[TowerTalk] Sparky Pays a Visit

[Alan NV8A (ex. AB2OS)]

I don't yet have my tower up and any lightning protection in place. I 
bought a bunch of Polyphaser devices at Dayton, but at present I am 
simply disconnecting everything when the station is not in use.

Your single-point ground panel seems to contravene a basic 
recommendation made by Polyphaser -- to have distinct "protected" and 
"unprotected" sides separated as far as possible (sorry, I can't find a 
diagram on their Web site, but see Fig. 12 in 
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/0207048.pdf).

You have cables crossing from one side of the grounding panel to the 
other, which I understand to be highly undesirable.

Comments?

73

Alan NV8A


On 08/03/05 03:46 pm Joe - WD0M tossed the following ingredients into 
the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

> I'm very sympathetic with Wayne.  In south west 
> Colorado (Pagosa Springs) my home sits on 
> bedrock.  All 5 acres of my property is bedrock 
> under just a few inches of soil.  When it cam 
> time to put up the tower, I discovered that the 
> best I could do was go down about 6 
> inches.  Fortunately, the rock was virtually 
> contiguous with very few fractures.  I removed 
> the dirt, drilled 25 holes into the bedrock, and 
> cemented re-bar in place with industrial grade 
> cement.  From there, I made a frame, poured the 5 
> yards of concrete, and the tower is up and works fine.
> 
> Grounding is another challenging issue.  Based 
> upon discussions with local old timers who worked 
> on microwave relay sites in the Rocky Mountains 
> around here, I went with the copper strap headed 
> away from the tower and aimed away from the house 
> approach.  I employed a"Ufer" ground, and added 
> lots of radials around the tower (about 60 
> total).  The coax shield is grounded at the top 
> of the tower, at the base of the tower, and at 
> the shack, as are the SteppIR antenna and rotator control cables.
> 
> I use I.C.E. protectors on all circuits and 
> grounded everything at the tower, as well as at 
> the single point ground outside the house by the 
> radio room.  It was quite a challenge to do it 
> all, and the initial approach concerned 
> me.  However, it seems to be working fine.  I've 
> just had one strike, and I need to replace one of 
> the I.C.E. protectors.  Fortunately, that's all.
> 
> My web site describes in words and photos what I did:
> 
> http://home.centurytel.net/WD0M/
> 
> Click on Ham Radio, then either the Tower or 
> Lightning Protection link, depending upon your 
> interest.  Good luck to all the other "grounding 
> challenged" hams out there!  I'm sure there is 
> more I can/could/will do, and thanks to all who 
> share their experiences and suggestions here on TT.