[TowerTalk] Fwd: Grounding connection to tower legs

[Jim Brown]

On 10/16/2017 10:20 AM, Bob Shohet, KQ2M wrote:
> I then watched him attach a flimsy hoseclamp for the cable ground, on its own ground rod NOT connected to the house utility ground connection (equally flimsy).  I remarked on this and he said “that was the code”.

He is DEAD WRONG. Most (all?) North American building codes are either 
NEC or based on NEC. Virtually ALL of these codes, as well as good 
engineering practice, REQUIRE that all grounds within a premises be 
bonded together. A "bond" is defined as a mechanically and electrically 
robust connection that has a very low impedance and can carry all 
possible fault current. Because lightning is an RF event, NOT a DC 
event, a bond must generally be "short, fat copper." Obviously, short 
fat steel and aluminum also work as long as dissimilar metals issues are 
avoided.

Grounding in the house I bought here in NorCal was AWFUL. The only 
ground on the electrical service was a stranded #6 or #4 running about 
50 ft over a circuitous path to a hose outlet, which connected to the 
water system with PVC conduit. In other words, there was NO ground at 
the service or for the house. Telco and CATV entered right next to the 
power (GREAT) but shared that non-ground.

There WAS a feed to the garage/mother-in-law apartment which is now my 
shack. 240 plus neutral plus ground were carried to a panel in that 
building, where there was a #12 bare copper running about 75 ft to a 
single rod. This rod was the only ground anywhere in the system. These 
were far from the only code violations. I found cross-wired outlets and 
a string of 120V outlets fed between phase and ground in the 
half-kitchen in the garage building.

Until I fixed it, this mess brought a lot of line noise that was picked 
up by my antennas.

73, Jim K9YC