" wrote in
oups.com:

I would like to propose a grounding arrangement for my [hypothetical]
antenna and get some feedback on it. I have access to the solid-copper

You haven't described here the antenna and its support structure, and
they are relevant.

One of the strategies for hardening a site against lightning is to divert
as much of the strike current to ground rather than having it flow in the
conductors within the facility. The value / necessity of this measure
will depend on the antenna, its support structure, nearby structures that
might protect your antenna to some extent, and the risk of lighting in
your locality.

cold-water pipe that enters my home through the basement wall close to
the basement floor. This pipe is used [in addition to cold water] for
the service entrance [circuit breaker box] ground. I was thinking of
putting an antenna outside on a pole and running the coax into the
basement. Then I would strip back several inches of the outer jacket
of the coax [axposing the braided shield] and connect the coax braid to
the cold water pipe using several hose clamps. This should ground the
coax directly to the service ground - the single point ground for the
house. I would add an arrester near the ground point. I would then run
the coax upstairs [about 10 feet] to the radio, where it would [via the
PL-259] connect to the transceiver chassis. The radio chassis will be
electrically bonded to peripheral equipment chassis'.

Lightning conductors need to be substantial enough to withstand the
strike scenario without physical failure (eg melting). A common scenario
is 20kA for 0.1s, but it does depend on the situation. Is your coax braid
and your termination / bonding method sufficient to survive strike
current?

Equipotential bonding of the lightning protection ground and the AC
service ground systems is important. Low resistance and more importantly
low inductance conductors that will withstand the current are required.

Depending on your coax shield as a bonding conductor from your equipment
to the ground point as you describe sounds unwise for several reasons,
but most notably because it uses coax connectors (and probably PL259s at
that) for the connection, they are not reliable enough, and they would
not be a permanent connection).

If your equipment runs on low voltage DC, do not assume that the power
supply provides a connection between the AC ground and the -ve DC lead,
some powersupplies have floating output. In any event, bonding of the
external metal of all equipment in your station to a single point ground
is advisable to reduce the risk of substantial potential differences
between equipments, and the risk that poses to life in the event of
lightning or even an electrical fault.

If addressing these issues seems extreme, it is probably a good indicator
that many ham station earth systems are quite inadequate, offset by the
low probability of an adverse event and not usually talked about when
poor implementation exacerbated the situation.

Like one of the other respondents, I recommend the Polyphaser site, it is
a usefull source that canvasses many of the issues.

Additionally, your wiring codes or standards may provide guidance or set
requirements, they do here.

Having done all that, and with better knowledge, review the risk, cost
and measures. You may not want to resource a lightning hardened solution
for 24x7 connection of the stations to antennas.

Owen