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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 National Electric Code says otherwise. Earth ground is *not* considered adequate bonding for the purposes of electrical safety. 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. The whole purpose of proper electrical *safety* grounding is to ensure that when things go wrong (short circuits, open neutrals, etc.), they go as *little* wrong as possible. Failing to bond ground rods together would be one of those things which would make no difference *normally* (in the absense of faults in the building wiring). If a wiring fault, short circuit, etc. were to occur, proper ground-rod bonding could make the difference between a tripped circuit breaker (if you're run a heavy-gauge bonding wire), and a burned-down building (if you didn't bond 'em, and the current flow through the soil wasn't enough to trip the breaker). The bonding rule is there for a very good reason... safety. As a very practical matter: if you fail to follow the Electrical Code (or your own local rules, if different), then your home may fail inspection if you try to sell it, and (if a fire occurs) your insurance company may refuse to pay your claims if they find a not-to-code electrical installation/modification. Bonding the grounds together will cost maybe $10 worth of wire. It's cheap insurance. -- Dave Platt AE6EO Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads! |
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