[TowerTalk] Fwd: Ground Rods

[hanslg at aol.com]

 I want to remember something about just rocking the rod up-and-down while putting plenty of water around the rod. This will work as "water-drilling-device" and I was told that you, that way, would be able to "drill" a grounding rod BY HAND into anything but hard rocks. Is this something I was dreaming or it real?

Hans - N2JFS

 


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: john at kk9a.com
To: TOWERTALK at contesting.com
Sent: Tue, Nov 30, 2010 6:05 pm
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Ground Rods


This summer I installed 10 ground rods in my red clay , shale, quartz, etc. 

ground.  I got almost no where with a sledge hammer and had to resort to 

using a jack hammer to pound them in.  Even with this machine, many only 

went in 6-7 feet deep.   At my P40A station I was never able to drive in 

ground rods by hand more than a few feet deep.   Those that say it is easy 

to drive in ground rods have never tried it in hard soil conditions.



John KK9A / 4









To: towertalk at contesting.com

Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Ground Rods

From: David Gilbert <xdavid at cis-broadband.com>

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:35:10 -0700

List-post: <towertalk at contesting.com">mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>



I think there is danger in generalizing.  I live in very rocky terrain

(check out my tower installation pics at ab7e.com) and if I'm lucky I

can get about 75% of four foot rods to go in all the way no matter what

I pound them in with.  Even then virtually all of them take a "skew

path."  Eight foot rods have a 100% chance of stopping on a large chunk

of granite before they get even close to being all the way in.  I

suspect other hams in other locations have similar issues.



My only recourse was to put in more rods to ground my tower, and I built

my own exothermic mold (standard type, not One-Shot variety) and bought

a bunch of Cadweld powder on eBay so I could make as many wire-to-rod

connections as I needed.  The biggest reservation I have is that I'm

less likely to reach moist earth during our dry springtime with the

shorter rods, but that's just something I have to live with.  No storms

then anyway ...



73,

Dave   AB7E









On 11/30/2010 11:10 AM, Mark Robinson wrote:

> I put in 10 foot copper clad 5/8 ground rods around my tower. Most of them

> went in pretty easily..

>

> Mark N1UK

>

>

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: "Dan Bookwalter"<n8dcj at yahoo.com>

> To:<towertalk at contesting.com>

> Sent: Tuesday, 30 November, 2010 12:43 PM

> 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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