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?

At 2300 feet up a big hunk of granite in southern VT, we have only
about 1 foot of surface soil, below which it is all low grade granite.
The house was constructed with a Ufer grounding system. Out at the
tower, we installed a system of radial wires from the tower base to
get whatever ground we could.

All of the antennas here are balanced, and we get out quite well on
all bands. The antennas think they are a thousand feet up, and I
have good directionality even out of the 40 meter beam when the crank
up is fully retracted. Raising the tower is only needed for getting
the above the surrounding trees.

One of the things that I observe as a result of living/operating from
a high ground resistance location is that it seems that we seldom get
nearby lightning ground strokes. They seem to hit down in the valley
where the soil is more conductive.