[TowerTalk] getting the ufer ground effect with a burried painted section

[Jim Brown]

On 9/6/2017 9:55 AM, Jeff AC0C wrote:
> I hope that I have not voided my ufer ground effect with the application of the paint.  Because here in the Midwest, lightning is definitely going to be a problem faced sooner than tower corrosion.

Hi Jeff,

I can't answer definitively about the paint, but for my painted tower 
buried about 4 ft into the poured base, I set three wide ground straps 
into the base, bonding each to a tower leg, and bonded to #4running out 
to a ground rod about 8 ft from the tower. In retrospect, that's too close.

I'm both and author and reviewer for some chapters of the ARRL Handbook, 
and also N0AX's new book on Power, Grounding, and Bonding. While I 
didn't write the section on lightning protection at the tower, I did 
study what Ron Block of Polyphaser wrote. The published recommendation 
is for a series of three or more rods, running radially from each tower 
leg, spaced about two rod-lengths, bonded to each power leg. I would get 
much closer to the Handbook recommendation if I didn't live in NorCal, 
where the frequency of lightning is much lower than most of the rest of NA.

73, Jim K9YC