Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TowerTalk] A unique and difficult grounding problem

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] A unique and difficult grounding problem
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2015 23:36:39 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On Fri,6/5/2015 9:33 PM, Roger (K8RI) on TT wrote:
There is a problem with the best approach. I agree with it in principle, but In over half, ...well over half the installations I've seen in over 54 years as a ham the best approach is not practical, either from a logistics, and or cost approach.

Brown's Rule: Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

W4TV articulated an excellent approach that I implemented in the outbuilding that houses my shack, and that is fed from my house. That is, there is a half perimeter ring that runs from the power panel around one side of the building to my shack, with rods at both ends and along the perimeter. That ring is tied to my coax entry panel, and also to the operating position ground and to EMT conduit on the station side of the building. At the power panel side of the building, it's tied to the panel ground.

My two towers are 200+ ft and 120 ft from my shack. They have multiple ground rods around the base, but the only ground tie from them to the shack is the coax. Remember -- lightning is an RF event, NOT a DC event, so the dominant parameter of bonding between parts of a system is the INDUCTANCE, NOT the RESISTANCE.

Also -- remember that what arrestors like Polyphaser do is SHORT the CENTER to the SHIELD in a strike, which minimizes the DIFFERENTIAL voltage at the equipment input. But it is the BONDING architecture that conducts the strike away from our equipment, AND minimizes the DIFFERENCES in potential from one piece of gear to another. Shunt mode surge protectors (MOVs) are the ENEMY, because they conduct strikes to the Green wire, and the DIFFERENCE between the chassis of unit A and the chassis of unit B blows up the interface between them when a strike happens. THAT'S why the Ethernet cards in computers fry with a strike. Many of my pro audio colleagues with no radios at all have had that happen, and that's why the pro audio world has long championed SERIES MODE surge suppression.

73, Jim K9YC


_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>