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

[Wes Attaway]

You have to tie all grounds together, or connect all of them (power
included) to one single point if you are going to eliminate ground currents.
This is a critical element in any good grounding scheme.  If different
ground points are at widely different potentials (which can easily happen
during a lightning strike) then current will flow between the grounds and in
the circuits connected to them.  This is one reason why "unexpected" bad
things happen to seemingly unrelated items around a house or building that
is in the immediate vacinity of a strike.

As far as power company grounds are concerned, I have never seen a really
good one at any house.  Most of the time they are not as good as the average
ham station ground.  They serve the intended purpose, but they can almost
always be improved.  I would never rely only on the power ground.  I would
drive other ground rods and simply include whatever ground the power company
put in with your overall all scheme.

--------- Wes Attaway (N5WA) ----------
2048 Pepper Ridge, Shreveport, LA 71115
----------- (318)797-3012 -------------

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
[mailto:owner-towertalk@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Richard G. Spindler
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 1999 10:40 PM
To: mcduffie@scottsbluff.net; TowerTalk Reflector
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Routing wire from tower to ground for lightning
protection



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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