Driving Ground Rods with Water, CPM, GEOS, GEM & APRS

AmateurLogic 169: Not Another Friday The 13th
Driving a ground rod using water. Windows 3.0, GEOS, CPM, GEM and MS-DOS on a microcontroller. APRS FI explored. On our way to Dayton.

www.amateurlogic.tv

 

I didn't have any luck using the water technique. I had to use a demolition hammer to drive it into the ground the rest of the way. Great show and good info !! 7 3's. KB0SVF

 

Too much banter, it's like listening to a local 2 m repeater... only think missing was the OMs grousing about their health woes! Move on up to the 11:00 minute mark.

The grounding discussion starts at 59.11.

 

The water method depending on the type of soil will dig a vertical hole that the ground rod just sits in making no contact with the ground.

 

Ground rods are supposed to be placed in "Undisturbed soil". Not what you get with a garden hose flush.

Any electricians that can quote the NEC article?

 

wow, thanks to kq1v I only watched a few minutes here and there until I got to 59:11. Do people really follow these guys? seems to me that this kind of dribble could be why we have Amateur Extra's who don't know how to build dipoles.

 

What's a dipole?! Just kidding! 73s lads.

 

When we built our new house we had lighting rods and a grounding system install. The installer used 12 foot ground rods and put them in with
a 3/4 inch hammer drill. Took about 5 minutes to drive them in almost flush with ground ( hard clay soil).
I have used hammer drills every since to install ground rod, fast and east.
Never a sledge hammer again.
For what its worth

 

Hammer drill the only way in hard-pan or clay. Here's the bit:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZTQMQJ7

In Louisiana elevation 1 foot I used to push an 8 foot ground rod in except for 4" with bare hands, sort of "pumping" it in.

 

Nice to see, that the technical past works perfect. The shown software reminds me to my childhood and youth. And the "Hello World" algorithm or loop, are the first lines for to understand BASIC. Where is GW BASIC? (I dont want to use it anymore, please not again)

 

I've used a hammer drill to drive all my ground rods. 10 feet in 2 minutes. Almost every time. I now live on a mountains where there a lot of rocks (boulders). I tried several locations around our house. 6 feet with a hammer drill in two minutes. Remaining 2 feet went in with a baby sledgehammer over a 2 day period. I bet it's not as good a ground I would get in soft soil or clay.

 

Well at least they mentioned ground plates. That's a great alternative to use if your on ledge. That is my situation now as they had to blast to set the foundation. Going to set on 2 corners with 24" squares.

 

Yes we are on a ledge. A ground plate (or plates) might be a good addition to my ground system. My neighbor said he could use his baby back hoe for the holes.

Sorry. I didn't mean to take the thread off into a wrong direction. This was a great and informative video as they all are. Amateur Logic has always stimulated my mind as well as given me new ideas. Great video!

One last note: That two days of hammering was a great cardiovascular workout for an ole man. It also improved my hammering skills. ;')

 

These AmateurLogic guys need to get a new side amateur radio hobby. This seems to be another slow moving and boring presentation with, as usual, too much side talk. If you have something to present, do it concisely and as quickly as possible without all the side “bs”. The side chatter doesn’t help the presentation and just adds to the boring curtain that hangs over every word and the entire presentation.

You might want to collect the past presentations and add them to a You Tube topic called “make you sleep quickly”.

 

Demolition hammer for the ground rod if you have one....