Bill Ogden wrote:

I have a TX455 tower that I am beginning to ground and I could use some
collective experience of the group. This is a 55-foot tower in a location
not especially prone to lightning. I am trying to be reasonable without
going overboard on grounding.

1. Where might I obtain the 1-inch nuts for the standard UST concrete stubs?
And stainless steel washers to match? My local Home-Depot type places seem
to stop at the 3/4-inch sizes.


Try a Semi truck repair facility. Lugs on most large trucks range from
1" to 33mm. Washers should be available too, though Stainless might be
a stretch.

2. There is no clearcut way to connect ground straps/wires to the tower. I
have ground posts about 30 inches from each of the three concrete bolts
holding the tower base. It seems reasonable to run a strap from a ground
post to the 1-inch concrete bolts holding the tower base bracket. There is
enough thread exposed above these to hold two (thin) SS washers and another
1-inch nut. This appears to be a convenient way to make the connection. I
assume the SS washers would be needed to fight corrosion from the copper
wire/strap to the zinc-dipped tower base.

3. I want radials for the tower (for a quarter-wave sloper). Would it be
reasonable to connect multiple radials to each of three ground posts and
then depend on the single wire/strap from the ground posts the three bolts
holding the tower base? This is for 160/80/40/30 meter operation.

Thanks,

Bill
W2WO