I live in Lakeland on the central peninsula of Florida, the lightning capital
of the U.S. with 130 thunderstorm days per year on average. For many years per
the NEC I tied the radio station DC ground, antenna support mast, telephone,
cable and power mains all together via a ring of #4 solid bare copper wire in
the ground surrounding the house.
But the downside was increased noise on 160-10 meters via the station DC ground
connection. It's a no brainer that the many miles of wire and cable from the
telephone, cable and power mains act as a big receive antenna, plus carry noise
from the myriad of home appliances. I even had QRN from harmonics produced by
the local power company's LF system switching signal. So here at my recently
purchased house I left my radio station DC ground out of the loop so to speak.
I personally would not tie the radio station DC ground, antenna tower,
telephone, cable and power mains to the lightning rod system, as you increase
the probability of introducing a lightning charge into your house. That means
potential damage to appliances always plugged in like the hot water heater,
stove, A/C etc., plus damage via EMP to unplugged appliances.
I rented a house for several years that had an extensive lightning rod system
installed. I contacted the company that had installed the system and asked them
about tying it in with all of the other ground rods on the property. They
advised against it for the above mentioned reason.
I know what the NEC say's but sometimes you have to think outside of the box.
--... ...--,
Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF
Lakeland, FL, USA
Grid Square EL97AW
kn4lf@arrl.net
KN4LF Amateur & SWL Radio History: http://www.kn4lf.com
Radiowave Propagation Yahoo eGroup:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radiowavepropagation
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