[TowerTalk] Fwd: grounding (again)

[Bob Shohet, KQ2M]

Hi Jim,

Thank you for you’re the additional details and explanation.  You just about convinced me not to run a ground between the towers.  Instead I will ground everything  – (coaxes, control cables, etc.) to a large steel box at the base of the tower and then ground everything again at the spg panel.  I think that this is simplest and “cleanest” way of approaching it.

Tnx  & 73

Bob KQ2M


From: Jim Brown 
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 7:08 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com 
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fwd: grounding (again)

On 4/25/2018 11:06 AM, Bob Shohet, KQ2M wrote:
> I am now contemplating grounding the Comtek control boxes of both 4-squares to an 8’ ground rod where they are.
>
> I am also still contemplating running an AWG 4 solid bare copper ground wire between the towers and using ground rods to ground it along the way.

Hi Bob,

N0AX and I went through the engineering logic for bonding grounds from 
distant antennas to a central point when working on his new ARRL book on 
Power, Grounding, and Bonding. We've seen two "rules of thumb," 60 ft 
and 100 ft, as the maximum distance from the premises that should be 
bonded. The reason is simple -- lightning is an RF event, with energy 
having a decade-wide peak roughly centered at 1 MHz (i.e. 300 kHz - 3 
MHz), and at these frequencies, any bonding conductor becomes a big 
inductor. It is FAR more important to provide a robust, low impedance 
path to earth at those remote points and bond antennas there. Low Z, for 
example, could be translated into multiple rods, spaced 1-2X their length.

In the shack, treat all of the coax and control wires to a proper single 
point entry panel, with protectors on everything.

73, Jim K9YC


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