[TowerTalk] grounding

[Dave Vondrasek]

> From: Gary Schafer [mailto:garyschafer at comcast.net] 

> single point ground. You have no other path to your equipment but 
> through that panel.
> Now an extensive ground system hooked to that panel would be ideal.

I have been playing very close attention to this thread since it started, as
I am right now in the process of hooking up the ground infrastructure on my
tower and cable feeds. I get a little lost at some points but always seem to
come back to the right place after a few posts and some thinking about what
is being said.  After a direct hit, or VERY dang close strike a month or so
ago, Im now redoing the ground on my station. Luckily insurance paid off and
I was able to replace most of the station damaged. I have spent the last
month laying out the ground system and spared no money in doing it. I do NOT
want to have to go thru what I just went through last month, especially
since I have "NEW" gear for the first time in 15 years..

Please advise what I may need to adjust and or change from my present setup
Im doing.. 

>From the shack..

Along the back of the desk is a 5' X 1/2" copper water pipe. All radio's and
gear are connected to this pipe thru 1" copper straps (flashing). Each piece
of equipment has it's own strap from the gear to the 1/2" pipe no daisy
chains on any gear. The desk sits dead center in front of a window. From the
center point of the pipe, another 1" strap feeds out the window 6' to an
Andrews Universal Grounding Bar (Copper Bar 18" & lots of holes) mounted 2"
above the ground on a 4"X4" post for support. Off each side of the bar is #4
stranded copper wire ran to 8" copper ground rods spaced 8' apart. One to
each side. I plan to place 2 more to each side of these 8 more feet. These
two will be tied to the present rods that connect to the Grounding Bar. I
consider this my Single Point Ground. Also connected to this is the DSS
ground bar located a fewet from it's location. The phone system box is
located at the other side of the house, and a #4 copper wire is also run
from that box to this Bar. Also the Main Junction box for the house Power is
located 2 feet from this bar and the Ground is tied to this bar. I believe
that covers everything going into the house and out of the house. All ground
lead to this Grounding bar.

Now. The First tower. Located 65 feet from the house. There are several runs
of LDF6/4 & FSJ4, Plus 2 runs of Beldon 9913, and a few 8 wire cable runs
included. They are all underground from the tower and come out right at the
grounding bar.
 Each cable is feed and cut at 18" out of the ground. Andrews Grounding kits
have been installed on EVERY run of hard-line and coax. They all have female
Type-N connections that are all connected to a 24" X 2" L channel bar also
mounted to the same post as the Universal Grounding Bar. The L channel is
mounted 14" above the Grounding Bar. The L channel has several Bulkhead
female Type-N connections mounted to it. Each Hard-line/coax is connected to
one of these bulkhead connectors and the Grounding kits ground wire is
dropped down for a direct connection to the Universal Grounding Bar. This
L-channel with Bulkheads allows me to run 15 foot jumpers from that point
over and feed inside the window the the radios. On the radio side of the
Bulkhead connectors, each has a Alpha Delta Transi-Trap Lightening Surge
Protector (ATT3GHP) rated at 2000 watts each up to 3GHz. The ground post
from each of these is also feed down to the Grounding Bar with #4 stranded
copper wire. Each of the rotor cables is run into a 10"X14" electrical box
with terminal strips. Polypahser 8-wire protectors will be used here when I
can find some. At the tower end, it's pretty much duplicated. Another
Andrews Universal grounding bar is mounted on the tower at 6" above the
ground. Each leg of the tower is connected to an 8' ground rod spaced 8' out
from the tower. These leads all feed back to the Bar. From each ground rod,
these is another ground rod out 8 more feet connected to it. Again, Each
hard-line/coax at the base of the tower is equipped with an Andrews
Grounding Kit and then connected to the Grounding Bar at the base of the
tower. At the 30 foot level of the tower more Grounding Kits are employed
and these grounds to the tower itself. 

The 2nd tower is 75 feet from the house and is duplicated as above. This is
an EME tower and only 25 feet so grounding kits are not used at the top.
Just at the bottom were the feed lines (LDF7) are run up the side of the
tower.

So far this is what I have done and I'm still fine tuning and working on a
few spots I may have not thought of. Any suggestions would greatly be
appreciated, and I do not want to deal with replacing gear again. 

Dave
N5ITO
EM23