[TowerTalk] Tower Grounding Article

[Roger D Johnson]

Dave Bowker wrote:
> A short, but interesting article entitled "Well-grounded Principles" by Jay Jacobsmeyer, P.E., 
> appears in the April issue of Mobile Radio Technology magazine: 
> http://mrtmag.com/techspeak/radio_wellgrounded_principles/.
>
> Worthy of note are comments on the Ufer ground and a picture (Fig. 4) of a damaged tower leg pier 
> due to a lightning strike.
>
> 73, Dave, K1FK
> Fort Kent, ME 
>
>
>
>   
Hi Dave...

I think most of the ground testers use frequencies in the low audio 
range. Are the
results applicable at radio frequencies thousands of times higher or are 
we fooling
ourselves when we measure ground resistance this way?

The Ufer ground is an interesting concept but I think its implementation 
is not
understood by most who use it. My understanding is that it appears as a 
leaky
capacitor to the lightning strike. There must be sufficient capacitance 
available
to absorb the peak of the strike as the energy leaks off  through the semi-
conductive concrete. A few rebars bonded together in a small tower pier do
not a Ufer ground make!

73, Roger


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