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Old July 13th 07, 03:14 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
Bob Miller Bob Miller is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jun 2006
Posts: 219
Default But we're built on a ledge! (was "Question on grounding rods")

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:18:34 -0400, "Rick (W-A-one-R-K-T)"
wrote:


OK, per the thread on "Question on grounding rods", I'm supposed to use
8-foot grounding rods rather than twice as many 4-foot rods. I can see
that.

But, we're built on a ledge, one big wide rock that stretches from the
seacoast to the Vermont state line (that's why they call New Hampshire the
"Granite State"). I can get three feet depth at best before running into
solid rock. An electrician friend of mine says I can drive the ground rod
in at a 45-degree angle, but that would still run an 8-foot ground rod to
a depth of more than 5.5 feet below the surface.

Can't be done.

So, what do I do next?


My house came with 4-foot rods driven at an angle. I wasn't sure why
until I tried driving an 8-foot rod straight down. It stopped at about
one foot, even using a special ground rod driver from Glen Martin. So
I put in a shorty rod, and attached a few buried wire radials, running
them across the yard. Ya do what's ya got to do...

If you try the Polyphaser web site, they have a pretty good technical
paper on putting in a series of short rods.

bob
k5qwg