[TowerTalk] Ground Rods

[Tommy Alderman]

Dan,

This past August I put 27 of the 8 ft 5/8" copper clad steel rods into the
very hard south Georgia red clay using a rented 'ground rod hammer' The
first hammer I got from the rental store pounded the rods very easily for
the first four feet and then it stopped! Going back to the rental store,
they knew what the problem was - they had given me an 18-lb hammer but
because I was dealing with hard packed red clay, I needed at 26-lb (force)
hammer. That one pounded the rods the rest of the way into the ground with
very little trouble. 

I had dug 3 each, 6" deep, 70' long trenches in the ground and made sure the
head of each rod would be about an inch under ground. I then had a local
welding company come out and silver solder #4 solid copper wire to each rod
and up to my tower base. The silver soldering cost was only a few dollars
cheaper that cad weld.

161,
Tom - W4BQF


Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Ground Rods


> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Dan Bookwalter
> Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 11:43 AM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Ground Rods
>
>
> Ok , i have seen several discussions regarding what people are
> using for ground
> rods.... some use actual 5/8" ground rods , while others use 1/2"
> copper pipe ,
> thoughts on which is better ?
>
> also i was thinking about using 4ft ground rods instead of 8
> footers , but use
> twice as many of them , it is much easier to drive the 4 footers
> , thoughts ?
>
> thanks
>
> Dan N8DCJ
>
>
>
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