Ray,
You are correct. The talk about connecting to a single point on the tower
probably comes from the crowd that does not understand what a "single point
ground system" is. It has nothing to do with grounding the tower.
A straight shot from each ground rod near the tower to the nearest leg is
the way to do it. Sometimes even making the connection up a little higher on
the leg is better than right at the bottom of the leg if the higher
connection point will give you less of an angle (bend) in the connecting
lead.
A loop of wire around the base does nothing for the ground system except
waste wire. This falls into the same class as making outer connecting rings
between ground rods around the tower.
The shortest straightest connection to the ground rods is the way.
73
Gary K4FMX
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:towertalk-
> bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ray
> Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 1:38 PM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Ground rod connection question
>
> I have 3 ground rods driven in line from the four corners of my new 70ft
> concrete tower base, a total of 12 ground rods. My intention is to bring
> each #4 wire connected to the ground rod string up from the ground rod and
> attach to the closest tower leg.
>
> However, in reading some past TowerTalk lighting discussions it was said
> that all the ground rods should be bonded together then attached to a
> single
> point. If this is the case, I could attach all the ground rods together
> with
> a loop of #4 wire that would go around the concrete base, then bring that
> lead up to a single point tower ground.
>
> My thought is that if I ground to a single point on the tower, I have in
> effect lengthened the distance of the opposite side ground rods connection
> rather than keeping it as short as possible. In my case, that would
> increase
> the length up to 6 - 8ft. This doesn't seem to be the right thing to do.
>
> Which is the preferred method?
>
> Ray,
> N6VR
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|