[TowerTalk] grounding radials: solid or stranded?

[Pete Smith]

And my house system was done with braided aluminum conductor about 1" in 
diameter, which is still widely and cheaply sold by home lightning 
protection vendors.  The individual conductors appear to be about #16.  The 
stuff is very supple, but I wonder if the braiding provides some other 
advantage, or is this another case where lightning protection practice and 
good engineering diverge?

73, Pete N4ZR

At 09:44 AM 3/14/2005, Martin AA6E wrote:

>Solid seems right to me, too, but I wonder why a lot of traditional
>lightning protection is done with stranded.  See, for example,
>http://molasar.blackmagic.com/ses/bruceg/EMC/litfacil.html .  My house
>lightning system (predates me) was done with stranded.
>
>The references state that the quality of a grounding conductor is
>specified by the number of pounds of copper per 1000 ft!  At least
>187.5 lb / 1000 ft.  That's good for DC lightning, at least. :-)
>
>I suspect the real reason for stranded is that it's just easier to
>install on a typical building.
>
>Here's a more interesting question: why would you use solid core
>wiring, when you could be using copper tubing - if not strap?  Is it
>feasible to use copper pipe for grounding conductors?  How would you
>connect sections?  The easy way is solder, but that might not stand up
>to a big surge.
>
>73, Martin AA6E
>
>
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