A bunch of guys have written me to ask, "Why 5 feet deep!?!?" (i.e. Are you
CRAZY?)
Here's my understanding of this:
Two reasons -- A. you go deep so the strap doesn't get freeze-thaw heaved
up.
B. you go below the freeze line so the strap continues
to drain off to ground in winter.
Supposedly when earth freezes it quits conducting and acts as an insulator.
Then the strap quits doing one of the things it's supposed to do which is to
extend your ground system by giving you more earth contact. Of course if
your antenna takes a hit it will still work to bring all your rods up to the
same potential (& earth will probably thaw out too, hi) but the rest of the
time frozen earth quits conducting. I doubt if I'll go that deep; I'll
probably fudge on it but anyway, that's what I've read from the "experts" in
the TT archive on this subject. Frozen water quits conducting.
For those who missed the original post, it had to do with a question about
routing a perimeter ground run, connecting all my rods together and getting
the run around my gas line and an a.c. line, both below grade and how much
clearance to give them. I said that around here, the ground freezes down to
5 feet and I had read that the perimiter gnd run had to be below that point
but I failed to say why.
I still need to know how much clearance to give to the natural gas and a.c.
runs but also, if any of you all have your rods tied together up here in the
north, have not gone down very deep and not had any problems with that I'd
like to hear from you all too. I'm not real wild about trenching down 3
feet or so; just thought that was what had to be done.
tnx & 73,
Rob Atkinson
K5UJ
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