Tower Grounding

[James R. Hill]

I was up on the hill again today looking at the progress of 
a contract company installing a FAA relay tower. I noticed the
4-0 ground wire has was run up one of the legs of the tower. There
are copper clamps about every 3 or 4 feet all the way up this
leg holding the wire in place. The tower is angle iron.

I came home and got my PolyPhaser general catalog and I ran across
something interesting on page 60. "Ground wires run up a metal tower
are a waste of time. The difference in resistance between copper
and galvanized steel is lost in the difference in inductance due to 
surface area (skin effect). ...bare copper cable can cause a 
corrosion problem to the tower and should not be used unless covered
(it wasn't). Copper should never come in contact with galvanized
steel."

So here are two opposite theories. I don't know anything about
government spec's but who do you believe in this case? What say,
Frank/LPL ??

73/Ron, k6ozl
(The old man wasn't on the hill today otherwise I would have asked
him. I think he is looking for some guy signing /P5.)

  


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