Base station build: Meeting NEC 810.21 requirements and lightning protection

[niceguy71]

tip for new guys ( old guys ) installing ground rods

I live in a very rocky location... saw my neighbor install a digital antenna on his house and he could only get the ground rod in 5 feet so he just cut it off?
I thought I would have a real problem putting in my CB ground rod ... I own a Hitachi 1-1/2 inch rotary hammer drill...... that I use for making holes in concrete walls for pipes or to jack hammer sump pump pits..... most plumbers rent them... but like an idiot I bought mine anyway...

I put a ladder next to the grounding rod put the hammer drill/ jack hammer over the rod... pulled the trigger and it went in like nothing??? got off the ladder after it was lower and finished it.. it took less than 30 seconds!!!!!

​

 

[mmckenna]

Almost 30 years ago I was working doing installations. I had an electric demolition hammer with the ground rod driver. Ran them in like a hot needle through butter.

But, if that's not an option, there are ways to put them in horizontally that will meet code.

 

[K6GBW]

Ah, yes...the old ground rod question. I too live in a house with the crappy UFER ground. When I had to put in a new circuit breaker panel, I had the company put in two new ground rods and tie them back to the panel, then I put in a third ground rod for my coax grounding, and I tied that into everything as well. When in doubt...GROUND IT!

 

[slowmover]

tip for new guys ( old guys ) installing ground rods

I live in a very rocky location... saw my neighbor install a digital antenna on his house and he could only get the ground rod in 5 feet so he just cut it off?
I thought I would have a real problem putting in my CB ground rod ... I own a Hitachi 1-1/2 inch rotary hammer drill...... that I use for making holes in concrete walls for pipes or to jack hammer sump pump pits..... most plumbers rent them... but like an idiot I bought mine anyway...

I put a ladder next to the grounding rod put the hammer drill/ jack hammer over the rod... pulled the trigger and it went in like nothing??? got off the ladder after it was lower and finished it.. it took less than 30 seconds!!!!!

​

I use the slow, but easy method with a garden hose in our clay soil. Water, then drive. Water, then drive.

.

 

[WSAC829]

with a garden hose

I did similar, but used a pressure washer instead to bore out the hole for the rod. A little messy, but the rod was in the ground within 5 minutes.

 

[slowmover]

“ . . I'm posting this thread in the interest of sharing my experience”.

A thread we’ve needed.

A video which accompanies:

.

 

[slowmover]

Ah, yes...the old ground rod question. I too live in a house with the crappy UFER ground. When I had to put in a new circuit breaker panel, I had the company put in two new ground rods and tie them back to the panel, then I put in a third ground rod for my coax grounding, and I tied that into everything as well. When in doubt...GROUND IT!

UFER - Multiple Connection Points?

I'll be pouring a foundation and slab for a new shop that will also be where I listen to a scanner. I'll be using a UFER ground for the electrical, embedded into the foundation pour. Is it possible/legal/inadvisable to have 3 connection points at different places along the wire? The "normal"...

forums.radioreference.com

A grounding question please

I've today run 3/8" copper braid from my 'shack' area through a wall, above a drop ceiling and to the outside where a copper bus bar awaits. This bus bar runs to my whole house main electrical grounding bar......so everything will be grounded at one point. My question is simply how to connect...

forums.radioreference.com

Yet more searching on details could reveal what’s desired for those reading along.

RR is a great resource.

.

 

[prcguy]

“ . . I'm posting this thread in the interest of sharing my experience”.

A thread we’ve needed.

A video which accompanies:

.

Nice setup and video, looks real nice.

 

[makerdino059]

I

“ . . I'm posting this thread in the interest of sharing my experience”.

A thread we’ve needed.

A video which accompanies:

.

I'll be posting a video in this thread detailing this installation once the project is complete. More supplies arrived yesterday:

• Guy wire and fasteners
• ceramic strain insulators
• screw in standoffs for coax and ground wire
• Plastic outdoor electrical junction box

More arriving today, including 50' of RG213 coax. The half wave 11 meter antenna I bought from Ebay came with 50' of coax wrapped in plastic.

BUT, in cleaning out the garage I accidentally threw it away along with a bunch of bubble wrap!!

