[TowerTalk] station grounding question

[donovanf@starpower.net]

Hi Jamie,

No, you didn't hit a nerve.  Its just that use of braid as RF 
grounding conductors is a common mistake frequently made by 
hams and some professionals.  Prior to the 1980s, 
manufacturers of grounding kits intended for use on towers 
often used braid instead of stranded grounding conductors.  To 
the best of my knowledge, professional tower installers no 
longer use braid for grounding conductors.  

If you really want to use braid, you might try enclosing it in 
heat shrink tubing.  That might apply enough pressure to the 
braid crossovers so that they form low resistance joints.  I'm 
certain that merely stretching the braid will have no useful long 
term effect.

73!
Frank
W3LPL

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 19:32:45 -0600
>From: "James C. Hall, MD" <nwtcc at earthlink.net> 
>Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] station grounding question  
>To: donovanf at starpower.net, towertalk at contesting.com
>
>Hi Frank:
>
>Ouch ! Seems I hit a nerve there. Now, I have used insulated 
copper wire on
>several occasions and things like copper water piping as a 
common bus on
>which you could connect copper flashing. But now you have 
me confused on one
>point - how can the pressure of insulation (or lack of it) 
decrease (or
>increase) RF impedance ? If it is a simple 'lack of appropriate 
contact'
>without the pressure, it would seem to me that linear 
stretching  would
>provide adequate contact - at least intuitively.
>
>Just trying to learn something here. Grounding sometimes 
gets into the Karma
>of Ham Radio ! HI
>
>73, Jamie
>WB4YDL