"RayV" wrote in message
oups.com...
Since this has turned into an electrical thread I'll add this:

House I bought last year has the phone, cable, fuse box, etc 'grounded'
to the incoming cold water pipe. Two problems with this:
1 No jumper wire going around the meter (minor)
2 The water supply line coming through the foundation is plastic! (OK
probably not *plastic* but it is not metal)


I used to do on site audio recordings. As the engineer, it was my job to
make sure that all equipment was properly grounded. Audio gear that is not
grounded properly develops a very loud hum (60 cycle and more) that drowns
out anything that you try to record.

At least one half of the locations we recorded at did not have properly
grounded plugs. I carried waterpipes in the van and drove them into the
ground to get a good ground. I would connect the ground to the equipment. I
also poured water on the pipes.

This, of course, got people interested. Who is this crazy guy pounding
pipes into the ground? I almost got arrested a couple of times because the
security guys thought I was making up this wild grounding theory. They had
never heard of it.

I ended up carring around a reference book to point out the theory/science
behind grounding. I also pointed out that their electrical was not up to
code. And I could call it in. That usually shut them up.