[Elecraft] OT: Ground rods and concrete

[John K9UWA]

If you have a 50 foot tower with a tribander on it among a bunch of 70 foot or 
taller Trees then perhaps you will survive lightning strikes without major 
damage. However if you have something like my situation things change 
rapidly. I have three towers the tallest is 175 feet to the top antenna. Trees 
are all at 75 feet or less. I am the neighborhood lightning rod. I installed this 
tower in late 1988 and in early 1989 we sustained a major hit. It blew up 
every radio computer the microwave the frig the TV sets. lots of coax and 
many other things made from metal. My station is in northern Indiana so we 
do get some nice thunderstorms. Not as bad as Florida but bad enough. My 
Assigned Risk insurance company said you have 30 days to either get that 
stuff all on the ground or install a "Commercial Grade" Grounding system. 

For the How to do it please read this 96 page PDF from Polyphaser. 
Polyphaser Grounding Guide

After discussion with a couple of the Polyphaser Engineers who were also 
HAMS I purchsed all the goodies and we set about to create the ground 
system. It includes Whole House protection from Any wire that comes or 
goes from the house. 

This tower gets at least a dozen major hits per year. Since 1989 when the 
system was installed I have had Almost ZERO damage. The ONLY thing 
damaged was about 5 years ago the Whole House Protector on the Main 
Breaker box gave up its little life to save everything else in the house. I 
replaced it with a new one and all has been excellent prior to and since that 
time. 

The suggested Polyphaser Tower Grounding system looks a lot like that of 
the QST article from 2002 previously posted by one of our other posters. 
Radials 8 of them coming out from the tower. Polyphaser said they needed 
to be 1/3rd the length of the top antenna with 8 foot ground rods each 16 
feet along the radial. And of course one of the radials goes to the house 
where the Single Ground Window... big aluminum plate with many protectors 
and two ground rods to hold it in place is located. And the Perimeter ground 
progresses around the house from that location. In my case since I have 
three towers in a triangle shape they said single run from tower to tower with 
again 8 foot ground rod each 16 feet along the way. Then rather than the 8 
Radials from the single tower there are two starting outward from each of 
the other 2 shorter towers.  #2 tower 130 foot and #3 88 foot tall. On those 
towers are about 20 yagi antennas 5 rotors and many many antenna 
switching boxes. Mostly Ameritron RCS-8V many modified as phase 
controllers for stack yagis. 
The back yard has 100 8 foot long ground rods connect by 1200 feet or 3/8" 
ID copper tubing. Silver Soldered to the Ground Rods. 

So read and heed the PDF from Polyphaser. It works!! 

73
John k9uwa
John Goller, K9UWA & Jean Goller, N9PXF 
Antique Radio Restorations
k9uwa at arrl.net
Visit our Web Site at:
http://www.JohnJeanAntiqueRadio.com
4836 Ranch Road
Leo, IN 46765
USA
1-260-637-6426