[TowerTalk] Grounding of cables to tower?

[David Aslin G3WGN]

Hi Jim, 
How 'wrong' is it to have grounded my tower to the demarcation panel at the shack end, if the distance from tower to panel is approx. 200ft? 
It seems to me that the approx. #6 bonding wire (35mm sq in metric) and the associated 18 ground rods along its length would at least provide some dissipation as a radial from the tower, just as the other 3 radials from the tower will do.  Ground here is low conductivity 'shillet' - slate fragments mixed with a small amount of dirt, so considered from the premises end, provides additional ground conductivity for the ground connection at the panel - i.e. lightning arrestors, coax outers.  So it's kind of like I have a 100ft conductor starting at each end, but they happen to meet in the middle. 
Crazy, waste of time, overkill or OK in the circumstances?  Would value your thoughts.
73, David G3WGN  M6O  WJ6O

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Brown [mailto:jim at audiosystemsgroup.com] 
Sent: 18 October 2017 18:00
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding of cables to tower?

On 10/17/2017 7:43 PM, Bob Shohet, KQ2M wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
>
> Having said that, it doesn’t answer my question.  There is no one correct way of doing anything in this hobby – the present discussion on how different people ground the legs of their tower is proof of that.

The tower leg discussion is a simple mechanical one, from which I learned of useful resources. This is not a "why" question, it is "what are the practical ways to make the connection."  There are good and bad (even right and wrong) grounding schemes, and most are not debatable. It is, for example, "right" to bond tower grounds to premises grounds if the tower is "close" to the premises, and somewhere between "wrong" and "a waste of time" if it's not close to the premises. And for purposes of this discussion, "not close" is somewhere between 60 and 100 ft. You'll find this in Ward's book and in my pdf.

> I hope that you will choose to answer my question.  Thank you.

I did, in the three resources listed below. And I spent a LONG time doing it.

73, Jim
>
> 73
>
> Bob, KQ2M
>
>
> From: Jim Brown
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2017 10:09 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding of cables to tower?
>
> On 10/17/2017 11:39 AM, Bob Shohet, KQ2M wrote:
>> Please share with me what you would do and why.  Thank you.
> Why not just buy and study the new ARRL book by Ward Silver, N0AX, 
> which covers all of this, and to which I contributed?  Or "Up the 
> Tower" by K7LXC, for which I contributed the chapter on Grounding. Or 
> study the slides for the talk on Power and Grounding for Ham Radio 
> that I've given at Pacificon and the Visalia DX Convention?
>
> http://k9yc.com/GroundingAndAudio.pdf
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
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