[TowerTalk] Grounding antennas?

[Tower1313@aol.com]

Fellas, I've been installing towers and antenna's for over 20 years....tallest
is 1760 footer....I've seen the smallest amount of damage and the worst
possible amount of damage that lightnight can do....don't want to sound like a
no-it-all, but if you don't ground you coax, whether it's hooked up or not and
whether you take a direct hit or not.....Yer asking for trouble. 
     Seeings how most of you deal with towers of the 200' of smaller, I would
suggest this:
     four 12' ground rods driven into  the ground evenly spaced around your
tower, 10' from your tower, the top being 18" underground...run #4 solid
copper wire to each of these forming a ring, mechanically spliced to each
ground rod, also 18" below grade. Run #4 solid shielded from the ground ring
to your lightning rod, attach every 4' up your tower with zip-ties....yellow
fiber tape covered with 2" wide electrical tape with do the same trick. After
installing your grounding kit to you coax 10' from you antenna, mechanically
splice the other end to your down lead keeping your ground line from you coax
at no more than a 45 degree angle downward. Do this also 10' up from your drip
loop at the bottom of your tower.
     Keep in mind that this is the ultimate grounding system used by the
professionals in the antenna and lines industry and some of you may not be
able to afford the $100 it would take to do this, in which case something
close to this would suffice.
     Let me also suggest if you can afford it and have a guyed tower, to do
the same with your guy wires at each anchor. Keeping your ground wire in as
much a straight line from your top guy to your ground rod as possible.
Mechanically splicing the ground wire to each guy wire as you come down. This,
also, is common practice in tower installation for cellular companies, radio
stations and television stations.
                              I hope my input helps,
                              Thankyou,
                              John David Beattie
                              AOL IM: Tower1313
                              Tower1313@aol.com


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