[TowerTalk] Grounding of cables to tower?

[Wes Stewart]

On 10/18/2017 6:07 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On 10/18/2017 4:21 PM, Wes Stewart wrote:
>> The NEC says of bonding in Article 100: "The permanent joining of metal parts 
>> together to form an electrically conductive path that has the capacity to 
>> conduct safely any fault current likely to be imposed on it."  By this 
>> definition, the coax shield is a bonding conductor.  You're making stuff up. 
>
> That's a 60 Hz definition, related to blowing the fuse or breaker. It is NOT a 
> suitable definition for lightning nor for EMC, which demands low impedance at 
> the frequencies of interest. And the frequency of interest for lightning 
> extends well into the MHz range.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
Of course it's a 60 Hz definition.  Nevertheless, it's a bond in my book.  While 
you claim "most" of lightning current will stay at the tower, "some" will not, 
regardless of what the "connection" (to avoid the use of bond) impedance is.

My antenna structures are well over 100' from the house, so I do what a lot of 
us here do; break all connections between the tower and the house during 
thunderstorm season.

Wes  N7WS