My electrical service comes in to two peered breaker panels from the meter box outside. The connection from each panel neutral to the Ufer ground ~4ft directly below is via a #4 or #6 (haven't measur
Because there's no particular reason why the installer should make it straight. The code just requires something like "reasonably direct", and that is more than sufficient for the purpose. It's not a
Jim Thanks for taking the time to respond to my newbish question. Although I've been a ham for a few years, my installation of a couple of new antennas have caused me to get more serious about ground
Indeed. The way to protect your house, is to ensure that everything in your house is at the same potential. Normally this is easy, since stuff only comes into the house in one spot, and every ground
That's the theory, and maybe it's *current* standard practice, but our telephone cable comes in at the opposite end of the house from the power, and the cable TV cable comes in at the back of the hou
I had the same issue in Chicago. Right. Bottom line -- keeping everything at the same potential is critical, and you can have as many ground connections as you like, but they MUST all be bonded toget
I think the relevant point is, though, that you don't need to do that bonding with copper strap. Wire works just as well. The length will be basically the same in both cases, and the inductance is ba
With most homes around here that is impossible. Power, telephone and cable come in the front, but the way the homes are laid out, virtually all antennas have to come in the back or ends. I rerouted t
So I have a question on this topic, related to how to bond the station ground to the house ground. I have two choices for the routing of the wire that will connect the station ground to the house gro
Yep. But mother nature WILL take the path she likes, making whatever mess she chooses along the way. Faced with that choice in the building that houses my shack, I did both -- rods around the buildin
John, your understanding that short is better is correct, however, taking a path right through your house is not, never, ever! Consider also that the outside path, if accomplished with bare wire will
I don't know if there's any truth to the "lightning doesn't like sharp bends"... I'd like to see some physics behind that. 90 degree bends don't have much inductance over the length of the wire (that
This is why I say that having everything at the same potential in the house from a nearby strike is a myth. Each room is a different distance from the strike, and voltage induced at one end of the ho
Jim, hello; Your question about sharp bends caused me to re-investigate that statement. "http://www.protectiongroup.com/ProtectionTechnologyGroup/media/PTG/WhitePapersandTechnicalNotes/1485-013.pdf?e
but the question really is, are their recommendations overkill. For instance, they talk about skin effect, which is real, and does increase AC resistance, but in a typical system, AC resistance isn't
I settled on bare #2 stranded for all of my grounding system. It's worked well through at least visually 17 verified strikes to the big tower and we've lost nothing in the house from the 17 strikes.