Theoretically, I believe, that if you've got a good low
impedance and high amp capacity ground path from the
plate to your ground rod then you don't need to worry
about arcing to your residence. The energy will follow
the path of least resistance and it wants to go to
ground. I'd check on this at two places: 1. Visit the
Polyphaser web site and read over their technical
articles many on which are online. 2. Call Mike at ICE
and ask what he recommends (800-423-2666 best time is
late morning).
Personally all of my ICE arrestors are mounted in
aluminum Hoffman enclosures on the side of the deck
which is just outside of the basement window where the
shack is. I have a single ground rod at that point. 1
inch wide wire braid and #4 welding cable (made up of
over 500 30 AWG wires) connect the boxes to the ground
rod. A #4 bare solid wire also is connected from the
rod to the tower(s) ground in systems and also to the
electrical service ground rod. Finally I run the same
braid and welding cable grounds into the shack via the
window to connect to all the equipment. (The equipment
is connected via 1/2 in. ground braid jumpers.) There's
one school of thought that says one must use flat braid
since round wires will act as antennas more easily and
could couple with the strike energy and re-radiate and
the other school says you only need the low impedance
pathway. The braid is flat but the welding cable, if
you calc the outer surface area of its small wires has
more surface area than the braid and of course regular
#4 stranded doesn't come close.
Sri for the bandwidth but would like to share my
learnings. so far no problems here. Phil KB9CRY
> AA6TT wrote:
> > > I'm looking for comments on this setup before it's built. Should
> > > I be concerned about bolting the copper feed thru panel
> > > directly to my garage's wood frame -- is this a fire hazard?
>
> K7LXC replied:
> > Yes. This is the Single Point Ground System main connection to
> > ground and any lightning transients will be going through it to
> > ground so I'd keep it away from anything that it would arc to.
>
> I was considering a similar arrangement: an Al plate with bulkhead UHF
> connectors mounted to the aluminum siding of my garage - backside of
> which poking into the garage - all perhaps connected to the service
> ground (with a few more ground rods added). But this thread has me
> rethinking it. I'm not in lightning country, but we do get it often
> enough to take seriously. Now it seems that I need to build some sort
> of stand-alone arrangement that is not attached to (but near) the house
> in order to effect the SPG. Perhaps a plate on a post (with suitable
> wx-proofing)?
>
> Mike
> n2mg@contesting.com
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