Hi,

I just restored an RCA Victor A34, Circa 1939, which is a basic superhet with 1 S/W band. I have noticed that connecting the "G" ground terminal to the A/C power ground in the house removes noise. I have never payed much attention to this in the past.

My question is this: If a connection to ground helps reduce noise wouldn't it be a good idea to use a 3 prong line cord when restoring radios? This way the A/C ground could be connected directly to the radio chassis. I have used 3 prong line cords on other radio restorations but didn't realize that the groud connection could help with noise.

Of course, this would only be advisable on radios with power transformers!

Gary

Gary: I have noticed that sometimes grounding helps improve reception and reduce noise, but on a few occasions it actually made things worse. I always try it both ways for radios that can be grounded. Mark from Kalamazoo

I was told not to use my A/C ground or my plubming if my A/C used it,I don't know all the particulars why. I drove in a groung stake just for my radios, it makes a big difference in some of my old sets.

I think that one argument against using the wall outlet ground as an "antenna return" is that it has traveled for many feet (from the breaker box to the convenience outlet) in close proximity to the neutral and hot wires, so it (notionally, at least) has had the opportunity to pick up low-level "hash" by inductive coupling from the current-carrying wires. A dedicated radio ground sidesteps this problem by not being close to power-carrying wires, and in theory at least, should be much "cleaner" RF-trash-wise than a convenience-outlet ground. However, there are lots of variables here and what "should be" is not always what "actually is".