Bill:
In addition to Red's and Phil's advice, ensure that your ground wire
connection to the tower leg does not form a right-angle at the base of the
tower. That is, make the connection high enough up the leg so that the lead
to the ground rod is a gentle curve of radius as large as possible. I'd
also suggest running each of these ground leads through a length of garden
hose from near the edge of the concrete down to about three or four inches
into the earth. This will provide some degree of protection against chafing
of the wires against the concrete. You can plug up the exposed ends of the
hose with electrician's putty.
BTW - on my Trylon 64-footer, I used tinned #2 solid ground wire and
tinned connectors. This reduces the electrochemical potential difference
between pure copper and zinc galvanizing - a source of corrosion as others
have reminded us.
73 de
Gene Smar AD3F
----- Original Message -----
From: "Red" <RedHaines@centurytel.net>
To: "Bill Austin" <billaustin@powernet.net>; "Towertalk"
<towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] New Tower Grounding Advice
> Hi, Bill;
>
> In addition to Phil's advise, I'll mention a possible problem if you
> place copper in direct contact with your tower legs; if I recall
> correctly, copper will react with zinc to remove the protection provided
> by galvanizing a steel tower and I know for sure that copper will react
> with aluminum to create an insulating accumulation of aluminum oxide.
> Transition connection devices are available for connecting copper to
> aluminum and may be available for grounding galvanized towers. They
> should be used with the appropriate anti-corrosion paste materials. ICE
> offers several anti-corrosion compounds for use in joining various
> materials.
>
> Remove the clamps and wires twice per year to renew the anti-corrosion
> paste and assure that the connections are sound.
>
> 73 de WOØW
>
> Bill Austin wrote:
>
> > I'm putting up a new 60ft self-supporting Trylon. I'm wondering how
> > much and what type of grounding needs to be done. Any advice and
> > suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > I bought three grounding kits with the tower, one for each leg. I
> > plan to tie the three rods together using some #4 solid copper. I
> > plan to tie the electrical grounds for each of the three buildings
> > near the tower into this loop. Each building has it's own breaker box
> > and ground rod, and all three connect back to the same distribution
> > panel. I also have a lightning rod to go on top the tower, and plan
> > to run a separate copper wire down the tower to the grounding loop at
> > the bottom.
> >
> > I've been reading the archives for some time now. I was looking at
> > Roger Halstead's site (linked in a recent post) and all the work he
> > did with his towers. I was just wondering what else I should plan on
> > doing. We have the rebar in, and I hope to be pouring concrete next
> > Friday.
> >
> > Thanks & 73,
> > Bill - KD7ZAH
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers",
> > "Wireless Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free,
> > 1-800-333-9041 with any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TowerTalk mailing list
> > TowerTalk@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> >
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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