buss bar as possible, preferably less than 8 feet if possible. if not, just as close as you can.
a grounding strap is run from the radio room buss bar to that ground rod installed just outside the radio room.
this new ground rod is connected with heavy gauge wire to one of your other two ground rods, whichever is closer.
now if lightning strikes your antenna, it has to go through that polyphaser to get to the rest of your grounding system, which has been vastly improved from what it was with just one lone ground rod grounding the house.
now you have three!
all of your ground rods are connected together.
that is the way to do it.
i completely understand if you want to check what ive written here against other sources. i would if it was my money, and my house we were dealing with. LOL
if you still have noise after all of that, then the noise is external to your house, and thats where you start looking.
you have done everything you can at your end.
good luck with all this,
LC
