[TowerTalk] A unique and difficult grounding problem

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

There is a problem with the best approach.  I agree with it in 
principle, but In over half, ...well over half the installations I've 
seen in over 54 years as a ham the best approach is not practical, 
either from a logistics, and or cost approach.

My house is typical for almost all homes in this area with the 
electrical, phone and cable coming in the front while the antennas come 
in from the back.

The garage apron which is nearly 30 feet wide by 20 feet long prevents 
the installation of a ground ring with the shortest route to the 
entrance being under the 30 feet of concrete, with the available route 
being 110 feet longer.
The best antenna entrance is almost opposite the power entrance

I haven't been able to find a way around this.

To make things worse, I operate SO2R with one station in the shop and 
one in the house.  They are adjacent, but different addresses and 
different power feeds from the same transformer. The neighbor across the 
road is also on the same transformer.  As the antenna system is common 
to both stations, that makes the tower system grounds common to both 
stations resulting in both panel grounds eventually being tied 
together.  I've not seen any practical way to avoid this.

73

Roger (K8RI)


On 6/5/2015 2:39 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
>
> The standard advice is to complete the ground "ring" around the house
> - extending counterclockwise from the 6M entry point to the service
> entrance.  Then relocate the 4" underground conduit from the main tower
> so it enters the shack at the same point as the 6M entry point.
>
> The combined entry point then becomes the common point for all coax
> and control line grounding - each line is connected where it crosses
> the "ground ring".
>
> The "ground ring" is about the only safe way to provide a common entry
> when cables (or any conductor - e.g. air conditioning lines, well
> power/control/water pipes, etc.) must enter/leave a building somewhere
> other than the utility service entrance.
>
> 73,
>
>    ... Joe, W4TV
>
>
> On 2015-06-05 2:01 PM, Peter Dougherty (W2IRT) wrote:
>> Once again, hello all.
>>
>> For 10 years I've wondered about the best way to ground my station. If I
>> just had one tower it would be easy. Likewise if all my feedlines 
>> entered at
>> the same place. But here this is not the case. I have two towers-a main
>> 70-footer for HF and a 35 footer for 6m (and maybe someday a 10m Yagi as
>> well). The main tower is grounded via three 2" copper straps (and 
>> stainless
>> steel clamps) connected to 8' copper-clad steel ground rods at the 
>> tower's
>> base, and 4AWG solid bare copper wire Cadwelded to the rods and then 
>> out to
>> a ground radial field. The small tower will soon be connected to one 
>> end of
>> the ground field via strapping or braid.
>>
>> *See the following images (an overall grounding plan and photos of both
>> cable entrance points):
>> http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll290/W2IRT/Ground%20Plan.jpg
>> http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll290/W2IRT/6m%20tower%20and%20inlet.jpg 
>>
>>
>> http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll290/W2IRT/back-house1.jpg
>>
>>
>> The main tower's coaxes all connect to an Ameritron RCS-12L (8 ports,
>> equipped with lightning protection gas discharge tubes). The coaxes and
>> control lines enter the house via a 4-foot high crawlspace situated 
>> under
>> the radio room, traverse about 25' of carpeted floor then rise up to the
>> radio desk. The secondary tower's coax enters the house via an inlet box
>> above floor level in the shack, about 30 feet away from the main tower's
>> inlet, and on the other side of the shack's floor.
>>
>> There *is* a Cadwelded, bonded ground line between the main tower, 
>> the inlet
>> box and the secondary tower but the problem I'm facing, and the 
>> question I'm
>> asking, is where the heck do I put the single-point ground panel? 
>> Bonding
>> everything so a lightning strike's rise and fall would occur 
>> simultaneously
>> is something.
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------
>> Peter, W2IRT
>>
>> www.facebook.com/W2IRT
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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-- 

73

Roger (K8RI)


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