[TowerTalk] Copper strap bonding ideas?

[John W]

So I have a question on this topic, related to how to bond the station ground to the house ground.

I have two choices for the routing of the wire that will connect the station ground to the house ground:

1. entirely inside the house - straight across the basement ceiling for a distance of about 25'.   (half the space is finished, where the station is, and the other half is unfinished, where the furnace and circuit breaker box are.
2. entirely outside the house - straight for about 30' along the back of the house, and then a 90 degree turn and then about another 30' or 35' in a "U" shape, passing around a protruding mudroom addition and connecting to the house ground on the outside of the building just on the other side of the mudroom.

My instincts tell me two conflicting things:  "inside is bad, outside is good", vs. "short is good, long is bad".   The conflict is that the outside route is more than 2x as long as the inside route.

So what is the recommended route for this critical leg of the ground system?

73,

John
W2ID


> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:46:34 -0800
> From: Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Copper strap bonding ideas?
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Message-ID: <4F0E033A.5000603 at audiosystemsgroup.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> On 1/11/2012 12:09 PM, Alan NV8A wrote:
> > That's the theory, and maybe it's*current*  standard practice, but our
> > telephone cable comes in at the opposite end of the house from the
> > power, and the cable TV cable comes in at the back of the house.
> 
> I had the same issue in Chicago.
> 
> > I now have #6 solid copper running around the outside of the house
> > connecting them all together.
> 
> Right.
> 
>   Bottom line -- keeping everything at the same potential is critical, 
> and you can have as many ground connections as you like, but they MUST 
> all be bonded together.  That "MUST" is dictated both by the laws of 
> physics and the law of the land (electrical building codes).
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
> 
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