Hi Carl,
Generally you should not ground the house power mast. It is usually
connected to the metal enclosure for the meter. The meter can gets the
neutral wire tied to it inside so the mast is tied to the neutral line.
The earth ground connection is done at the breaker panel (main breaker)
to the neutral. The mast is grounded to earth through the neutral wire
that runs from the meter to your breaker panel. The mast is also
grounded at the other end of the neutral wire at the transformer through
the power companies ground there.
This seems to fly in the face of what we have been talking about as far
as grounding things. But the power company does not want you to ground
the meter can. They only want to see a ground at the main breaker panel
where the neutral and safety ground are tied to earth.
Your tower grounds should be connected to the earth ground where the
breaker panel is grounded.
73
Gary K4FMX
Carl wrote:
> My 3 wire drop comes from the telephone pole in my back yard, across my
> yard, to a metal pole on my house. Through this metal pole
> the 3 wires enter my house to my inside fuse panel. Should I ground
> this outside metal pole to an outside earth ground rod, and connect
> it to my tower grounds ?
>
> Confused,
> Carl K8AV
>
>
>
>> It has nothing to do with tripping a breaker or not tripping a breaker
>> because of multiple paths. The breaker is always in the hot lead.
>> Whether the return path is via the neutral lead or the ground (green
>> wire) lead or both, makes no difference to the breaker.
>>
>> The ground wire is connected to equipment chassis to ensure that there
>> is a low resistance return path for a fault that may come in contact
>> with the chassis. It also keeps that chassis close to earth potential in
>> case of a fault so that fault path does not include a person in contact
>> with that chassis and earth.
>>
>> The neutral and ground (green wire) are kept separate only so that
>> neutral current does not flow on the ground wire under normal operation.
>> If neutral current were to be allowed on the ground wire under normal
>> operation it could raise the potential of a chassis above local ground
>> due to voltage drop in the ground wire carrying current.
>>
>> By the way, there can be as many earth grounds of the grounding
>> conductor as you may like. It doesn't have to be grounded to earth only
>> at the panel. But the neutral must be grounded to earth only at the
>> panel.
>>
>> 73
>> Gary K4FMX
>
>
>
>
>
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