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Re: [TowerTalk] ground rod depth problem due to rocky soil -- solutions?

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] ground rod depth problem due to rocky soil -- solutions?
From: David Gilbert <xdavid@cis-broadband.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:51 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>

How is that an "impractical analysis"? The 1" diameter wire was only used by K1TTT to simulate the surface area of the 2" strap that KK1C plans to use. And KK1C stated that he already has 700 feet of the strap.

I'm no expert, and while disconnecting everything from your tower during a storm may protect your station, the fact that you don't have anything other than five feet of tower base embedded in rock to distribute the current from a direct lightning hit sounds very dicey to me. That current will want to find ground one way or another, and the way that you have things set up it's going to do it all at one spot. If the porosity/conductivity of the rock you have is particularly poor it seems to me that might create an ugly result.

I hope your tower is not close to your house, because if it is the lightning might just decide that the path between the tower and your presumably well-grounded house is the easier one.

Dave   AB7E



On 11/16/2012 8:28 AM, Michael Goins wrote:
Impractical analysis because where are you going to get 1" wires and who
could possibly afford 700 feet of it? Plus the cost of getting it a foot
down in rock?

I'm on pretty much solid rock here, 1800 feet up on the side of a hill, and
that would cost a fortune to do.

Still not clear about the need/reason. Why not just totally disconnect and
reconnect the tower when you operate? That's what I do here and the tower
is not grounded other than by its proximity due to the factory base 5 feet
deep in solid rock. My station is completely broken from the tower when I
am not operating and I don't operate in storms. There is nowhere for
lightning to go that would harm my station.

Michael Goins, k5wmg
Professor, Writing
University of Texas at San Antonio



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