Setting up a new shack and getting conflicting advice on grounding strategy. I understand there are two major aspects - electrical safety grounding and RF grounding for RFI suppression. Some guys swear by connecting all equipment chassis to a copper buss bar with short copper braid, then one heavy conductor to an 8-foot rod outside. Others say this creates ground loops and just use the safety ground from AC mains.

Currently experiencing: Slight hum on 40m, computer speakers buzz when transmitting on 80m, occasional mic bite on the old D-104. Running 100W to a dipole about 75 feet from the shack. I've heard flat strap or copper braid has much lower impedance at RF frequencies vs regular wire - is this necessary?

All station components should be grounded to a single point - it's the station that needs grounding, not the antenna. Use a short section of copper plumbing pipe as your single point ground. The station ground is a DC safety ground - any ground wire is a single wire circuit without an equal and opposite conductor.

Connecting additional ground wires can create ground loops and stray RF issues, creating unwanted antenna combinations that add noise. Your symptoms sound like classic RF feedback. Try ferrites on your mic cable and audio leads first before adding more ground wires. Sometimes less is more!

Station builders should avoid "RF ground" in favor of "bonding" - keeping all equipment at the same RF voltage. You can bond equipment by connecting each piece to a copper strap with short pieces of strap or wire. Your computer speaker issue suggests RF on the DC power lines - try a common mode choke on the power cable.