[TowerTalk] Overhead cables from tower to shack

[Hans Hammarquist]

To save some (~250 feet) of wires and cables I am thinking of hanging a steel wire with attached cables (coax and control) between the (near) top of my tower directly to my radio shack located on the top floor of my house. Instead I can pull all the cables down the tower, through a ditch i the ground and up along the side the house up to my shack, with much better possibilities of good protection from light-strikes.


The tower is well grounded (as far as I know, 9 grounding rods, Ufer ground and whatever else) The house has a Faraday grounding cage with a total of 6 grounding spots (plus whatever it gets through the utility connections). The lightning protect has been tested (by direct lightning strikes) at least twice. Burn-marks to prove it.


I am planning to let the coax cables be grounded in the tower through a plate equipped with bulkhead connectors and ground them at the house with a similar plate - bulkhead connectors. That plate will be directly connected to the lightning protection next to my shack. There are 4, thick, copper wires that connects the lightning rods over my shack to the grounding rods four stories down.


What I am afraid of is, in case of a lightning strike (direct hit or near-by), the big open loop created by my overhead wires together with the tower, the lightning protection of the house and the ground will induce enough current to cause damages. This loop will have an about 70 x 125 feet opening, enough to make it a good loop antenna (not the purpose though). (No I don't have any AM stations around that will have their radiation pattern altered.)


Anyone with experience from this, or any objections? I would not like to find my installation looking like a fried chicken after inclined weather.


73 de, 


Hans - N2JFS