Grounding Masts Together?

[FlyingGorilla]

So I'm installing a second mast to mount a beam and rotator on and I have a question about grounding. The new mast will be located 60ft away from my first mast, which is grounded and that ground connected to the house ground a further 75ft away.

Can I save on ground wire by connecting the second mast ground to the first and be NEC compliant? Or do I have to run a separate ground connection between the house ground and the second mast's ground to be NEC compliant?

 

[krokus]

All the gounds need to be connected, and bonded, to your electrical service drop's ground. Do not make a loop with your ground connections.

From your description, it sounds like your new mast will be further from our house. In that case, tie that one on the closer mast's ground, which must be tied to the house's ground. The ground leads need to be grounded every eight feet, while traversing distances along the ground.

Look up step potential, to see why the grounds need to be grounded in transit.

 

[merlin]

Where my mast for vertical antenna was grounded bot by rod and power service ground, they were both bonded.
My tower for beams, I used two ground rods 6 foot each side of the tower. I checked the separate grounds and no loops.
Everything in the shack was grounded, same as service. all was good.
If you do bond both together, you should ground rod longer distance at the distal end.

 

[FlyingGorilla]

All the gounds need to be connected, and bonded, to your electrical service drop's ground. Do not make a loop with your ground connections.

From your description, it sounds like your new mast will be further from our house. In that case, tie that one on the closer mast's ground, which must be tied to the house's ground. The ground leads need to be grounded every eight feet, while traversing distances along the ground.

Look up step potential, to see why the grounds need to be grounded in transit.

Appears I'm going to be making a major investment in ground rods. Makes me wish this house had been built with a peripheral ground system. It would have been easy to tie into that.

But with a retaining wall and paved driveway in place I can't retrofit a peripheral ground system. And I can't even just run a ground connector the shorter distance around from the second mast's ground to tie to the service ground.

Guess I'll buy a demolition hammer kit and a ground rod driving attachment to go along with all the ground rods I'll need. Swinging a sledgehammer is not something this old guy is up to anymore.

 

[KJ4DHF]

I bought a rod driver for my Hilti hammer 20 years ago well worth it for driving rods.

 

[mmckenna]

Guess I'll buy a demolition hammer kit and a ground rod driving attachment to go along with all the ground rods I'll need. Swinging a sledgehammer is not something this old guy is up to anymore.

Those are great tools if you are an electrician.

For running in a few rods, you can save some money and just use one of these:

VEVOR Fence Post Driver,2.7 in. Inner Diameter T Post Pole Pounder. Dig, 14LB.Carbon Steel, Farm Fencing Hole Digger, Red WLDZQ27INCH1W6YQMV0 - The Home Depot

www.homedepot.com

I used one of those for years. You still need to smack in the last foot or so, but that's usually pretty easy once the rod in well into the ground.

 

[N5ZKK]

Appears I'm going to be making a major investment in ground rods. Makes me wish this house had been built with a peripheral ground system. It would have been easy to tie into that.

But with a retaining wall and paved driveway in place I can't retrofit a peripheral ground system. And I can't even just run a ground connector the shorter distance around from the second mast's ground to tie to the service ground.

Guess I'll buy a demolition hammer kit and a ground rod driving attachment to go along with all the ground rods I'll need. Swinging a sledgehammer is not something this old guy is up to anymore.

Good luck and please send us an update with a couple of pictures.

I used a fence post driver for most of my ground rods. It is a heavy steel pipe with handles. Ear plugs required.
Here is the write up on my QTH and as you can see I spent a lot of money on the stuff outside of the shack. AME-25 Radio Tower project