[TowerTalk] best way to ground the upper section of a crank-up tower?

[K7LXC@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/24/01 4:05:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
kenb@brookner.com writes:

> i've got a 40' aluma tower that i've just installed and need some guidance
>  on how best to ground the top section (this is a 2 section nested crankup).
>  my first inclination is to just drop some heavy braid from the top section
>  down the center of the tower and bond that to the ground system since that
>  would still allow me to crank the tower up and down.  but, i know that's 
not
>  optimum.  this tower is mounted free standing (it's guyed) so there's no
>  handy roof to climb on and then bond the two sections electrically at their
>  junction once the tower is fully extended.  climbing the extended tower is
>  not something i'm going to do (very bad idea...).
>  
>  so, is there a better way than the heavy braid method?  ideas?
>  
    You mean bond the two sections together? For your typical tower, it's 
only grounded at the bottom - at earth 'ground'. The tower is a conductor and 
is not typically grounded at any other place (AM towers excepted).

    The purpose of a ground system is to encourage lightning strikes and 
transients to go to the ground where it will be harmlessly discharged. 

    There's really no reason to do anything else to your crank-up since the 
cables make connections between sections already. 

    DO NOT use braid in any grounding applications - solid wire only.

    When you ground your tower and don't do anything with the cables, you 
really haven't done much. The whole modus operandi is to keep the lightning 
charge OUT of the house/building so grounding the cables is an important part 
of the grounding system.

Cheers,   Steve    K7LXC
Tower Tech 

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