[TowerTalk] dipole question

Tom Rauch w8ji at contesting.com
Thu Jul 21 00:41:44 EDT 2005


> In my new QTH, the tower is at the back of the house (an
existing base with
> new tower). I will ground each leg and bind them together,
but the
> electrical service ground is actually INSIDE the house,
through the
> basement floor. How should I handle this situation?

Most lightning hits strike power lines and ground through
wells, plumbing, towers, or other grounds more massive than
the pee-poor grounds used on utilities. That's why grounds
should be well bonded. The goal is to not have charges pass
through the house wiring and equipment or people in the
house.

Of course there are exceptions to that path. There are cases
with tall towers where lighting commonly hits the tower, but
then the same thing occurs in reverse. Lighting or a
significant portion of it passes through the house to a
"ground" presented by the massive power grid. The goal again
is to bypass charges around the house wiring.

You can't hurt a thing by running wide flashing or even a
very heavy round conductor from the ground rods outside to
the service entrance ground as long as you properly bond the
connections. I solidly bolted my connections from 4"
flashing that runs under my house from my Ham shack entrance
to the service entrance ground because it wasn't safe to
braze or weld it.

73 Tom



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