[TowerTalk] tower grounding

Brian Harris Brian.Harris@sv.sc.philips.com
Sat, 13 Jun 1998 13:34:03 -0700


I have a few of questions.  Here is my scenario:

I have Trylon 88' tower in 8.25 yards of concrete.  There is a circular ring of 
2-0 wire below ground around concrete base.  The ring is cadwelded to six 8' 
ground rods, two at each leg.  To better dissipate a lightning hit I intend to 
install twelve 40-70' radials made of #6 bare solid copper.  The radials will be
attached to the ground rods with brass (or are they bronze?) compression clamps.

I intend to braze the clamp/rod/radial joints together.  From each ground rod I 
will run a piece of copper flashing to the tower legs, again, two per leg.  I 
know how to attach the flashing to the tower leg thanks to previous advice.  I 
intedn to merely fold the copper flashing so that it will fit in between either 
the 2-0 wire or the ground rods and clamp it with one of the compression clamps 
and then braze the joints.


Questions -

1.  Is brazing recommended or is it better to silver solder?  Note: It's too 
late for cadwelding these joints.

2.  Can brazing be done with propane torch or do I have to go retrieve my 
oxy-acetylene rig that a friend borrowed?

3.  How deep should I bury the #6 radials?  Note: We have no heaving in North 
Texas.

Thanks for your time.

73, Brian  


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