...not the first timew something like that happened. Blame too much clutter buildup. Sometimes ya just gotta laugh and move on.

 

[StoliRaz]

https://a.co/d/0hqKR1d9

I use something like this with my demolition hammer drill to drive rebar into the ground for concrete forms. Not much clay where I am but the frost line is 4 feet down, it works great. Should work for a ground rod I would think. You could either rent a demo hammer/hammer drill or buy a cheap one from Horror Freight and sell it after.

 

[MUTNAV]

The only thing I would like to add is to remember is

1. (usually) only one wire per nut on the ground rod (ie if two wires per rod, use two nuts).

2. We used a fence post driver where I worked, the other people that had to install ground rods a lot used a gas powered jack hammer (that was known to take out fingers).

3. Consider making the nut interconnects accessable (in a pit, or above ground) for self inspection purposes. We would also make the wires point upward at the nut, so that a quick step would check to see if it was still secure.

4. No-Ox should be used on all of the connections if permanent.

5. It's really easy to mess up the threads when pounding in the rod, we used a threaded coupler to keep the top from flaring out so bad that a nut wouldn't slide over it.

Everything we installed was for short to long periods (like 3 days), for long period stuff (permanent installs) CAD welds were used (they're easy, and thermite, so it's entertainment value is high) and most runs were 4/0 copper wire.

I don't know if this is helpful, but it might give some ideas (or re-enforce others ideas?)

 

[makerdino059]

Power supply arrived today. This should take care of future needs as well.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

That Power Supply is a beast!

 

[makerdino059]

That Power Supply is a beast!

Indeed it is! Must weigh around 8 pounds. I spent a lot of time searching Ebay looking for this specific unit. $75 shipped.

 

[makerdino059]

Never hurts to have a visual plan.



Bill of materials for this base station:
20' galvanized antenna mast 1 1/4" pipe
18.5' 1/2 wave antenna with mount
50' RG213 coax
Guy wire clamp
Guy wire kit with 160' 1/8" coated stainless cable and turn buckles and screw anchors
Ceramic strain insulators
Stainless steel pipe clamps and lag bolts to mount antenna to deck post
Antenna pipe ground clamp
Screw standouts for coax from antenna where mounted to house structure (as per NEC 810.54)
Ground rod clamps
Three 8' ground rods
Plastic waterproof outdoor electrical box
Copper strip 8" x 2" x 1/8"
Copper ground bus bar
Lightning arrestor with replaceable gas discharge tube
Extra gas discharge tubes
Rubber grommets for electrical box
15' RG8 coax
Various lengths of # 10, 8 & 6 bare copper wire for grounding.

Total cost $700

...and of course the equipment in the house.
20 amp power supply
Radioddity QT 60 Pro radio

Total $325

Grand total $1025

 

[K6GBW]

If you do as you describe you will be set up better than 98 percent of the CB stations out there. Most people never give grounding a thought and put up janky masts that are liable to fall on people or hit houses. Doing a quality install pays off in the long run though.

 

[makerdino059]

Yes, and the idea is I can expand on this once I get my ham license. With the QT60 I have 10, 11, and 12 m capability. So once I get my technician license I can start using 10 and 12 meter bands with the same antenna and a tuner. After I get my general license, I may have to change antenna set up but I've got the infrastructure already there.

 

[niceguy71]

Never hurts to have a visual plan.

View attachment 197908

Bill of materials for this base station:
20' galvanized antenna mast 1 1/4" pipe
18.5' 1/2 wave antenna with mount
50' RG213 coax
Guy wire clamp
Guy wire kit with 160' 1/8" coated stainless cable and turn buckles and screw anchors
Ceramic strain insulators
Stainless steel pipe clamps and lag bolts to mount antenna to deck post
Antenna pipe ground clamp
Screw standouts for coax from antenna where mounted to house structure (as per NEC 810.54)
Ground rod clamps
Three 8' ground rods
Plastic waterproof outdoor electrical box
Copper strip 8" x 2" x 1/8"
Copper ground bus bar
Lightning arrestor with replaceable gas discharge tube
Extra gas discharge tubes
Rubber grommets for electrical box
15' RG8 coax
Various lengths of # 10, 8 & 6 bare copper wire for grounding.

