"Keith" wrote in message
link.net...
On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 05:58:38 -0000, (Dave Platt)
wrote:
Nope. The two ground points could very well have tens to hundreds of
ohms of soil resistance between them. For purposes of electrical
safety, bond 'em together!
They are bonded together by earth ground. The antenna is not going to
carry any AC load if your station is grounded. Who knows maybe a 747
will clip the guys antenna at the same time as lightening hits the 747
knocking the ground wire from the antenna and creating a huge fireball
above his house.
Keith, In this case you are not providing helpfull advice as it is very
important that a wire bond exist between grounding systems. It is
impossible to predict the direction that the fault will eventually come from
there fore it is important to project from an many senarios as possible.
Lightning hitting a nearby object, like a tree, will raise the ground
potential around the tree by many thousands of volts and this voltage may
vary greatly a few feet away. One ground rod many be at a 5,000 volt
potential while the other rod is at a 3,000 volt ground potential. In this
case the 2,000 volts will look for the easiest path to equalize themselves.
It could be the bonding wire or, without the bond, the radio equipment.
73 - Mike - K9JRI