[Boatanchors] Ground Rod

[Mike Sanders K0AZ]

On a cell site.
The earth is totally dug up and #2 is laid down to build the halo ground
system.
The earth is totally dug up and totally disturbed. Then dumped back over the
halo
system etc.
Can you find a better ground than a halo on a commercial installation that
takes
dozens of hits a year and survives?

I drive em with an electric jack hammer or whatever you want to call it in
my personal
ham radio stuff at home. Got a lot of ground rods in the ground and all were
driven.
Rocky soil. Highest point around and takes lots of hits. It works. Also I
use surge arrestors
from ICE that appear to work well too. Never a problem and did I mention
lots of hits?

My guy "posts" are 12 foot 4 inch steel pipe. I have three of them on a Rohn
45 that has
two sets of guys. One on top and one about midway down. The guy posts are 5
foot in the
ground with 7 foot above. There is about 2 yards of concrete in the ground
with them. The top
has a foot square plate welded to it that holds the ends of the guys. At
this point I have
#2 that ties into the guys on top the guy post and then down the post to an
8 foot rod
driven along side the concrete not in it.
The tower base has 5 ground rods around the base all tied together with #2
and each leg
of the tower is directly tied to a different rod. That goes via #2 a few
feet into the shack and
to a 18 x 6 x 1/2 inch ground buss bar that all the gear ties to. I have
built a little frame of
unistrut that bolts to the bottom of the tower on the base. It is where I
bolt all my surge arrestors
including rotor control cable. Must be 10 of them on this frame for this one
tower. A small "dog
house" covers the arrestors with cable running in and out on the bottom.
Just to keep the most
severe weather off of the arrestors and the junctions in and out of them.
Fully weather proofed
though. You know black tape then coax seal or whatever your brand is called
and black tape again.
I could go on and on about this system but the bottom line it hinges on
driven rods and #2 tinned
copper and works.  The antennas on the tower include a 17B2 31 foot boom 2
meter yagi. A 719B
15 foot boom 432 yagi. A 617 6B 34 foot boom 6 meter yagi. A Mosley PRO 57B.
A dual band
vertical for 2 and 440. A 6 meter vertical. And a couple wire antennas
hanging from the tower.

All I can say is it works. Antennas on QRZ.com under my call.    73



K0AZ
Michael D. Sanders
18169 Highway 174
MT Vernon, MO 65712
Lawrence County ARES EC
6 Meter DXCC #436
6 Meter WAZ #37
6 Meter WAS WAC VUCC WAJD


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