I did a little field research on the base/anchor grounding this AM
while walking the Dog. Visited the WSB TV, channel 2 in Atlanta,
tower base and two guy anchors.
The guy anchors and base concrete are wrapped in copper sheet
above ground level. The tower is connected to this sheet with a
thick cable. If there was a ground cable ruunning to the top of the
tower, I was not able to see it from outside the fence.
There are some curious doodads installed on the guys. A clamp
around the cable and a colinear pair of cylinders about 10" long,
parallel to the cable, and a tad more than the cable diameter away.
The cylinders have rounded ends and show evidence of arcing.
This was the only place I could see any evidence of arcs near the
guy anchors. Suspect it's some kind of choke to limit the current
off the cable and into the ground.
If the state of the art in lightning protection has changed in the past
30 years, this tower is likely not representative :-)
-Bob AH7I/4
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