[TowerTalk] Attic or outside cable run - safety issues regarding lightning?

[Dick Green WC1M]

Not the answer to your question, but in a previous house I ran cable through the attic and sometimes it interacted with house wiring in the attic, generating RFI in the TV and stereo. This typically happened when running into a marginal match at high power.

To avoid this, and to get the best lightning protection, I would bring the cables all the way down the tower to the ground and bond the shields to the bottom of the tower. The tower should have a proper ground system consisting of multiple radials (say, about 50' long) with 8-foot ground rods Cadwelded to the radials every 16 feet. Then run the cables shallow-buried around the house to the shack entrance, which should have a bulkhead entrance connected to a single-point ground consisting of multiple radials and ground rods, same as at the tower. The tower ground and singe-point ground should be bonded together with a separate run of buried ground wire, with 8-foot ground rods Cadwelded every 16 feet.

Yeah, it's a lot of work and expense, but worth it from a safety perspective.

73, Dick WC1M


> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Harper [mailto:john at ae5x.com]
> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 7:45 AM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Attic or outside cable run - safety issues
> regarding lightning?
> 
> >From a safety standpoint (lighning), is there any reason not to run
> >coax
> through an attic for the length of a house? My new tower is located at
> the opposite end of the house from the shack and I'd prefer to go the
> more direct route through the attic. That would save me 25 feet or cable
> and would look neater. But if there are issues of safety, they'll take
> priority.
> 
> Tnx/73,
> 
> John Harper AE5X
> http://www.ae5x.com/blog
> 
> 
>