At 7:15 AM -0700 9/16/97, Dick Green wrote:
> If it's that hard to pound a ground rod in this "soil", can it really be
>conductive enough for a useful ground? If there are enough of them, I think
>your lengths of 1 1/2" strap will do a much better job (Polyphaser's book on
>lightening protection recommends this approach for mountaintop installation
>where there's nothing but rock.)
Granite, etc, is (relatively) conductive and the idea behind Polyphaser's
suggestion of laying strap on top of the rock is that the high potential at
the sharp edges of the strap would encourage a spark from the strap to the
rock.
In my case I have eight 50-foot buried runs of 1-1/2 inch strap. This
solution would be optimized if I could have somehow arranged for the strap
to be in direct contact with the hardpan, but by flooding and backfilling
the trenches I tried to maximize the surface contact with the surrounding
soil. Time will tell how effective it will be at absorbing lightning
strike energy.
73, Dick
--
Dick Flanagan W6OLD CFII Minden, Nevada (South of Reno)
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