Re: [TowerTalk] Grounds, 'remote' towers, 'house' power system

[N3AE <n3ae@comcast.net>]

When I put up my tower last year, the one and only thing our county electrical 
inspector wanted to see was a bond between the tower and the detached garage 
sub-panel's ground rod, which is a few feet away from the tower. 

He said this was required by the Article 810 of the 2011 NEC. That garage 
subpanel is bonded to the house main service panel via a bare #10 in the 
underground feeder to the garage. Per Code, the neutral and ground buses in the 
subpanel are NOT connected to each other. 

My tower layout is described in an earlier post: 
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/Towertalk/2014-09/msg00112.html 

The NEC is focused on electrical safety and not necessarily the most effective 
system for lightning protection. Like many folks, my tower grounding for 
lightning is still a work in process. Currently have 6 rods in a radial 
fashion, plus a Ufer ground in concrete base. A bunch more rods planned for the 
spring. I still debate about running some #4 underground from the tower to the 
house electrical service entrance ground rod. The tower is already DC bonded to 
the house service panel through the bare ground conductor in the electrical 
feeder to the garage, but it freaks me out a bit that this feeder runs through 
the basement for the length of the house. But adding another ground wire run 
outside sets up a rather big ground loop, which also concerns me. 

N3AE 
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