[TowerTalk] Routing wire from tower to ground for lightning protection

[Richard G. Spindler]

I was reading a section on grounding on the Antennex CDROM today, and the
fellow there (I'd say who and in what article but it is at home and I am at
work) said never to connect your own ground system to the utility company
ground.  Actually, he said, "NEVER CONNECT..." and goes on in caps for a
bit.  Seemed real serious about it and said that if the utility company ever
had a problem with their ground, "YOU AND YOUR SHACK COULD GO UP IN SMOKE!"

>From what I have read lately, that is untrue, and every other source I have
read says that you must connect your ground system to the utility ground at
the house entrance, else when you get a strike, it could come in through the
coax and through your equipment to the house (utility) ground, if they are
not at the same instantaneous potential.

Anybody have an opinion on that?  Am I risking something in tying them
together?

Doc, N9AM


-----Original Message-----
From: Gary McDuffie, Sr. <mcduffie@scottsbluff.net>
To: ka4inm@qsl.net <ka4inm@qsl.net>; towertalk@contesting.com
<towertalk@contesting.com>
Date: Sunday, October 24, 1999 23:40
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Routing wire from tower to ground for lightning
protection


>
>On Sun, 24 Oct 1999 23:04:10 +0000, Ron Youvan wrote:
>
>>   Bingo, you can not drive enough rods to produce the ground
>>
>> the electric company gives you free.
>
>Hogwash!  The power company's ground barely exists in some places!
>Maybe your utility has good grounds.  But, as has been discussed here
>before, not all of them do.
>
>Put in the best ground you can afford, and then bond it to the power and
>telephone company ground (cable too, if you have it).
>
>Gary
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