[TowerTalk] Which grounding panel material?

[AA6DX - Mark]

Hey .. I am doing the same type of thing .. have the ground rod laying 
alongside the "hole in the wall" ... have the metal plate made up .. 18" X 
12" -- ready to put in the drill press and make the bulkhead holes.  Going 
to have "extra" connectors, so I can add stuff later.. BNC, UHF, N, RCA --  
and multi-connector setups to drive relays, remote tuning, rotators, etc.... 
I am going to use piano hinge, so I can get to the back of the apparatus 
easily when I connect from the inside, because my desk & Henry floor amp are 
in a niche in  the wall, and I am QRO in the tummy area .. HIHI   --   BUT 
I will be able to swap antennas, change coax, etc. readily from the outside. 
That will be so nice when I'm `spearmintin'!   My house ground is less than 
1Ø' away, so will tie to that as well... at least for testing purposes.  If 
the dratted noise I suffer from being downtown becomes worse, I shall post 
my results ...
The hole in the outside stucco wall exists because back in 1937, when this 
house was originally built, it was the home of the switch box w/screw fuses. 
Funny story .. only funny because there was no tragedy .. the house had TWO 
re-wires in the past years, and since the box was hidden with foliage, never 
really replaced... it was still in line for many house cirucuits, even 
though new master services were installed ... 1Ø feet away!  This time the 
house was remodeled, last fall, I had a REAL electrician do the job.  Quite 
nice to have 2 REAL 23Ø VAC plugs for my amps in the front room hamshack, 
and 2 more back in the workshop on the other end of the house --- no more of 
those pesky extension cords from the dryer plug, or ran down the house from 
the front service .. HIHIHIHI..
I will take pix of mine as it progresses, and share with the TT group ---  
hey, Tony, show me yours!
73   Mark   AA6DX
AA6DX at ARRL.NET

From: "N2TK, Tony" <tony.kaz at verizon.net>
To: "'Tonno Vahk'" <tonno.vahk at mail.ee>; <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 1:20 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Which grounding panel material?


> Hi Tonno,
> I use a 3' X 3' piece of aluminum mounted on the wall in my basement. I 
> have
> all coax and control cables go through ICE lightning protection devices. I
> mounted a coax switch, HF, 2M and a 6M bandpass filters on the panel. I 
> have
> a ground tied to the Acom amp which is mounted next to the aluminum panel,
> main house breaker panel, phone line and TC cable. There is #4 copper wire
> going through the wall to a field of ground rods and on to my tower 150'
> away to another ground field of 19 ground rods
>
> Knock on wood, but I have not had a lightning hit of a substantial nature. 
> I
> don't disconnect anything. The only lightning damage I have experienced in
> 25 years of doing this is a DSL modem and a network card in the computer.
> That one still puzzles me.
>
> If you would like pictures of the setup, let me know.
>
> N2TK, Tony
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Tonno Vahk
> Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 2:50 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Which grounding panel material?
>
> Hi,
>
> I am refurbishing my shack and want to place a grounding panel into the 
> wall
> and to bring all my antennas into the shack through it with bulkhead
> adaptors. Just want some advice.
>
> 1. Is copper plate (say a 1cm, 1/3 inch thick) the best choice (say vs
> aluminium)? I would drill holes into it for bulkheads.
>
> 2. Should I worry about the lightening setting my house in fire when the
> plate is having direct connection with the wooden walls? We don't get so
> much serious lightening actually and I am not intending to use the
> polyphasers instead of bulkheads as well...
>
> 3. Does a large 10 square feet copper panel need extra warmth insulation 
> in
> winter, will it cool the house completely down in -20c otherwise?
>
> 4. Will the copper plate handle the weather fine and last long?
>
> thanks for any insights,
>
> 73
> tonno
> es5tv
>



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