Cheap tower setup with grounding

[TIN_CAN]

Thanks CK, yeah for just under $60 for the AS-303U I think will go for the ICE lightning arrestor, I read some reviews posted on here thank you. And Rob I might rethink the mounting, this grounding to me is all new and its our first house I am just terrified of fire, at the top of the roof I was going to run some supports into the roof, put in some supports between the 2x4's and plus its being guyed.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

FWIW I am a little paranoid about lightning as well. I used to work in commercial broadcasting and have seen what works and what doesn't when it comes to lightning protection. I have undertaken a big project to replace all my antennas and erect a new tower. The tower went up a year or more ago but constant changes to plans and some personal issue preventing me from climbing for a while have prevented me from getting the antennas up yet. I had hoped to get them up before fall but I decided just today to wait until spring. There will be better weather and my back and leg will be in much better shape by then. It will also allow me to do some more final planning and some changes to the shack as well.I put up a 64 foot freestanding Trylon Titan tower and will have a 17 foot mast out the top making the top 13B2 2m yagi at about 78 feet so it becomes a prime target for lightning. There will also be two more 2m VHF antennas as well as two HF yagis and some wire antennas hanging off it. This is what I did.

Here is the tower with work platform installed at the top and the mast fully retracted down inside the tower.

Tower base with DX Engineering enclosure housing lightning arrestors mounted on an aluminum plate that is connected to the 4 inch wide copper strap going to ground.The tower legs are bonded together at the bottom and each leg goes to it's own ground rod via a short length of 000 gauge copper cable.Terminal lugs were made from 1/2 inch copper pipe so you can gauge the wire size which just fits inside the pipe.

Inside the DX Engineering enclosure.

All ground connections are either bolted with stainless steel hardware or "welded" with Silfoss using MAPP gas as propane is not quite hot enough to do a good job. Silfoss is a copper/phosphorous/silver alloy and will resist the heat from lightning. NEVER EVER EVER use regular solder on a lightning ground. It will vaporize in the event of a strike leaving you with no ground connection.Above is the main bonding cable going from the tower to the house.

Home made ground lug on 000 gauge cable.

Each tower leg has one of these installed. Notice the stainless steel piece between the tower leg and the ground cable. Copper will strip the zinc out of a galvanized coating and leave a rusty spot underneath which makes a very poor connection. I found this out after removing a copper ground block from my old tower and seeing rust in the same exact size and shape as the ground block. I followed up this discovery with some reading and found out that due to galvanic action copper should never be in direct contact with zinc plated materials such as galvanized towers. The piece of stainless steel strap between the copper ground cable and the galvanized tower leg. This eliminates the possibility of galvanic action and the resulting poor connection.

 

[TIN_CAN]

Wow nice set up there CK, some good ideas there like the stainless tabs for the copper on galvanized connection. May I ask where your able to buy the flat copper strapping? I actually might actually add 2 more 10" ground rods spaced out, since they are very easy to drive in on my property. How far are your rod from each leg on tower? and where can you get 000 copper wire? thank you for sharing those pics and info, very informative.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Most sheet metal shops should have sheet copper they can cut up for you. Roofing companies are another source as a lot of roofs have copper flashing. Georgia Copper Georgia Copper - COPPER GROUND STRAP for GROUNDING AND BONDING is another source but likely the priciest.

My ground rods are about a foot out from the concrete foundation. They are not that deep with the depth about 6 feet at max. I have a bed of solid slate about 2 feet down and managed to drive the solid galvanized steel rods into it nearly 4 feet before they would go no further. The slate bed has water veins running thru it so at least I am in to a good spot.

As for the 000 gauge wire, I simply used what I had on hand from what was left over from a commercial installation. Any electrical supplier will have it but you can use flat strap just as well and actually the strap is a bit better when it comes right down to it. I used the heavy cable because it is more resistant to being stepped on and is more lawn mower resistant as well.

 

[Marconi]

I like the idea that CK uses by getting his tower away from the house.

Several years ago I spent some big buck repairing areas on my home where I had mounted antennas and such since the late 60's, and the damage was significant. A 25' x 12' foot roof deck I built with a two room addition took a beating with my mounting an AC unit and my working up there, and mounting many big yagis and a tilt-over mini tower up there at one time. My antennas worked great up there up no more that about 15' feet above the roof, but it took a beating over time. I did it because my small lot originally had 17 pine trees and 3 very large oaks. There wasn't much room in my back yard. All the pines are gone now, and I'm on the ground now, but I keep every thing supported well away from the house and not even a guy line is attached any more.

Good luck.

Here is my bad news as a result of my hobby.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

My reasoning for moving it away from the house was to allow me room to raise and lower antennas. The main HF yagi is an Explorer 14 from Hygain with the 40m add on kit, This makes the driver element 42 feet long so I wanted the tower at LEAST 25 0r 30 feet from the house. Due to the layout of the yard and an outbuilding I decided to place it where it is as it seemed out of the way yet not too far away.It is also about 27 feet from my shop/barn so it will not matter which way the antenna is swung it will come down/up without the elements hitting anything.

 

[binrat]

Hey TC,
I found some 6 gauge wire still on the spoll. Want it?? If not it's heaed to the recycling. It's not 4 gauge but .......

 

[TIN_CAN]

Hey TC,
I found some 6 gauge wire still on the spoll. Want it?? If not it's heaed to the recycling. It's not 4 gauge but .......

how many feet roughly? let me know as I am interested and could used it in this project have TX 2250 Elite Line amplifier, needs the 2879's replaced but a decent AB mobile amp, or let me know what you want for it.