[Elecraft] Self-fusing liquid electrical tape

[Roger Steyaert]

I have 12 ground rods in the ring ground system around my house with the 
radios in one room inside. the ground rods are all tied to each other 
and the power ground. I agree the Cad welds can get expensive, that is 
why I high temperature silver soldered the wire and ground rods 
together. Not normal soft solder but the high strength, high temperature 
silver solder used in HVAC systems. This requires a acetylene torch to 
do the soldering with. this accomplishes the same thing that a CAD weld 
provides but with less cost if you have gas welding equipment available. 
What ever you do make sure the system will maintain very good 
connections over time or you are just giveng yourself a false sense of 
security that can be very costly both in money and safety over time.

Roger K7RXV

On 6/5/2020 4:20 PM, Mike Maloney wrote:
>   Don,   Are those all 8 ft ground rods driven vertical in ground without help from a rock drill?   Lots of rock in your area?  Mike AC5P
>      On Friday, June 5, 2020, 03:10:11 PM CDT, W2xj <w2xj at w2xj.net> wrote:
>   
>   To my mind, false economy.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Jun 5, 2020, at 3:36 PM, Don Wilhelm <donwilh at embarqmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> That is why I used the mechanical clamps.  I have 10 ground rods for a perimeter ground wire around the house, 6 on the perimeter ground around the workshop building (where the antenna feedlines first enter) and another 4 in the antenna field.  A total of 20 Cad Welds would have exceeded my budget - the #4 copper wire was expensive enough!
>> All the clamps are above ground a bit, so I can check the tightness with a wrench at least once a year.
>> In most cases, the perimeter wires are folded back on itself to fit into the clamp, so the wire is continuous rather than having cut ends.
>> Yes, even the utility ground rod clamp is exposed.  The building inspector frowned on it until I told him why and he allowed it because I do not (will not) mow grass near any of the ground rods.
>>
>> 73,
>> Don W3FPR
>>
>>> On 6/5/2020 2:55 PM, Bob McGraw K4TAX wrote:
>>> Just look at $11.00 per ground rod connection for Cad-Weld as compared to  $1.98 for a mechanical clamp.  Which do you think a ham will choose ?
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