Basic Qualification · B-003 Station assembly, practice and safety · B-003-019-007
Your third-floor station has a ground wire running 10 metres down to a ground rod. You get an RF burn when you touch your HF transceiver while transmitting. What is the likely cause?
- AThe ground wire has high impedance on your operating frequency
- BThe transmitting antenna is not the correct wavelength
- CThe gauge of the ground wire used is insufficient
- DThe ground connection of the wall outlet is defective
Correct answer: A — The ground wire has high impedance on your operating frequency. From the official ISED question bank, verified word for word.
Why
At high frequencies, a long wire can act like an antenna rather than a simple path to earth, creating high impedance that blocks radio current from flowing safely into the ground. The full explanation — and one for every question — is in Pro.
Practise this section
Station assembly, practice and safety is section B-003 of the Basic exam: Building a station safely: power supplies, grounding, RF exposure, lightning, feedline routing, and what a transmitter, receiver and transceiver actually do.
Drill B-003 — free, no account