[Elecraft] ?OT? Grounding/Protection question...

[k4wtf@enterzone.net]

On Thu, 22 May 2003, Stuart Rohre wrote:

> I guess I am a belt and suspenders kind of guy.
> But, if you are spending the bucks for Polyphasors, you might as well have
> back ups in the inputs to the coax lines, in fact those outside the shack
> are the most vulnerable to surges and sideflash from a tower hit, so it does
> not hurt to be doubly safe.
> 
> Look at it this way, since you have the others, a few more will not cost a
> big percentage of your protection budget.  Those things are not foolproof,
> and maybe one will limit before the others, but you have covered all paths
> by having both ends of everything protected.
> GL,
> Stuart K5KVH


Stuart,

I think that is probably the way I'll go eventually.  For right now, this
is how it is being set up:

At the Single Point Ground panel on the outside of the house by the
Power/Telco/CATV service entrance:

On the VHF/UHF line: PolyPhaser #ISIE50LNC1
On the HF line going out to the "dog house": PolyPhaser #ISIE50LUC0
On the control cable for the remote coax switch: PolyPhaser #ISRCT

These are to be mounted on a SPG copper plate inside a waterproof box.

This plate connects to the existing Power ground rod about a foot away via
solid #4 copper wire.  It connects to the SPG copper plate at the "dog
house" with 2 #4 solid copper wire runs.  Along this path, there are 1/2 x
8ft ground rods every 16ft bonded to the 2 #4 wires with 2 clamps each (a
total of 5 ground rods on the path). I am investigating using CadWeld for
the ground rod connections also.  Anyone have any experience with it and
perhaps know of a local (Columbus, OH) source for it?


Inside the "Dog House" out in the woods is the RCS-8V remote coax switch.
On the LMR400 coming from the SPG panel at the house: PolyPhaser #ISIE50LUC0
It is connected to the input of the RCS-8V.
On the control cable for the remote coax switch: PolyPhaser #ISRCT

These are all mounted to a SPG copper plate which is connected via the two
#4 solid bare copper wires to the ground rods and the SPG at the house.

The antennas simply connect to the output ports on the RCS-8V.

So, we have 6 ground rods in the system, one every 16ft from the house out
to the "Dog House".  There is a polyphaser on the VHF/UHF antenna, two
polyphasers on the LMR400 (one at each end) that goes to the RCS-8V and
two polyphasers on the control cable for the RCS-8V (one at each end).  
The coax and control cables run through PVC conduit out to the "Dog
House".

How does that sound?  Does anyone see any problems with this
system? (Beyond the fact that it would be nice to have polyphasers on the
antennas before they connect to the RCS-8V?)

I patterned this off of N3RR's ground system.
http://users.erols.com/n3rr/lightningprotection/index.htm

The difference is that I don't have a 132ft tower or a 52ft tower and SPG
entrance is located on my "service entrance" wall along with the power,
telco and catv entrances.

73, John - K4WTF