After having suffered 7 major lightning strikes in only 5 years, I
am (quite understandably) gunshy. I have had one outstanding success,
however, after I followed PolyPhaser's instructions to the letter for
a digipeater installation (P.S., Xcvr, TNC) at a host's location that
was devastated by lightning..... my equipment came out unscathed except
for some very large black smudges on the outside of the chassis of the
power supply.... all of it was still functional.
As a result of this highly successful demonstration of PolyPhaser's
effectiveness, I am in the process of "PolyPhasing" my PacketCluster
Node's two VHF coax lines and grounding the station equipment per their
instructions. The access to the external ground rods limits me to
braid running through the 3" PVC runnning into the ham shack from the
outside, 4 feet above the ground. (The PVC is chock-o-block full of
coax lines coming in from the 250 ft run [buried] to the base of the tower).
The particular braid I have chosen to use to run from the thick aluminum
plate, upon which the PolyPhaser devices are mounted, to the outside
grounding system is 3/4" by 1/8" tinned, copper braid. I use copious
amounts of Penetrox A at all junctions and connections.
My question is this: Having remembered a comment by someone on one of
the reflectors regards tinned copper braid..... Is tinned copper braid
of good quality (very heavy and made up of many, many small individual
wires) suitable for grounding when used with large washers, heavily
torqued nuts and bolts, and lots of Penetrox A, at all junctions?
Comments gratefully received.
Rod, N5HV
w5hvv@aeneas.net
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