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[TowerTalk] Grounding your tower...What is really needed?

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Grounding your tower...What is really needed?
From: n4kg@juno.com (T. A. Russell)
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 21:44:52 -0600
>> > I put six 8ft ground rods around my tower.  If I were you I would
>> put in
>> >  at least six. They are placed at 120 degrees apart. Then the 

><snip>>

>>
>>     I would also recommend putting multiple rods in the system.
>> Grounding
>> your tower is ONE part of the overall ground system.
>>
>> 73,  Steve  K7LXC
>>

<<snip>>

>
>   That seems like a lot of ground rods
>

        A M E N  !       de     Tom   N4KG

I have 7 towers, ranging in height from 40 ft to 140 ft.

At 6 ground rods per tower, that comes to 42 rods and a hell of a lot 
of strap and digging.  Is this all really necessary for lightning
protection?

By the way, most of those towers have been up for 18 years and the 
only lightning damage I have suffered came in on the power lines 
when a strike hit a power transformer next door.

Each tower is 30 to 36 inches in the ground, NO  CONCRETE.  A shelf
of limestone or sandstone is 3 to 5 ft below the surface.  The bottom
of each tower hole is expanded, covered with 4 inches of gravel, and
bricks are laid on top to support the tower.  All guy wires are broken up
with several insulators.  All transmission lines and rotor cables run
to ground level and are returned to the house in shallow open trenches.
All coax switches are mounted to a metal frame which is connected to
a single 8 ft ground by a 1 inch wide braided strap running down from
the second story window.

Five of the towers are in a line running north/south.  There is a small
creek running  wandering more or less parallel to this line 200 to 
300 ft to the east of this line.  There is some underground water
running near the creek.

IF  ALL  OF  THE  EXTENSIVE  GROUNDING  DESCRIBED  ON  THIS
REFLECTOR IS TRULY NECESSARY FOR LIGHTNING PROTECTION,

WHY  HAVE  NONE  OF MY 7  TOWERS  BEEN  STRUCK IN 18 YEARS?

We  get a  LOT of severe  thunderstorms and lightning here in north
Alabama.

de   Tom   N4KG   


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