There is a balancing point between the cost of the equipment and downtime and the cost of the ground system. I put an R56 system in for a broadcast station in Austin about 20 years ago. The ground system alone was $185K. We put in a copper flat mesh of 3,000 square feet tied to three 400 foot wells (doesn't do as much as you would think) and a dozen ground laterals all with copper mesh fields tied in at the ends. I think we used about 20 tons of Harger ground enhancer. That was for a 1100 foot tower that was going to have 3 digital broadcast stations.
So how much is too much? Get out your calculator. The bummer is that most of us try to save money on a site unless we know it will be a home run. I haven't had many of those. So you end up scrimping a bit on the ground in favor of equipment. Then two years down the road you have 300 people on the site all the sudden it sneaks up on you when you get hit twice the site is worth more now than when you planned the ground system. On Fri, Sep 11, 2015 at 8:01 AM, Mike Hammett <[email protected]> wrote: > Look at what companies with much more expensive equipment do. What do > broadcast (AM\FM\TV) and cell companies do for their tower power\grounding? > > > > ----- > Mike Hammett > Intelligent Computing Solutions > http://www.ics-il.com > > <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> > <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> > <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> > <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> > > Midwest Internet Exchange > http://www.midwest-ix.com > > <https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix> > <https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange> > <https://twitter.com/mdwestix> > ------------------------------ > *From: *"Paul McCall" <[email protected]> > *To: *[email protected] > *Sent: *Thursday, September 10, 2015 8:00:10 PM > *Subject: *[AFMUG] a new one, I think... > > OK, so I am working with a grounding expert today, getting some opinions > on a couple difficult towers, and one of the first suggestions he has for > me as I mention that I am looking to do fiber / DC up this tower is… “Have > you considered going solar up the tower?” (to eliminate power surges > completely from going up the tower) > > > > Hmmmm… > > > > So my brain starts wrestling with that… Is it practical? > > > > Say on a tower with a Netonix DC powered switch running at 48v or 24v, > powering 6 ePMP APs and 2 320APs, 2 Mikrotik Bhs, and a small Mikortik > router. > > > > Would be about 50 watts maximum according to my quick calcs. > > > > Not knowing anything about solar, has battery technology developed enough > that it would be practical (size wise) to have enough batteries and a > charge controller up in a box on a tower? And what size solar panel would > I need to drive that? > > > > Paul > > > > Paul McCall, Pres. > > PDMNet / Florida Broadband > > 658 Old Dixie Highway > > Vero Beach, FL 32962 > > 772-564-6800 office > > 772-473-0352 cell > > www.pdmnet.com > > [email protected] > > > > -- Lewis Bergman 325-439-0533 Cell
