[TowerTalk] Bonding entrance panel to utility ground question

[ersmar at comcast.net]

Tom:

     I would urge you to run the wire OUTSIDE your home in the dirt with ground rods as needed along the way and connect to the electric service panel that way.  I would not run the interconnecting through the living space (even the basement) of your dwelling.  Lightning energy could <side flash> from the ground wire to other wiring in the space.

     Running the wire from your service panel into the dirt outside enables any strike or fault energy to reach earth through a shorter, less-inductive path.  That relatively long piece of wire inside your house that connects your Polyphaser bonding panel with the electric service would present an inductance at RF frequencies, and we all know that a lightning strike is full of RF as well as a big DC component.

BOTTOM LINE:  Keep lightning energy outside of your house; connect the electric and Polyphaser ground panels together outside in the dirt.

73 de
Gene Smar  AD3F


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "K3GM" <k3gm_qrp at verizon.net>
> My coax entrance panel is now hooked to its own series of ground rods.  I want 
> to bond it and all of the Polyphaser arrestors attached to it to the utility 
> ground rod.  If the easiest and shortest path to the utility's entrance ground 
> rod is thru the interior basement of the home, can I, or should I use it?  I 
> have a large gauge stranded ground cable running from my well pump to the 
> service entrance ground rod and is very easy to hook to.  It runs across the the 
> sill of the basement wall within several feet of the entrance panel, into the 
> garage where it eventually ties directly to the ground rod. The alternative 
> would be to run an outside wire around my house, across a double wide driveway 
> and then into my garage to get to the utility ground.  Would it be safe, (or 
> code) to use this interior ground wire as part of my lightning protection 
> system?
> 
> Tom Hybiske, K3GM
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