[SJRA-Members] Roof Mount Tower Install. Instrs.: Would you add or change anything?

Thu May 7 00:43:57 EDT 2020

John,

Generally speaking, you can do your own work, so long as it meets code
requirements and is inspected, since the townships in my experience
generally work on the protection fee system, where they want a permit for
you to blow your nose. I'm sure they would prefer you pull a permit. But
there is nothing stopping you from doing the work yourself so long as it
meets the code requirement. By pulling a permit, you'd then have to get
them to come out and inspect.

Something to keep in mind about doing your own work in New Jersey is that
it is using I believe the 2017 NEC rules.

Linking grounds is important for ground strike lightning protection , but
the other consideration is, how often do you experience a strike that's
close enough to do harm ? Usually better to be safe than sorry. Suffering a
direct strike, "no can defense". It's alot like the crane kick from the
karate kid.

 -John

On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 10:58 PM John Jones <jdjones3109 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Bob. I have received SO much conflicting information about this
> subject. My shack's RF ground is a copper bus bar that's attached to the
> house ground and my end fed antenna's ground wire is attached to it too. I
> was told that they HAD to be attached to it in order to be in compliance.
> When it comes to grounding, you can ask two people and get three different
> opinions. Ugh!  I wonder if the Construction Office issuing the permit is
> going to require that I use a licensed electrician to do the ground and get
> it inspected. I'll see. If not, I suspect that I'll add a ground rod like
> you suggest and ground the antenna to it. My house ground is in a location
> where's it's surrounded by my patio, driveway, and walkway so it would be
> really hard to link this new ground rod to it. Hard and expensive.
>
> On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 10:49 PM Bob Beyer <bob_beyer at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > Hi John,
> >
> > Grounding can get complicated and a well thought-out, comprehensive
> ground
> > system would ultimately "bond" a house's electrical ground to an overall
> > ground plan (that's plan, not plane).
> > Among other things, this would include a number of distributed ground
> rods
> > exothermically welded to a specific kind of heavy copper cable running
> > around the house in a continuous ring and buried beneath the surface of
> the
> > ground.
> >
> > However, if you're just going to do single point grounding of the tower
> > and mast and not setup a comprehensive ground system, I would by no means
> > recommend you connect it directly to your home's electrical panel.
> > That would effectively be like extending a lightning rod from your
> > electrical panel to the a point at least 6 ft. above your roof.  "Hit me!
> > Hit me!"
> >
> > Years ago I had a ham friend who was a licensed electrician.  In addition
> > to many commercial and residential jobs, he worked on the installation of
> > the Tokomak Reactor at Princeton Plasma Physics.
> > One day his 75' crank-up tower was struck by lightning and it burned out
> > his submersible well pump.  He said that in his experience, most
> lightning
> > damage he saw "came in on the ground" of the electrical system.
> > While this seems counter intuitive, it actually does occur.  As I
> > understand it, a lightning strike can momentarily elevate the potential
> of
> > a home ground to a voltage potential greater than the potential of the AC
> > mains feed into the home (typically 240 VAC).  At that instant, flow from
> > the energized ground can occur back toward the AC power lines by passing
> > through any electronics, appliances, lights, etc. in circuit.  Putting a
> > lightning rod on your roof and connecting it to your electrical panel
> would
> > be an ideal way to create the potential for this to occur as I see it.
> >
> > Also, the electrical code may not allow this kind of ground connection
> > either but I am not certain of that.
> >
> > Unless you are going to setup a complete grounding system now (time
> > consuming and expensive), I suggest that you drive one or more ground
> rods
> > into the ground and connect the mast and antenna to them with the
> heaviest
> > gauge wire you can afford. Something like No. 4 or even larger.
> >
> > If you want to learn more about good grounding practices, there is an
> ARRL
> > publication written by Ward Silver, N0AX, called "Grounding and Bonding
> for
> > the Radio Amateur".  Amazon carries both the paperback and Kindle
> versions.
> >
> > If there are electricians in the audience or those with more experience
> > and expertise than me, I am happy to be corrected on any of this.
> >
> > Bob - KE2D
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: sjra-members-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:
> > sjra-members-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of John Jones
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2020 10:05 PM
> > To: sjra-members at mailman.qth.net
> > Subject: [SJRA-Members] Roof Mount Tower Install. Instrs.: Would you add
> > or change anything?
> >
> > Thank you everyone for your advice. I purchased the K4KIO Hex Beam
> Antenna
> > with all six bands (20 - 6), ice cords, snap on balun, and universal
> clamp
> > for masts 1.25" - 2.5".   https://www.k4kio.com/
> >
> > I'm mounting it on a W8IO Roof Tower (Model IO-45) and a 1.9" OD x 0.150"
> > wall x 72" length 6061-T6 aluminum mast.  Please see *Page 5* of the
> > attached installation instructions and give me your thoughts. If anyone
> has
> > a roof tower like this one, I'd love to hear your grounding
> > recommendations. Did you ground it to its own ground stake or to your
> > house's main ground?
> > http://www.w8io.com/rooftower.htm
> >
> > *NOTE: The antenna, roof tower, and mast have already been purchased so
> > there's no need to recommend alternatives. *
> >
> >
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-- 
John Kreno

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