[TowerTalk] Buried section base...and lightning protection.

[jimlux]

On 1/4/16 8:58 AM, Douglas Ruz (CO8DM) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am almost ready to build a Buried section base for a 25G tower.
>
> The hole is 2 x 2 ft and almost 3 ft deep...is it ok for a guyed tower?...it is almost half cubic yard...and about 2000 pounds of concrete...no steel bars inside.
>
> Any tips are welcome.
>
> I need some ideas about the lightning protection...How can i do a good connection to the tower legs to the ground rod ?...

You're burying 3 feet of section in the concrete.  That makes a fairly 
good connection. A typical Ufer ground has 20 feet of conductor (which 
doesn't even have to be continuous).  You've got 9 feet with just the 
vertical part of the legs, and probably another 10 feet with the cross 
braces.

While you're at it, though, I'd get 22-23 feet of AWG 4  bare copper and 
put that into the concrete (leaving a couple feet sticking up in the 
air) with the base.  It's a lot easier to connect to a piece of copper 
wire than trying to clamp onto the tower leg, and sooner or later, 
you're going to want to hook something up to "ground".