[TowerTalk] Grounding Coax at Tower

jimjarvis at optonline.net jimjarvis at optonline.net
Wed Feb 27 13:27:53 EST 2008


TT:The concept of having the coax and other lines leave the tower ABOVE earth level, is alien to me.   I've always felt that the capacitance of the coax bundle to earth would tend to limit a strike's current in the direction of the shack, in favor of the lower impedance tower connection.HOWEVER,  you COULD have the coax leave the tower at 10' or so,  making a solid connection to the tower at that level, and letting the tower be the conductor to the earth ground system.   The problem with flying the cable bundle, however, would seem to be twofold.   1)  reduced capacitance to earth, due to increased distance, and therefore reduced strike current along the bundle;  and 2) having the flown cables act as a larger loop, in the event of a nearby strike.   In the latter case, there would be greater current induced in the secondary turn of the 1 turn transformer represented by the tower-cable system.  Does anyone see a flaw in that thinking?N2EA


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