"Bruce Robertson" wrote in message
...

...I then cut it off about 6 inches above the ground and soldered bare
solid
copper wire (gauge? fattest home depot had) between
the ground rod and antenna mast.
I did not weather protect this soldered connection as the article
suggested.
(I may redo it at some point and then weather protect it).


Just a thought here, but did you drill any holes in the pipe to insert the
wire into before soldering? My thinking is that if the wire is just
soldered to the outside of the pipe (without any other means of holding the
wire attached to the pipe,) that should a lightning strike ever happen, the
intense heat from the huge amount of electrical discharge may just melt the
solder and allow the wire to become detached from the grounding pipe. This
would effectively make the whole setup useless...

Soldering is a good idea, however, there should be another means to insure
that the wire remains attached (as long as possible) should the solder
melt...

PH