[TowerTalk] Grounds, 'remote' towers, 'house' power system

[N3AE]

When I put up my tower last year, the one and only thing our county electrical inspector wanted to see was a bond between the tower and the detached garage sub-panel's ground rod, which is a few feet away from the tower. 

He said this was required by the Article 810 of the 2011 NEC. That garage subpanel is bonded to the house main service panel via a bare #10 in the underground feeder to the garage. Per Code, the neutral and ground buses in the subpanel are NOT connected to each other. 

My tower layout is described in an earlier post: http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/Towertalk/2014-09/msg00112.html 

The NEC is focused on electrical safety and not necessarily the most effective system for lightning protection. Like many folks, my tower grounding for lightning is still a work in process. Currently have 6 rods in a radial fashion, plus a Ufer ground in concrete base. A bunch more rods planned for the spring. I still debate about running some #4 underground from the tower to the house electrical service entrance ground rod. The tower is already DC bonded to the house service panel through the bare ground conductor in the electrical feeder to the garage, but it freaks me out a bit that this feeder runs through the basement for the length of the house. But adding another ground wire run outside sets up a rather big ground loop, which also concerns me. 

N3AE