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Re: [TowerTalk] Single Point Grounding question

To: K1TTT <K1TTT@ARRL.NET>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Single Point Grounding question
From: "Roger (K8RI)" <K8RI-on-TowerTalk@tm.net>
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:30:48 -0400
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>

K1TTT wrote:
> There will always be a potential difference between them during a lightning
> stroke, you can't prevent that.  The concept of a spg is to protect
> equipment in a building.  All the wires coming in through the spg are
> connected together so they are all at the same potential so there should be
> no chance for arcing and sparking inside the building.
>   

Even that only sota, kinda, almost works.  All of my cables come in 
through a bulkhead.  The coax cable shields are grounded at the base of 
the tower AND they are grounded at the bulkhead along with the other 
coax cables,  rotator cables, remote antenna switch cables, where they 
come in the house. I've mentioned this before, but two of the cables are 
from the 144 and 440 arrays.  Both have pigtails that run from the 
bulkhead to the antenna selector switch.  I had one of them disconnected 
and laying on the desk about 8" to 10" from the switch. Lightning hit 
the tower and there was a tremendous flash from the coax laying on the 
desk to the selector switch. Yet both cables are the same length and run 
to the same grounding bulkhead.  Why the flash-over?  It sounded like 
some one fired a 12 gage here in the den. BTW both antennas are at DC 
ground.

73

Roger (K8RI)


> To confuse the issue a bit, a single installation may have multiple 'single
> point grounds'.  Consider the case of a house with a separate garage that
> has the radio shack in it.  There would most likely be a spg for the garage
> so all the equipment in there is protected... and a separate one for the
> house where the power, phone, catv, satellite tv, etc comes in to protect
> all that stuff.  Thinking this way you could also create an spg for the
> tower as a structure, bonding all cables at the bottom of the tower with
> proper arresters, etc to protect everything on the tower... but this would
> not substitute for an spg on the house.
>
>
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>  
>
>   
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Bill Harris [mailto:w7kxb@msn.com]
>> Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 19:24
>> To: TowerTalk
>> Subject: [TowerTalk] Single Point Grounding question
>>
>> Hello radio fans:
>> My question is:
>> For lightning protection, the tower base is delta grounded. Coax, shield
>> grounded at the antenna therefore, wouldn't the best place for SPG  be at
>> the tower base rather than the shack entry ?
>>  I'm concerned about  about having difference in potential between two
>> grounds.  Your input is most appreciated.
>> Carry-on
>> BillHarris w7kxb
>>
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>>
>>
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