I don't yet have my tower up and any lightning protection in place. I
bought a bunch of Polyphaser devices at Dayton, but at present I am
simply disconnecting everything when the station is not in use.
Your single-point ground panel seems to contravene a basic
recommendation made by Polyphaser -- to have distinct "protected" and
"unprotected" sides separated as far as possible (sorry, I can't find a
diagram on their Web site, but see Fig. 12 in
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/0207048.pdf).
You have cables crossing from one side of the grounding panel to the
other, which I understand to be highly undesirable.
Comments?
73
Alan NV8A
On 08/03/05 03:46 pm Joe - WD0M tossed the following ingredients into
the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:
> I'm very sympathetic with Wayne. In south west
> Colorado (Pagosa Springs) my home sits on
> bedrock. All 5 acres of my property is bedrock
> under just a few inches of soil. When it cam
> time to put up the tower, I discovered that the
> best I could do was go down about 6
> inches. Fortunately, the rock was virtually
> contiguous with very few fractures. I removed
> the dirt, drilled 25 holes into the bedrock, and
> cemented re-bar in place with industrial grade
> cement. From there, I made a frame, poured the 5
> yards of concrete, and the tower is up and works fine.
>
> Grounding is another challenging issue. Based
> upon discussions with local old timers who worked
> on microwave relay sites in the Rocky Mountains
> around here, I went with the copper strap headed
> away from the tower and aimed away from the house
> approach. I employed a"Ufer" ground, and added
> lots of radials around the tower (about 60
> total). The coax shield is grounded at the top
> of the tower, at the base of the tower, and at
> the shack, as are the SteppIR antenna and rotator control cables.
>
> I use I.C.E. protectors on all circuits and
> grounded everything at the tower, as well as at
> the single point ground outside the house by the
> radio room. It was quite a challenge to do it
> all, and the initial approach concerned
> me. However, it seems to be working fine. I've
> just had one strike, and I need to replace one of
> the I.C.E. protectors. Fortunately, that's all.
>
> My web site describes in words and photos what I did:
>
> http://home.centurytel.net/WD0M/
>
> Click on Ham Radio, then either the Tower or
> Lightning Protection link, depending upon your
> interest. Good luck to all the other "grounding
> challenged" hams out there! I'm sure there is
> more I can/could/will do, and thanks to all who
> share their experiences and suggestions here on TT.
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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