I can't see how this can go wrong, Lets talk about grounding. I going over my ground plan for my ham radio shack. Then going to look for my house ground rod, because i never found it. Then I will measure the house to see how many grounding pods i will be and some of the placements around the house. FINALY we just sit back and relax at because this project is very doing able. Links: Reel Tape Measure 200-Feet/60M - https://amzn.to/47pp49R Frank L.
Hi Frank, why do you believe that you need to install so many ground rods? All that NEC requires is that any ground rods be bonded together. Your drawing didn't show where you are bringing the coax into your home, but you need a ground rod there, and a 6 ga wire between that ground rod and the AC service entry ground. Any additional ground rods are OPTIONAL. NEC does not require them.
Grounding is one of those touch-points that causes heated arguments... WR2E is hitting the tip of the iceburg...he and others can certainly provide additional very useful info on this. The bottom line is that mediocre grounding produces losses .
Overkill...I just the ground provvided by the local electric company and attached a nut and bolt and im good to go
I know several Advance and Extra class amateurs that use NO grounding whatsoever. Nada. Nothing. Resonant antennas, and legal limit power too. Now, that makes me a bit uncomfortable. Personally, I have one 8' ground rod (antenna and radio are grounded) with a Poly-Phaser on the antenna at the ground rod.
Sometimes two packs of yeast will spoil the bread. Rather than keep digging, Goggle what an UFER ground is. It should put you more at ease on NEC QTH grounding. Your late model house likely has one. I've been a commercial electrical contractor PM for 40 years, and what you have going on here, will be of little to no benefit except to Home Depot, and to get the paint off the shovel.
I talk to this at length in other video so i skipped over it in this one. There will be one antenna on top of my chimney, and my radio shack is on the second story of my house. From the antenna to the feedline, through a Poly-Phaser, then i will drop a ground wire and first rod of the system at the base of the chimney. From there, is why i am then bonding it to the house ground, which is on the other side of the house. I check the NES since making of this video since more then a handful point it out, i can use half as many i pointed in the video. HOWEVER, i still need a house ground installed. Once the electrician comes and installs that. i will bounce my plan off him one more once just to double check everything.
Frank, save yourself a lot of work and some money. According to a colleague of mine, Dr. George Ward formerly of Communications Satellite Corporation Comsat, if you are placing ground rods closet than 16 feet you are wasting time and ground rods. His research proved that the ground can only dissipate a certain amount of energy per volume/area. This turned out to be approximately a 16 foot radius around the ground rod and anything within that circle did not add significant grounding . George typically specified a 20 foot spacing with single aught bare cable cad welded to the top of the rod and checked with a micro Ohm meter to determine if the cad weld was successful. This was for a safety ground, for an RF ground he recommended replacing the single aught with six inch .032 copper strap brazed to the ground rod. all of this was placed six inches below grade. If you are going for lightning protection, I would go for the copper strap as lightning has a full spectrum of frequencies not just DC. Also, placing this close to the house can limit the effectiveness of the ground. Think about this, the ground under your house is very dry and as such the conductivity is greatly reduced. You are after all trying to dissipate the discharge in all directions to get the maximum grounding effect. Just my thoughts. Thanks for the rant, Milton KE5XA
After 20 plus years of working with US Army tactical equipment (from high power Air Defense Radar systems to tactical AM,VHF/UHF radio systems); the grounding (earthing) requirement has been any value less than 25 Ohms. We would drive a three section ground rod in (so roughly about 11' 1/2" deep and then repeat the same process for another ground rod about 10 feet away from the first. We would then clamp a large gauge wire to each ground rod and measure with a Fluke meter. If the measurement is more than 25 Ohms, we would add rock salt around the ground rod(s) and the add 10 gallons of water to "improve" the meter reading. Earthing needs to be periodically checked because the resistance will change (as will soil moisture, salinity, earth electrical bonding characteristics). Yessir! Grounding is NOT a static value (pardon the small pun); it will be dynamic. Best of 73s Reference: TC 6-02.6 (TC 11-6) - Army Publishing Directorate Grounding Techniques for Tactical Equipment and Systems
Thanks for the awesome tidbit of military radio; when I finally get a house of my own, I'll definitely put this into practice!
I would still check the ground with an Ohm meter. I'll bet the installer skipped that part. 25Ohms or less, however, around 10Ohms would be ideal. 73!
All my equipment is grounded through the 3rd pin on the 120 VAC plug. Only problems I have are equipment with wall warts, that only have two prongs, and other 2 prong equipment, like my Denon stereo receiver, DSL modem, etc.
