[TowerTalk] Coax shield grounding

[K7LXC at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/30/03 6:53:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
n4zr at contesting.com writes:

> What's the best way to ground coax shields at the top and bottom of my 
>  tower?  I have seen the ICE model 360 and 380 blocks, but these seem to 
>  involve piercing and re-waterproofing of the coax jackets at each 
grounding 
>  block.  It would be possible to put on connectors and bracket barrel 
>  connectors to the tower leg, but I hesitate to add more connectors. 
Opinions?
> 
    All commercial coax runs are grounded by removing some of the outer 
jacket and installing a compression ground clamp (Andrew, Polyphaser, etc.) on the 
shield. The whole thing is weatherproofed and the ground wire sticking out is 
attached to the tower. 

    Commercial specs call for cable grounding down the tower every 100' and 
at the bottom where it turns horizontal to go into the building. 

    There's no problem with more connectors inline - the insertion loss is 
insignificant. The biggest potential problem is poor weatherproofing. A couple 
layers of tape, a layer of butyl rubber vapor wrap, more layers of tape, and 
you're good to go with a commercial, bombproof joint.

Cheers,
Steve     K7LXC
TOWER TECH -
Professional tower services for commercial and amateur