Hi,
Today I finally built a 100 ft. tower and am now terrified on the idea of
loosing expensive equipment due to storms. Looking for guidelines to ground
my tower, I did a lot of research in towertalk archives as well as in other
search engines and found very useful and informative stuff like that found
on http://www.qth.com/KA9FOX/lightning_and_towers.txt and -as everyone
knows- on http://www.polyphaser.com
However, it still remains unclear to me what to ground and whether a
lightning arrestor on the top of the tower is mandatory. I read some
documents that don´t recommed a lightning arrestor as it attracks
lightnings, something that one would like to keep as far away as possible.
So, it doesn´t seem wise to put one on the top of the tower. On the other
hand, most towers in my town (and there are many) have them. Even
electrical engineers recommend them. These same docs state that grounding
the guy wires will suffice.
What are the myths about grounding a tower ? Will grounding the guy wires
really suffice ? Must or must not lightning arrestors be put on the top of
towers? Other docs suggest burying plenty of copper rods connected by
copper straps set radially to the tower base in order to ground the tower
itself. Is this necessary ?
I would like to have the grounding issue solved before the next storm.
Suggestions, opinions and guidelines all welcome.
Thank you.
Fernando Ronci
E-mail: fernando@waycom.com.ar
List Sponsor: ChampionRadio.com - Trylon self-supporting towers,
safety equipment, rigging gear, LOOS tension guages & more!
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