KVH Industries FB250, Installation Manual

Page: 171 / 202

Appendix C: Grounding and RF protection
158 Grounding Recommendations
If you are using the Extended cable support, make the ground connections
through the cable support.
You may need to extend the ground plane using copper foil. For further
information, see
Extending the ground plane on page 40.
C.4.2 Grounding the antenna
You can ground the antenna to the ship/hull via one or more of its mounting
bolts. Make sure to remove painting, dirt, grease etc. at the mounting holes in
order to make good electrical contact to the hull. Use serrated washers when
securing the mounting bolts and seal the joint with protective coating to avoid
corrosion.
If you are using vibration isolators at the bolts, the grounding connection
between the mounting surface and the bolts is not sufficient. In that case
mount a separate grounding wire. See
Separate ground cable on page 167.
It is always recommended to establish the shortest grounding path as possible
e.g. on steel hulls the antenna should be grounded directly to the hull
1
.
However, due to the fact that this is not possible on e.g. fiberglass hulls (nor is
it preferable on aluminum hulls) a number of alternative grounding methods
are suggested in the following paragraphs.
1. Please note that the antenna ground connection is made at the same electrical
ground potential as the terminal.
Antenna bottom
10 mm spacer
M10 Mounting bolt
(Stainless steel) Mounting base Serrated washer
(Stainless steel)