[TowerTalk] Tower Grounding advice

[Marc Willis]

Hi Scott - Look at it this way your only a couple years away from a big
array. :)
On my towers I use a crimped lug on the wire, attached it directly to a
tower bolt. 1ea 8' rod per leg 12" away and 1ea 8' rod 96" away. I am also
using 1/0 size wire for the ground wire both on the tower and for the guy
anchors. Because your going to use the 8' rods don't you think that will get
you below the frost line. It would still be coupled electrically, right?

Good luck with the project Cheers Marc

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 8:34 AM, Scott Neader KA9FOX <scott at ka9fox.qth.com>wrote:

> I have a Rohn 55 tower and have a few questions on getting it
> properly grounded.  Here is a picture of the tower base, right after
> pouring, to give you an idea of what it looks like:
> http://www.qth.com/gallery/v/ka9fox/KA9FOX-Tower/DCP_7862.jpg.html
>
> (yes, the picture is from 2004, and yes it is 2009 now, and yes, I do
> not have the tower grounded yet.  I am a lid, by admission)
>
> The Plan:   Two 8 foot ground rods per leg, using bare braided copper
> strap that I have handy (3/4 in wide, by 1/8" thick), leading away
> from the tower like 3 spokes.
>
> The Questions:
>
> 1) How much distance from the tower to the first ground rod?
>
> 2) How much distance from the first ground rod to the second ground
> rod?  I am assuming it should be 16 feet, based on past research (add
> up the length of each ground rod, as if you had laid them on the ground)
>
> 3) How to attach this 3/4" braided copper strap to the ground rods?
>
> 4) How to attach this 3/4" braided copper strap to the tower?  I see
> Polyphaser has various sized "TK" clamps for this purpose (see
> http://www.dxengineering.com/products.asp?ID=103 ) -- are these
> OK?   I've also seen people mention buying brass clamps from Home
> Depot.  If I did that, I suspect I'd have to "silver solder" the ends
> of the braided copper strap, then drill a hole through it, then
> attach that to the clamp?
>
> 5) How far underground does the braid need to go?  And how far down
> below the ground do the ground rods need to go?  Soil is largely
> "clay" with some topsoil. Do I need to go down below the frost
> line?  (i.e. 2 feet ??)  That sounds like a lot of work, if
> so!!  Especially for the 20+ feet of copper braid x 3.
>
> Thanks in advance for your sage advice!
>
> 73 - Scott KA9FOX
>
>
>
>
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