[TowerTalk] There's 'ground', and then there's 'ground'

[Gary Schafer]

Yes the main reason for keeping them away from the foundation is to keep 
them in a more moist ground. The ground tends to be much dryer under the 
eves of the house.

Concrete is not a bad lightning conductor but the foundation wall of a 
house with a basement will be rather dry.

Lightning is in the range of DC to around 1 mhz so it is not high 
frequency energy for the bulk of it although some of it does extend 
higher. Moist ground is a requirement for a good lightning ground.

73
Gary  k4FMX

David Robbins K1TTT wrote:
> That is a convenient way to say 'keep them away from the foundation'...
> moisture helps for low frequency and low current grounding where ion
> conduction is the main conduction method, but does almost nothing for high
> frequencies or lightning.
> 
> 
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>  
> 
> 
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Alan NV8A (ex. AB2OS) [mailto:nv8a at att.net]
>>Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 17:00
>>To: towertalk reflector
>>Cc: David Robbins K1TTT
>>Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] There's 'ground', and then there's 'ground'
>>
>>I have read that the ground rods should be out from the eaves,
>>presumably (my guess) because the ground there will stay moister.
>>
>>Alan NV8A
>>
>>
>>On 01/17/05 11:38 am David Robbins K1TTT tossed the following
>>ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:
>>
>>
>>>Depending on the spacing of the 2 existing rods you could reduce your
>>
>>ground
>>
>>>impedance by 50% or more with 2 more rods.  Maybe a LOT more depending
>>
>>on
>>
>>>the exact geometry of the situation.  Lots of people make a big mistake
>>
>>by
>>
>>>driving a rod right next to the foundation, you should note that this
>>>reduces the effectiveness of the rod because half of the circle around
>>
>>it is
>>
>>>cut off by the foundation forcing all the current to go in only one
>>>direction.
>>
> 
> 
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