[TowerTalk] Cad welding vs clamps

[Jim Lux]

On 10/23/14, 4:37 PM, Drax Felton wrote:
>
> What if one were not to use a ground rod and just bury the strap?
>
>

Sure.. ground contact is ground contact.  If you're interested in code 
compliance, there's a description of electrodes of various shapes and 
sizes.  And there's a whole IEEE standard on it which will tell you how 
long a piece of strap of a particular width you need.

People use metal plates, bars, etc.

And, after all, a Ufer ground is just a 20 foot length of wire or metal 
encased in concrete. (which is what *I* would do if I had the trench 
dug.. rather than backfill with dirt, backfill with concrete: it will 
protect the wire/strap and provide a better contact to both the wire and 
the surrounding soil.

A 20 foot long "bar" of concrete a foot on a side is not even a yard of 
concrete. And it wouldn't need to be a foot.  I'll bet a 6x6" trench 
fill would work quite nicely. And it's not like it needs to have any 
special structural properties (well, if it's falling apart because you 
used a 1 sack/yard mix like they do for reinforcing trails and 
footpaths, it might not meet the need)