[TowerTalk] Cadweld vs clamps

[David Gilbert]

Lightning may not care about a half ohm resistance, but anything else 
that might care about the volt drop across a half ohm at currents 
typical in a lightning discharge sure as hell would.

Dave   AB7E



On 10/25/2014 12:43 PM, Bill Turner wrote:
> ------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)
>
> On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 17:22:58 -0400, Roger wrote:
>
>> Seeing actual clamps that can be lifted off the ground rods after a
>> couple years is no old wives tale.  It was that way on our house.
>>
>> Corrosion even raising the contact
>> resistance to a half ohm leaves little protection from lightening.
> REPLY:
>
> With all due respect, those two statements defy common sense.
>
> First, properly tightened bolts do not come loose except perhaps with
> vibration, which of course is not present here. If anything, corrosion
> makes things tighter, not looser. I suspect the original clamps were
> installed but never tightened at all. Simple human error. It happens.
>
> Second, a lightning bolt cares nothing about a half ohm connection. It
> has already traveled through millions of ohms of air, another half ohm
> in series is nothing. And of course, when the lightning arcs through
> the half ohm, ionization makes the resistance go to an even lower
> value.
>
> 73, Bill W6WRT
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