My one tube radio is working quite well, I can pick up a local station or two at upper end of AM, 1200 to 1310.
By accident I left a signal generator attached to the front end, and through this connection I received a station at 580 incredibly well. The generator is turned off, rotating the dial doesn't seem to affect reception. Removing the power cord from the wall kills reception. Is the house wiring acting as a huge antenna? Can someone explain this?

Hi John

You signal generator may be acting as a ground? A 1 tube battery radio needs an antenna & ground. One side of the AC line is grounded. This will capacity couple through the signal generator.

Norm

:My one tube radio is working quite well, I can pick up a local station or two at upper end of AM, 1200 to 1310.
:By accident I left a signal generator attached to the front end, and through this connection I received a station at 580 incredibly well. The generator is turned off, rotating the dial doesn't seem to affect reception. Removing the power cord from the wall kills reception. Is the house wiring acting as a huge antenna? Can someone explain this?

I do have a ground wire attached to the radio, I'm using a steel post embedded in my basement floor. Perhaps I should try changing to the cold water pipe.

:Hi John
:
: You signal generator may be acting as a ground? A 1 tube battery radio needs an antenna & ground. One side of the AC line is grounded. This will capacity couple through the signal generator.
:
:Norm
:
::My one tube radio is working quite well, I can pick up a local station or two at upper end of AM, 1200 to 1310.
::By accident I left a signal generator attached to the front end, and through this connection I received a station at 580 incredibly well. The generator is turned off, rotating the dial doesn't seem to affect reception. Removing the power cord from the wall kills reception. Is the house wiring acting as a huge antenna? Can someone explain this?

I notice the same thing with all of my AC radios. I agree with Norm that the signal generator is probably linking the radio to the house wiring ground, which is incredibly good. If the generator is not directly grounded (grounded plug), there is likely a condenser attaching one side of the line cord to the chassis.

Thomas

Another note: water pipe is a good idea. If you simply have a spike anchored into the basement floor, this will not likely work. A good ground requires a pole of about 4 to 6 feet. This is driven into the ground, usually outside. Moist ground makes a better connection. The ground connection that is used for the wiring in your house is also attached to a large plate that is deep in the earth. Furthermore there is a connection to the water pipes that come into your home. These network all over the city and all through your yard, so they're sure to make a good connection (unless someone put plastic piping in your home, which is starting to become common practice in homes...sadly). Further still, you'll notice that there's a bare wire along with the two insulated wires that go into your home. Not only is this a support wire, but it also serves to connect your home to the center tap of the transformer up on the pole (which is also connected to ground). If your home was simply tied to the plate in the earth, every time the soil dried out (luckily not often, since it's six feet under), voltages in your house would fluctuate. Instead of each phase conducting through ground back to the transformer, current would pass through one item on one phase, through neutral and into another item on the other phase. If the other item on the other phase drew more current, the lesser draw would receive almost a full 220 volts, which would burn things out. Turning things on and off in the home would cause great fluctuation in voltages on each phase. On homes where the ground is inadequate, though still good enough, you will notice this slightly when a heavy load is turned on on the phase opposite some lights. The lights will actually get brighter on the opposite phase.

The only real reason why our electrical system here in the U.S.A. is connected to ground is because of the fear of static charges in the air building up on the wires in various places (such as lightning). This could be very dangerous. Linking the wiring to earth everywhere assures you that the wiring in your home does not have a huge static charge built up in it with respect to the earth around you. In other countries (I think England is one), they do not do this. They claim that they have had no difficulties, either, so perhaps our elaborate system is over-kill. Still, it's nice to be cautious.

Anyway, that is the reason why the wiring in your home makes such a good ground--it's connected in many places.

Thomas

Thomas: The National Electric Code requires that each house have an earth ground rod connected to the neutral bus of a 120/240-V service. The purpose is not for static charge dissipation.

If the neutral conductor from the utility becomes disconnected from the your service drop (a not-infrequent occurance), you may see up to 240V at 120-V recepticles and other very dangerous conditions. A comparable situation does not apply to Europe where only a single voltage, 220V, is provided.

The NEC requires an 8-ft ground rod. No plate at the bottom is required or cusomarily installed.

True. I also read, though, that the reason why our system is grounded is because of the fear of static build-up. You will not likely find this in any modern code book. Back in the days of 110 volts without the 2 phase system, they also grounded the wire because they feared this problem. Of course, with the use of center tapped transformers, as you say, it is wise to have a secondary ground so that you do not get irratic voltages caused by a faulty primary ground. As I said before, as was the case with my house, the ground was inadequate, and whenever the washing machine kicked in on one circuit, lights on the opposite phase got brighter. The situation was not severe, but it was partially due to the age of the system (corrosion of parts), and that the people who put an addition on our house decided to not replace the 60 ampere box, but instead to add another box to this box with 10 extra breakers. Turning on the dryer and the air conditioner and the pool pump (and at one time an electric water heater and range) would blow the main fuses clean out of the wall. The system is now a 200 ampere system with fresh wiring, and the bright bulb syndrom no longer exists.