Topband: HOLY COW.. what price copper !!

[wa3mej at comcast.net]

For the last 40 plus years now I have been using copper water pipe as part of my ground system. 

Since my old pipe had eroded , coroded and otherwise deteriorated I decided to remove it and 

install a new one... BAD CHOICE. 

What I normally do is drill several smallish holes down the length at various points around the pipe. 

Then I drive it into the ground with a an adaptor that helps to prevent mushrooming (notice I didnt say 

that it prevented it).  



The whole idea of this pipe is that I drive it in the ground next to my ground rod (occasionally I have used 

IT as the ground rod when I have been in my cheap mode.  I then use an adaptor to hook it to a hose 

and siphon.  The purpose of the shiphon is that I mix a saturated solution of coper sulfate put it into 

a one gallon milk jug and with the siponn in the milk jug turn the hose on.  The siphon can be purchased 

at garden stores for adding fertilizer etc. to a garden. This works really well and after I have done this 

for a few months the ground conductivity is greatly enhanded. 



Oh  back to my original comment.. HOLY COW what price copper... so I stopped by the local 

Lowes to pick up a piece 1" copper pipe and the damn thing cost nearly $30.   YIKES. 



Last time I bought a pipe.. it was something like $7.. but that has been 5 or 6 years ago. 

I didnt expect to have to take out a second mortgage to purchase a simple piece of pipe. 



Jim WA3MEJ