[TowerTalk] Shack ground

[Roger (K8RI)]

On 6/16/2010 7:41 PM, Michael Baker wrote:
> Relocation is also not always practical nor is it inexpensive. Professional
> Electricians don't come cheap and moving an underground service entrance is
> very involved and sometimes simply can't be done due to local codes and the
> location of the service main.
>    
Here the service comes in underground to the meter, then enters the 
house in the conventional way. That is on the front of the house.
The ham shack is centrally located on the back side of the house. The 
only two rooms on the front are the kitchen and living room with an 
entryway between them.
So relocating either is not an option.  Even if we could run the service 
around to the back it would involve digging up a major portion of the 
ground system and part of the drain field. I doubt we could do it for 
under $20,000.

73

Roger (K8RI)

> My house is at the end of a street and the service entrance is opposite my
> shack just outside my attached garage opposite the end of the street. I
> would hazard a guess and say that maybe $4000 might cover it due to
> trenching, new copper entry wire, a new entry panel and all the hardware,
> local build fees and inspections, new concrete and landscaping as well as a
> new sidewalk and driveway.
> A single piece of 4/0 cable run from one end to the other would be cheaper
> even with several ground rods and eutectic bonding.  Even if you include the
> trencher, having the driveway concrete sawed and filled afterwards, new bit
> of concrete work to fix the cuts, etc is couldn't cost even half of that.
>
> Speaking of low impedance grounds, a flat sheet of copper with the
> equivalent mil volume as a wire will have a much lower impedance.  4" copper
> sheet that is .01" thick works wonderful even on mountain top sites. It just
> makes attaching it to the ground rods a bit trickier to deal with.  ;>)
>
> Michael Baker  K7DD
> k7dd at cox.net
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of W2RU - Bud Hippisley
> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 3:15 PM
> To: Tom Anderson
> Cc: w4lde at numail.org; TowerTalk
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Shack ground
>
>
> On Jun 16, 2010, at 5:27 PM, Tom Anderson wrote:
>
>    
>> Most grounding books and articles suggest tying the station ground to the
>>      
> power company ground, but what do you do if the power company ground is on
> the opposite side of the house from the shack?
>
> Relocate the shack, or relocate the service entrance.  In my case, we did
> the latter....
>
> I also had the telephone entrance relocated so that it came into the house
> within a few feet of the power line.  All grounds (power, telco, and ham
> shack cables) are tied together just outside the shack.
>
> Bud, W2RU
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