Speaker


March 25, 2014: Dennis Kidder W6DQ: Grounds — facts and fantasy


This talk discusses the requirements, methodolologies and materials for amateurs to safely protect their stations from electrical faults in their equipment, as well as how to protection from static electricity and nearby lightning strikes.

First licensed in 1969 as WN6NIA, and soon after as WA6NIA, Dennis Kidder eventually traded in his callsign for that of one of his High School Elmers — W6DQ.

Dennis has just retired as a “Senior Principal Multi-discipline Engineer” from a large local defense contractor. Basically, that means he knows a little bit about a whole lot of different things … but the fun part is that he worked on everything from battlefield communications systems to building airports to flying satellites and even robots painting pickup trucks. As an engineer he learned a lot about safety grounds and lightning protection in the systems he helped develop and install.