In previous OnAllBand articles, we’ve looked at DX Engineering’s commitment to helping Hams safely and effectively protect their station’s equipment from damaging lightning strikes. Products covered include surge arrestors, bus wall mounts, grounding clamps, and rotator control line protectors—all safeguards we strongly encourage you to install but, like any insurance policy, hope you’ll never need.
Today, we explore another handy innovation from DX Engineering designed to provide additional grounding of coaxial shields. Manufactured from stainless steel, DX Engineering Coax Grounding Brackets are made to fasten to tower legs using the supplied V-bolt and hardware. Brackets may be used on the tower top junction point for the flexible antenna coax jumpers (often used to form a rotor loop), and the main runs down the tower leg. They are also useful at the base of the tower to provide a solid grounding point before the coax cable is routed away from the grounded tower. Choose from two sizes to fit most tower legs and antenna masts: 1 inch to 1-1/2 inch and 1 inch to 2 inch. Features include:
- Holes for two optional UHF bulkhead connectors (UHF chassis mount or Type-N bulkhead connectors)
- Additional hole to extend or secure grounding of optional ground braid or copper strap
- Serrated teeth to bite through paint and corrosion
Due to the close mounting of the RF connectors closest to where the tower leg or metal pipe may be, we suggest first making the connections weather-tight, then attaching the bracket to the tower leg or metal pipe. Find weatherproofing kits at DX Engineering.
Also available are DX Engineering Coax Shield Grounding Kits for 1.5 inch or 2 inch OD tube. The kits come with coax grounding bracket and a pair of DX Engineering Silver Plated Female SecureMount Bulkhead Connectors. Bulkhead connector kits and chassis mount connectors are also sold separately.
Five Stars: “The quality of this bracket and the DXE-UHF-FDFB bulkhead connector is topnotch. I have located my bracket two feet above ground level below my dipole antennas. This bracket and the bulkhead connectors make a convenient ground connection along with location for using an antenna analyzer.”
Five Stars: “Great way to ground the coax at the top and bottom of the tower and to connect the coax loop from the beam with the main feedline.”
Five Stars: (Coaxial Shield Grounding Kit): “This is an easy way to do things right. One on the top and one on the bottom, connected to your properly earth-grounded tower is the way to go.”
