[TowerTalk] Grounding the coax

[bob finger]

For years I have used a bulkhead connector at the top of the tower to 
ground the coax at that point.  A hose clamp holds a strip of stainless 
steel to the bulkhead and another hose clamp connects the ss strip to 
the tower.  Everything gets taped and the bulkhead gets vapor wrap in 
addition to the tape.  I have never (not yet) had a failure of this type 
connection.  Cheap and elegant.  73 bob de w9ge

ersmar at comcast.net wrote:

>Alan:
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>     One significant advantage (to my way of thinking) to this approach to shield grounding is that you don't introduce another pair of potential failure points - the two PL-259s - into the coax system.  
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>>In his articles on lightning protection in QST in 2002, Ron Block KB2UYT 
>>emphasizes the need for grounding the coax at the top and bottom of the 
>>tower (and perhaps at intermediate points, depending on the height of 
>>the tower). I doubt that anybody will argue with this, but the question 
>>is how?
>>
>>Polyphaser sells expensive kits for grounding the coax: hefty 
>>semicircular hunks of copper that are clamped around the coax shield 
>>after removing its outer covering, then grounded to the tower by wide 
>>copper straps. Of course waterproofing is then applied to the coax where 
>>the outer covering was removed.
>>
>>But would simply interposing a barrel connector and securing a ground 
>>wire to that with, say, a hose clamp, then connecting that ground wire 
>>to the tower be significantly worse? Again, of course, the section with 
>>the barrel conenctor and PL-259s (or whatever) would have to be well 
>>sealed against the weather.
>>
>>Alan NV8A
>>_______________________________________________
>>
>>See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather 
>>Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions 
>>and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>>
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>>    
>>
>_______________________________________________
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>See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
>_______________________________________________
>TowerTalk mailing list
>TowerTalk at contesting.com
>http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
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