[TowerTalk] Driving ground rods in rocky soil

[jeremy-ca]

If it MUST absolutely have a ground rod, which I dont understand why, then 
drilling is one option it seems. You can rent air or electric impact drills 
and extensions. You may want to treat the soil down the hole with a saline 
solution and salt crystals as it appears that you wont get much ground 
conductivity with just the rod.

I live on a ridge with solid ledge less than 2' down and run on the ground 
radials for my Beverages and elevated radials for verticals.

For my house AC ground I drove in two 8' utility company grade rods at 
opposing angles and tied them together with #00 battery cable; been there 
since 89 and seem to do the job.

Carl
KM1H


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Dougherty" <w2irt at comcast.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 3:57 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Driving ground rods in rocky soil


> Hi
>
> 4 hours of back-breaking labour has resulted in my being able to get
> a ground rod down 14" using a 10# hand sledge. My soil is extremely
> rocky and this rod MUST go in within a foot of a 100+ year old oak
> (for a K9AY loop - Gary sez it must be right at the base). I don't
> know if I'm hitting roots or rock, but I can tell you I'll do
> anything or pay anything to get this driven in, no questions asked.
> I've tried 6 tool rental places, Home Depots, etc, and nobody rents
> ground rod driving tools in this part of the state (no idea why, they
> just don't).
>
> I've come this close to hospitalizing myself over this project and
> don't know where to turn. I've run the hose for two hours and it
> loosens up that top foot of earth real easy. I've tried driving it
> within about a 2' circle and the best I can do anywhere else is about
> 6: before hitting something.
>
> Is there a trick to getting this done that I can try, or am I looking
> at hiring a heavy construction firm for thousands of dollars?
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Peter,
> W2IRT
>
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