[TowerTalk] Challenging Grounding/Bonding Situation ?

[N3AE]

Bill, 

Everything I've read says you need to bond all grounding electrodes together. I think the electrical code requires this as well. If the tower took a direct strike, all the "earth" near the tower would be at an elevated potential with respect to "earth" further away (like the service entrance ground rod for the house). If I recall, the effect is called "step potential" and is due to the soil conductivity not being zero. That's not good as lightning currents will find whatever paths it can to try to equalize those voltage differences. 

I think the basic idea is to have all the "earthing conductors" rise and fall together during a strike, hence the requirement to bond them all together. 

But I certainly don't claim to be an expert of the subject. 

Shawn - N3AE 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Bill Turner" <dezrat at outlook.com> 
To: "N3AE" <n3ae at comcast.net> 
Cc: "TowerTalk" <towertalk at contesting.com> 
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 6:19:25 PM 
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Challenging Grounding/Bonding Situation ? 

------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped) 

On Fri, 12 Sep 2014 21:26:11 +0000 (UTC), N3AE wrote: 

> I believe the tower radial system must be bonded to the nearby garage electric service ground rod 

REPLY: 

Why would you want to do that? Do you want a portion of the lightning 
strike to reach your house ground and be coupled throughout your 
house? 

Lightning does not want to go to your house, it wants to go to ground. 
Why give it path into your house? 

73, Bill W6WRT