[TowerTalk] CADWELD Question

[Pat Barthelow]

Hello Jeff,

A few years back we at N6IJ were treated to watching the construction of Cell site next to the club station.
Looks like they were pretty thorough with their site ground preparation.  Especially since ligtning is quite rare on the central coast, maybe 1 small ligtning storm a year.   But, I guess a lot of gear is at stake at a site, that if taken out by even once a year lightning,  would be of a value that warrants high specification ground systems. 

(Anyone know how much money in system hardware there is inside the shelter of  a "typical" cell site? )

Here is a series of pics I took of the cell site foundation trenching with extensive tinned copper solid and  a LOT of driven ground rods. --dont know the guage of the solid tinned, but it was > 1/4" thick.  The cadwelded joints as you can see were just direct buried.
See:
http://groups.msn.com/hamtech/shoebox.msnw?albumlist=2


All the Best, 73,
Pat Barthelow     aa6eg at hotmail.com
http://www.jamesburgdish.org
Subscribe: http://bambi.net/jamesburg.html
Jamesburg Earth Station  Moon Bounce Team

> Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:48:18 -0800
> From: w3kl at w3kl.com
> To: towertalk at contesting.com; pvrc at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [TowerTalk] CADWELD Question
> 
> Should one weatherproof (i.e., tape) cadweld
> connections (Cu to Cu) that will be buried?
> 
> I personally think it's a waste of time and material,
> but if someone can explain why it's necessary (that
> is, a good cadweld connection will have a lifetime
> less than that of a Cu ground rod embedded in the same
> soil type unless it is weather proofed...and how,
> physically, that could happen), I could be pursuaded
> otherwise.
> 
> 73, and thanks for reading.
> 
> Jeff
> 
> 
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