Ufer grounds are bare solid copper wire buried in the first 3 inches of a concrete pour with the tail brought above the surface to tie into whatever you need to ground. The NEC (National Electrical C
Hi Nick, I've been reading about these Ufer grounds recently. Never heard of them before, in fact it seems like the consensus has always been that you should NOT ground your tower to the rebar. I can
Well, "concrete encased grounding electrodes" have been around for a while, and seem to be required by many codes these days (probably because of the increased use of plastic pipes for water lines, s
Hello JC, I would still encase the cu pipe in the concrete for several reasons. First the concrete enhances the contact area between the conductor and the soil. Second it isolates the cu from the soi
I agree entirely, the concrete either has corroded rebar or had pockets from poor construction techniques when it was poured where water gathered. NEC does require a gound both for electrical safety
Jim, Nick, and All, Thanks again for the advice. Good point, I will flatten and ss bolt all ground pipe connections? no solder. Obviously the tower is grounded to the slab by the bottom section being
If my memory has not deteriorated too much, my understanding of a Ufer ground is that it approximates a capacitance in parallel with a resistance. The theory was that the capacitance would absorb the
I had no choice but to go with a Ufer ground and the "copper ring" around the tower base, due to my tower being locate on bedrock. You can see how I did it at: http://home.centurytel.net/WD0M/ Click
Hello Chris, Yes I could with the cravat that you MUST provide a low impedance ground path to building ground and a lightning ground system.This path must be direct as possible and all bends radiused
The mention of buried tower section in slab was to infer that lightning going down this steel doesn't cause exploding bases either. One more myth busting to exploding base myth. The extra ring outsid
The mention of buried tower section in slab was to infer that lightning going down this steel doesn't cause exploding bases either. One more myth busting to exploding base myth. The extra ring outsid
If you want to minimize the chance of a lightning strike to your tower do not place a device on the top with sharp points. A blunt point rod should be placed at the top. The so called lightning preve
Not true in my case. Before I installed the porcupine my mast bleed off the charge. A number of years ago I added the porcupine and my mast/porcupine combo still bleeds off the charge. In other words
Experience may trump theory, but scientific experiment trumps experience EVERY time! porcupines on towers have been shown to not stop strikes. Not any more than an owl stops birds. David Robbins K1TT
I did not say that porcupines will stop all lightning strikes. I said "In other words, my addition of the porcupine did not have a negative effect." Scientific experiment will only trump experience I
While you are continuing your luck streak, think again about a possible lightning strike. The energy in a typical strike is many times the amount you can bleed off with your tower/antenna system. If
A lot of guys out here (and elsewhere) have a vertical (VHF and/or UHF) at the very top of their antenna stack. I'm pretty sure this qualifies as a pointy device. When I installed my first tower out
No need to present facts available to you. Just look up measured energy of a strike and compare it to the ability of the porcupine to dissipate this energy. BTW, while you are looking for facts, try
Or, just a big lump of semiconductive material: concrete, which looks like a lossy RC to a fast impulse. Depends... The resistance from a 20 ft long wire to the concrete isn't all that high. You coul