[TowerTalk] grounding

[Wolf, James]

Phil, et al,

The ground window is the panel through which all coax cable and control
lines pass through with their respective protection device.  In my case
all Polyphaser devices and control line MOV's are mounted on the ground
window.
Yes this is also the single point ground for everything including the
house wiring ground, equipment ground, tower ground and so forth.
It is intended to be the "coldest" spot in the system.  I use silver
soldered 3/8 copper tubing to connect all ground rods together, and 2"
copper strap to connect the equipment in the shack to the SPG window.

What concerns me is the recent comments that suggest that my ground
system might actually provide a more attractive path to ground than the
pole ground and create a problem that I was not aware existed.

Jim, KR9U

-----Original Message-----
From: kb9cry at comcast.net [mailto:kb9cry at comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 10:29 AM
To: Wolf, James
Subject: RE: [TowerTalk] grounding


Pardon my ignorance but what's a ground window?  If you mean your SPG,
single point ground, then it sounds like you've got it all perfect.
Your cable lighning arrestors are tied to the SPG as well as the shack
ground.  Sounds good.  Another question is what type of wire is used to
connect all and how is that connection made, clamps or Cadweld?  I use
bare #4 solid and except for the SPG which has clamps ( which I have to
check and tighten at least twice per year) all others are maintenance
free Cadweld (esp. the buried rods around the towers (3 here).  Also I
use #4 welding cable from the shack ground to the SPG.  It has a bunch
of tiny wires inside so low impedance/resistance.  Some use wide braid
or flat copper strips.  Larger wire doesn't have the wire surface area
and therefore presents a higher imp/res path.  Looks good.  Phil  KB9CRY
>
> OK,
>
> So now in my case, I have 200 ft of underground line coming from the
> pole. The pole with the transformer has a single ground rod at it's
> base. I have 27 ground rods under my 130' tower and another 12 or so
> around the area of the house where the ground window is.
> The antenna system ground and ground window are connected to the same
> ground as the house electrical ground, very short, about one foot away
> from the entrance panel. The tower is about 100 ft from the house.
>
> Is this a problem or not?
> Is there anything I should do to improve the situation?
>
> Jim, KR9U
>

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