I would bond it to the tower on the way down, others claim that lightning 
current on the tower needs to stay on the tower and not get shunted to the 
ground wire...

(Jaime, my fingers may have finally learned how to automatically spell 
“lightening”...)

From: Jason McKemie 
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 9:46 PM
To: [email protected] 
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Grounding to tower

Did you tie the bonding wire to the tower at regular intervals? Just to the 
main ground at the base? What size wire did you use?

On Tuesday, May 9, 2017, George Skorup <[email protected]> wrote:

  We've done it both ways, and I'm not going to tell you that it's 100% one way 
or the other. But based on experience, where we've lost  gear from the steel 
bonding method, we went back and ran a bonding wire up and tied all of our gear 
to it and losses went down quite a lot.

  But I would also agree with Jaime. An air terminal at the top above 
everything is the best option for direct strikes.

  Utility power is the single worst problem at most of our sites. DC. DC. DC. 
Surge suppressors. Surge suppressors. Surge suppressors. Oh, and the single 
point bonding principle.


  On 5/9/2017 4:53 PM, Jason McKemie wrote:

    That's not really possible in this case.  What do you think about bonding 
equipment to the tower vs a separate ground wire?  I certainly don't want to 
make the equipment more of a target.

    On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 4:29 PM, Jaime Solorza 
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> wrote:

      I am a firm believer in putting lightning rod at highest point of tower 
with direct cable run to buried ring or rod next to it.  Has worked well in our 
area.   

      On May 9, 2017 3:25 PM, "Jason McKemie" 
<[email protected]> wrote:

        Wanted to get some opinions on grounding equipment at a tower site (on 
the tower).  The tower and shelter are all properly grounded, it's a 
solid-steel leg tower.  Right now I'm grounded via clamps to the tower.  My 
question is would it be better/worse/the same to run a copper ground cable up 
to the equipment?  It's going to end up being bonded to the same ground at the 
base, so I was thinking it wouldn't make a huge difference but wanted to see 
what others' experience was with this. 

        TIA

        -Jason



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