Total cost $700

...and of course the equipment in the house.
20 amp power supply
Radioddity QT 60 Pro radio

Total $325

Grand total $1025

I know you've seen my video..... I don't think you need the guy wires if you put a pipe inside a pipe.... buy the 1-3/8" top rail fence pipes... it's very thin and not overly strong.... but if you cover it with 1- 1/4" EMT with couplings ....that pipe over a pipe is very strong. but also has a lot of give for wind.
I used 1/4" bolts 2-1/2" long above and below each pipe joint.... you also have to stager the joints... you don't want the inner pipe joint and the outer pipe joint at the same place.... so cut 5 feet off one of the pipes and it will always be staggered.

if you have a two story house? the high point of the house should be 20 feet high ( mount it at the highest point like at the peak )... so you could easily go up 30 feet then mount the antenna....
I think you can safely go up eight to ten feet above the highest antenna mount I put 33 feet of the pipe inside of pipe attached to the side of my house using 4 of these great stainless steel antenna brackets Stainless Antenna brackets will lag bolts
so I have about 8 feet above the highest antenna bracket..
the tip of my antenna ended up about 50 feet in the air.... but even if you get it 40 feet in the air it will work fantastic.
if you buy a fiberglass antenna make sure you paint it..... it will flake off very quickly from the sun's UV........ I did the camouflage and it's difficult to see unless you look for it ..blue grey and white rust-o-lum spray paint
make sure you buy rubber tape for the coax connection... put regular electrical tape on first then the rubber tape ... rubber tape kit from DX Engineering make sure you wrap it so the water drips down .... so you want the wraps to overlap so the water doesn't sit on the seam... I can't remember but I think I wrapped from the bottom up so when the water runs down .... it will drip onto the rubber tape and not sit on the seam.

set the pipes on a cement block on the ground ...so there is no weight on the antenna brackets.... the brackets just hold it to the house and don't have to support the weight.

this is the water proof box I bought water proof cable TV box from E-bay $35.00

it is a MAJOR pain in the neck to lift it all up... it took three people an a 100 feet of rope thrown over the house...... it's heavy and awkward so you want it painted... the SWR set and the coax all on it with the rubber tape... I don't plan on ever taking it down

I clamped mine onto a 10 foot pole and clamped it to a fence so I could adjust the SWR ... luckily my Solarcon A 99 AKA Antron -99 was perfect without any adjusting.



a $1000 ha ha ha ha .... good luck with that.... I was over $2000 grand when I was done... but I had to buy coax crimpers and coax strippers and ends and soldering equipment ... it really nickel and dime-d me to death.

feel free to ask any questions

 

[slowmover]

Y’all are showing the right way.

I have $12-1300 into the big truck radio rig.
Several times.

Value is performance, not money.
Put a dollar value on avoiding serious problems.

Nickel-and-Dime is still dealing with any of a range of those serious problems that might’ve been avoided a decade from now.
And chances forgone now impossible.

As a tool all of “Radio” is high value.

Do It Once
Do It Right.

As Radio is a tool — not a toy — the homeowner value goes up by more than the materials/labor cost.

Same as the comparable vehicle radio upgrade.
Whereas a pickup with off-road tires and lift kit is 100% a downgrade due to decreased performance and shorter lifespan.

.

 

[makerdino059]

Always appreciate advice and feedback.

As I mentioned in my 4th post in this thread, (with pictures) I'm using two 10' lengths of 1.25" fence top rail tubing, wall thickness of .050", welded at the slip joint, for a total of 20'. It will be mounted to 4" x 4" wooden post that rises up from the deck of our house which get's the antenna above my roof line, and about 30' AGL. I could go 10' higher with a third pipe but it won't make that much of an improvement down in this hollow our house in located in. I have mountains on all sides except a small window to the south. Even with the antenna mounted, I can raise this up and mount it in place by myself.

Hurricane Helene demonstrated just how much damage high winds can do around here. Guy wires are an easy thing to add to this setup, and it offers peace of mind in high winds. I already have all the supplies for this project so it's just a matter of allocating time on the weekends to put it all together.