[TowerTalk] Single Point Ground/Lightning Rods

[Thomas Giella KN4LF]

I live in Lakeland on the central peninsula of Florida, the lightning capital of the U.S. with 130 thunderstorm days per year on average. For many years per the NEC I tied the radio station DC ground, antenna support mast, telephone, cable and power mains all together via a ring of #4 solid bare copper wire in the ground surrounding the house. 

But the downside was increased noise on 160-10 meters via the station DC ground connection. It's a no brainer that the many miles of wire and cable from the telephone, cable and power mains act as a big receive antenna, plus carry noise from the myriad of home appliances. I even had QRN from harmonics produced by the local power company's LF system switching signal. So here at my recently purchased house I left my radio station DC ground out of the loop so to speak. 

I personally would not tie the radio station DC ground, antenna tower, telephone, cable and power mains to the lightning rod system, as you increase the probability of introducing a lightning charge into your house. That means potential damage to appliances always plugged in like the hot water heater, stove, A/C etc., plus damage via EMP to unplugged appliances.

I rented a house for several years that had an extensive lightning rod system installed. I contacted the company that had installed the system and asked them about tying it in with all of the other ground rods on the property. They advised against it for the above mentioned reason. 

I know what the NEC say's but sometimes you have to think outside of the box.

--... ...--,
Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF
Lakeland, FL, USA
Grid Square EL97AW
kn4lf at arrl.net

KN4LF Amateur & SWL Radio History: http://www.kn4lf.com
Radiowave Propagation Yahoo eGroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radiowavepropagation 


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