For the sake of argument, however, let’s assume the ground rod will help. At RF frequencies a ground rod is better than nothing, but less than ideal A system of radial wires will improve this goal. Our goal is to conduct the other half of the RF signal coming from our coax to ground so our antenna will be “coupled” into an effective ground plane. Here we have a completely different problem. That said wouldn’t it be great fun to have an excuse to weld with Thermite? It is still a good idea to attempt a low ohmic connection as good engineering practice, but arcing will make your connection for you with small voltage potentials using a ground rod clamp. Using a traditional ground rod clamp to squeeze the wire against the ground rod provides all you need to conduct lightning energies although opinions vary. Since lightning can quite easily jump small gaps, it is not all that important the connection between the wire and the ground rod be a low impedance. Practical ground rod systems for lightning protection use many rods connected with low inductance high current copper strap This ensures the ground does not get saturated with current by spreading the energy over a larger area.Īnother important point is how we connect our wire to the ground rod. The hope here is to dissipate the massive currents from direct or nearby lightning strikes to the earth by conducting the energy to the soil surrounding the ground rod. This is the traditional use of ground rods. Two reasons come to mind: lightning protection and RF counterpoise. We need to understand why we are installing a ground rod in a vertical antenna system. I then turned my attention to antennas… specifically my planned 20m vertical.įirst things first. Note the ground around my house where the ground rods are installed is fill dirt so the threat of deep bedrock was minimized. So long as you do not hit solid rock, the water will help your ground rod move dirt aside and go deeper.īoth ground rods for the electric installation went in without a hitch. Repeat while ensuring an adequate pool of water is in the “bowl.”.Push the ground rod into the ground a inch or two more,.Remove the ground rod and let the water flow in,.Push the ground rod into the ground a few inches,.Dig a small bowl into the dirt where the ground rod will go,.He described a simple method of using only water, time and patience to put even the longest ground rods into the ground. As part of his install he added ground rods. I was looking around the web for ideas and stumbled onto an amateur radio operator installing a tower. The inspector told me I would need to ensure two ground rods were installed to bring the installation up to code. [Reprinted from my Engineering Web Site In 2006 I researched upgrading my home electric panel.
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