[TenTec] RF Ground
Stuart Rohre
rohre at arlut.utexas.edu
Wed Apr 8 16:20:06 PDT 2009
If you have a tower 150 feet from the shack, you should not rely on
either coax shield or an added copper wire to house, for bonding the
tower to earth. Use earth rods at the tower, preferably one on each leg
to spread out any charge. Bring off the feeders underground if possible
in PVC conduit if you can't afford metal.
Have provisions for disconnection of feedlines and coax at the entry
earthing plate outside the shack when not in use and preferably ground
those feeders. Disconnect electric power from all devices inside the
shack when it is not in use. Don't operate when lightning storms are
within 10 miles. It is common for lightning to travel 10 miles and the
direction is not always vertically. Besides as a storm approaches, wind
static builds up charges on antennas that can harm rig inputs. Such
charges have been measured at Field Days on large wire antennas to
exceed 600 volts. This was from a 10mph or less wind!
-Stuart Rohre
K5KVH
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