[TowerTalk] Tower grounding

[R. Otto]

Hello all,

I saw on the W6OLD antenna party website (shown in a previous post)
that two of you used to work for Polyphaser.  I wonder if any of you,
or anyone on this list, can tell me where I might find a clearly
written document that explains the best ways to ground a 112' aluminum
antenna tower. For my previous aluminum tower I used three, eight foot
copper ground rods with No. 4 copper wire and clamps on each of the
three tower legs.  I also connected a ground buss in my shack by
copper wire to these same ground rods.

I'm in the process of building a new house on what we in the midwest
call a "hogback", or ridge.  I'm also about to put up a new tower next
to my house so both the house and tower will be situated on a fairly
steep hillside. I'm concerned that being on a hillside, the ground may
not be quite as good as it would be if I were on level ground (holding
moisture in the soil, etc.). I'm also concerned because my copper
piping in this house will be at least 100'-150' from earth ground
perhaps making it mandatory to have a separate ground for all my
equipment again.  I'm wondering if the ground rods should be placed
about 50'-75' away near a creek bed where there will be much more
moisture (obviously, although the creek bed doesn't have water all the
time). The tradeoff would be a better ground but further away from the
tower.

Can any of you give me some advice, or direct me to a site on the
Internet where I can get a fast course on tower grounding?  Is there
an easy way to tell if your earth ground is a very good one?  Or am I
being anal-retentive <G> and should simply go back to evaluating beam
antennas.

73's from....

R. Otto
N8NGA@one.net
Cincinnati, Ohio

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 "If you need to know - you need to ask!"
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