Station grounding

By , October 12, 2012

“Is this Polyphaser rated for QRO?”

There are volumes of literature on this topic and the more of it I read, the less informed I become. As Forest Gump said about the shrimpin’ bidness, “It’s tough”.

Although my tower has been up a couple weeks now, I’m just now getting around to making proper grounds for all things related to it: the tower itself, feedline/rotor cable, rotor control box and the entry point to the house.

The weather has been clear lately, but with storms predicted for Sunday, it’s time to bury some copper.

I’ve bought all the right parts and spent this morning hammering in three 8-foot ground rods with a 10-lb sledge - two at the base of the tower and one additional at the shack’s entry point.

Pounding metal with a sledge…clink…clink…clink. The only thing missing was the Notting Hillbillies serenading me with an old railroad worksong.

Clamps, grounds straps and Polyphaser surge protectors complete the gear list.

But now I’m wondering, Why? Is it all as necessary as we’re led to believe?

I’ve never had a lightning-related event that additional grounding would have prevented or even mitigated. I have had a direct hit – nothing would have reduced the severity of equipment damaged. Echoing my sentiments is this eHam article by Steve WB2WIK.

And daisy-chained grounds for gear in the shack? Guilty!

I don’t have the luxury of running separate ground braids to a common ground point and I’ll bet you don’t either. Around here, that would amount to five parallel ground braids running to the same destination – I don’t see the point, the efficiency or even the safety advantage to that.

Instead, my K3′s ground lug is connect to my tuner’s ground lug which is connected to my amp’s ground lug which is connected to my rotor controller’s ground lug. Then a big fat braid goes out the window to the copper rods.

Tom W8JI does things differently and writes about it here. I may eventually build toward something similar but for now, my main protection will be what it has always been – disconnecting all cables coming into the house at even the suggestion of lightning in the area.

Sledge hammering music (yep, that’s Mark Knopfler on the guitar):

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6 Responses to “Station grounding”

  1. Bas PE4BAS says:
    October 12, 2012 at 2:30 pm

    Hi John, tnx for the W8JI link. He writes some very interesting things not only about grounding. I actually used a same grounding system as you at my previous QTH. Main common ground point was at my antennatuner. But doing the same here resulted in strange things inside the shack. I only have a counterpoise at the antennatuner and a groundwire from the DC supply to that common point. I think the shield of the coax between radio and tuner is enough to ground the radio at the moment. 73, Bas

    Reply
    • John AE5X says:
      October 12, 2012 at 4:46 pm

      I agree with you on the shield – that copper braid is as heavy as anything I’d use as a dedicated ground wire.

      My project now is to run a low Z connection between house service (commercial power) ground rod and my tower’s ground rods. They’re about 10m apart.

      Reply
  2. Elwood Downey, WB0OEW says:
    October 12, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    You might find something of interest from this CWTD episode: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43021514/CWTD/Jan%2024.html

    Reply
  3. Oli says:
    October 13, 2012 at 10:21 am

    Hi John,

    currently I’m also renewing the goundsystem here, because I am installing an new tilt-over mast on top of my garage. I used a 12 lbs. hammer to install my ground-rod (Tiefenerder). Here in Germany we have a system of groundrods that can be connected on top of an other rod. (google “dehn 625151″). So I used 4 pieces of 5 feet. Now I have one 1 inch diameter goundrod with 20 feet length into the waterplane and some 60 feet galvanised flatiron to connect the house and the garage. I measured the ground resistance at 3.7 ohms. That is quite good. A second “Tiefenerder” will be installed in spring. But now I have a SDS-MAX toolhead to ram the Tiefenerder into the earth with a big “Rotary Hammer”. Very important is to connect all parts of the system to one common ground.
    73 Oli

    Reply

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