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Re: [TowerTalk] Solid Tower Ground Wires

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Solid Tower Ground Wires
From: jimlux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 17 May 2019 11:38:51 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 5/17/19 8:39 AM, Mike & Becca Krzystyniak wrote:
Greetings,

   As I install my new tower, I was dropping some ground rods next to the
base and acquired some #6 solid copper wire to make the connections (or so I
thought).

   When I went to cut the wire I found out that it had a hard core, most
likely steel.

Sounds like copper clad steel (aka Copperweld)..

How much did you pay for the wire (per pound) compared to the price of copper? (about $2/lb today) That will give you a hint, 100ft is about 8 pounds, so you'd expect it to be at least $16. Home Depot is selling 50 ft of AWG 6 for $37 (which is pretty expensive) or 500 ft for $237 ($6/lb)


   I'm not sure this is plated as the outer copper ring is a substantial
portion of the cross section.

40% copperclad steel would have a moderately layer of copper AWG 6 is 0.162" in diameter and 1 ohm/1000 ft.
AWG 10 solid wire is 1 ohm/1000 ft and is 0.1" in diameter

So the cross sectional area of the copper for 40% CCS should be about the same as for AWG 10 - it works out to cladding thickness of about 17 mils (out of 162 mil diameter) - so that's pretty thin..
Is that what it looks like?



   As I'm not familiar with the applicatio of this type of wire I wonder if
it is acceptable for the grounding connection between the tower and the
ground rod?

   Thoughts or comments please.

Thank you.

Mike K9MK



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