Bob Miller wrote:

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 10:18:23 -0700, Eric F. Richards
wrote:



Again, this is why commercial sites and broadcasters use Polyphaser,
and are rarely taken off the air by the many strikes their towers
take.

True, but they also have ground systems in place, designed by
engineers and costing tens of thousands. Not many swls or hams (myself
included) are all that expert in installing a foolproof ground setup.

It doesn't take much money. It DOES take a completely anal attention
to detail.

I guarantee you I don't have tens of thousands in my ground system,
but I trust it against a direct strike and have experienced many close
(less than 500 feet) strikes near my home and one direct hit on my
car. All radio gear made it (except the stereo in the car, but it
wasn't behind a Polyphaser).


bob
k5qwg



If an arrestor it is to be, I notice http://www/thewireman.com has the
ICE arrestors with a device to attach them directly to a ground rod.
(Good place to buy antenna stuff.)

bob
k5qwg



Eric

Thanks again,

Junius

--
Eric F. Richards

"Nature abhors a vacuum tube." -- Myron Glass,
often attributed to J. R. Pierce, Bell Labs, c. 1940

wrote:

One detail I've never seen described is the attachment of the copper
(flashing) strap to a ground rod. Is it adequate to simply tie it in
place with wire or perhaps wrap it around about 270 degrees and clinch
it with a couple of bars and some sort of anti-oxident?

I've tried clamps, with less than great success.

The "official" way to do it is to use an exothermic weld -- a small
thermite burn contained within molded clay around the ground rod and
strap to melt the two into each other. This has the advantage of no
welding material to break, and it's actually cheap.


--
Eric F. Richards

"Nature abhors a vacuum tube." -- Myron Glass,
often attributed to J. R. Pierce, Bell Labs, c. 1940

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 00:53:44 GMT, wrote:

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 00:12:35 -0700, Eric F. Richards
wrote:

"junius" wrote:



One detail I've never seen described is the attachment of the copper
(flashing) strap to a ground rod. Is it adequate to simply tie it in
place with wire or perhaps wrap it around about 270 degrees and clinch
it with a couple of bars and some sort of anti-oxident?

Small U-bolts from the hardware store would be one way to go.

I personally use inexpensive hose clamps like you see on car radiator
hoses. I doubt they meet "code" but they work for my purposes.

bob
k5qwg



A controversial choice is braid,
but I won't go into why here because it's a long diversion. Last is a
simple copper wire to your ground -- in your case, the cold water
pipe.

Bottom line: Given the same type of ground (in your case, a wire),
the Polyphasers and the I.C.E. will outperform the others.

Go ahead and use an I.C.E. or Polyphaser with a ground wire.

Eric

Thanks again,

Junius

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:36:33 -0700, Eric F. Richards
wrote:

wrote:

One detail I've never seen described is the attachment of the copper
(flashing) strap to a ground rod. Is it adequate to simply tie it in
place with wire or perhaps wrap it around about 270 degrees and clinch
it with a couple of bars and some sort of anti-oxident?

I've tried clamps, with less than great success.

The "official" way to do it is to use an exothermic weld -- a small
thermite burn contained within molded clay around the ground rod and
strap to melt the two into each other. This has the advantage of no
welding material to break, and it's actually cheap.

That is pretty slick. After a few moments hesitation googling
the word thermite, (but dammit, that would be letting the terrorists
win,) I found a couple of interesting video clips and the Cadweld
website http://www.erico.com/ which offered ceramic and graphite molds
for a variety of similar applications. What type of clay that would be
appropriate here?

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 05:31:08 -0700, Eric F. Richards
wrote:

Bob Miller wrote:


Small U-bolts from the hardware store would be one way to go.

I personally use inexpensive hose clamps like you see on car radiator
hoses. I doubt they meet "code" but they work for my purposes.

bob
k5qwg

Do you use the hose clamps with strap, or with wire? Strap can be a
pain to deal with.

I'm using the hose clamps with wire and braid; braid from the shack,
and a couple of 70-foot buried wires to make my 2-foot ground rod a
bit more effective (I can only go down about 1 foot & I run into
rock).

bob
k5qwg


It may not be code, but it beats trying to solder. Solder and
lightning protection systems don't mix.