I'm working on the ground field of my new towerette (40' Rohn 25). The tower is
guyed
and is about 70 feet from my house, and the radio room (2nd floor shack).
Following some of the dialog here and that in the recent QST magazines, I'm
grounding
at the tower, with multiple runs of 8' ground rods every 16', connected by
bare, buried #4.
My service entrance is on the far opposite side of my house from the shack. A
single point
ground is not therefore easily accomplishable. In order to tie the shack
entrance (for coax
and rotor cable runs) to the service entrance, I'm going to work my way around
the back of the
house, with more 8'
ground rods every 16' connected with buried #4 until I can tie in the service
entrance.
I have several questions:
1) Should I tie the ground ring around the house to that at the tower base?
I understand that it will be (poorly!) via the coax shield, but I seem to
remember reading that if the tower is a distance from the house,
that it was not always desirable to tie the tower ground field into
the ground ring around the house.
2) In accomplishing the ground ring around the house, to tie the
radio "service entrance" to the house service entrance,
I'm going to encounter a section of direct burial Romex that
is only about 6" under the surface. It's there to power the septic sump
pump.
How should I cross that run? There's really no way to go "around"
it. Even though they'll cross at right angles, I'm concerned about
inducing voltage into that romex run, and therefore into the house.
Should I be concerned?
Thanks one and all....
/John (waiting for the rain to stop!) WB5OAU/4
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