[TowerTalk] Braided Ground Strapping

[Paul McInnish - K4BET]

I would suggest one correction to a comment made and I quote:  "It's easy to
solder any other wires...."!  Please, never solder any grounds!  The low
melting point of solder will cause the joint to disintegrate extremely
rapidly with a very small surge of lightning.  Then NO ground protection!

Use clamps and good strong compression fittings designed for the purpose!


----- Original Message -----
From: <K7GCO@aol.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>; <w5kp@swbell.net>
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 11:00 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Braided Ground Strapping


| In a message dated 6/18/01 6:33:17 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
w5kp@swbell.net
| writes:<<
|     Copper roofing is all the rage for commercial buildings and some
high-end
|  private residences, so my local scrap metal dealer always has a bunch of
|  leftover pieces on hand from the commercial roofers, who sell him all
their
|  copper roofing scraps. I buy it for $1 a pound, and 5 pounds is a lot of
|  copper roofing, in pieces 6"-12" wide and 3 to 4 feet long. Cutting it
with
|  tin snips works fine, but will leave an edge you could shave with, so
|  getting it roller-cut into 1" strips or whatever at a sheetmetal shop
might
|  be a good idea. I just clamped the strips between two pieces of wood in a
|  vise and cleaned the dangerous edges up with a file. Took a few minutes,
but
|  no big deal. That was one of the several times I wished I had a power
|  nibbler. I saw a 100' roll of 2" at HamCom in Dallas, the guy wanted $150
|  for it.  Sheesh.
|  73, Jerry W5KP
|   >>
| A local radio store here called Supertronics has copper sheet 6" wide on a
| roll fairly cheap.  This would good to lay right on the radio table then
run
| outside--into the ground without any connections.  Take a post hole digger
| and dig a hole say 6-8' deep.  Run this foil into the hole and pack the
dirt
| in around it. You will have 6 sq ft of area in contact with the ground.
With
| a ground rod you have only about 1 sq ft. It's easy to solder any other
wires
| to it also and there is no change of inductance.  This foil in the ground
| would be a great way to make a ground for a tower also.
|
| In the 30's it can be seen in old ARRL Antenna Handbooks where they used
| copper broilers they used for boiling cloths in for buried grounds.  There
| was at least 15 sq ft of copper area--on both sides.  That's what I call a
| "MAGNUM GROUND."
| I used to buy copper sheet 3' wide 35' long from Alaska Copper and Brass
here
| in Seattle also.  I'd cut strips of copper that I coated with contact
cement
| and the element and wrapped it around the elements to eliminate joints and
| increase conductivity. I rotated it slowly in the lathe and wrapped it
with
| plastic tape.  Shrink on tubing is too expensive.  It's a "Higher Q
Permanent
| Element."  It lowered the Z of the beam.  Someday I'll "Silver Plate" the
| copper sheet and lower the RF resistance even more.  k7gco
|
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| -----
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|



List Sponsor: Are you thinking about installing a tower this summer? Call us
for information on our fabulous Trylon Titan self-supporting towers - up to
96-feet for less than $2000! at 888-833-3104 <A HREF="http://www.ChampionRadio.com">
www.ChampionRadio.com</A>

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