nayr
Member
I erected 2 antennas on my roof on-top of 10ft galvanized poles bolted to sewer vent, guy wires have held strong this week with gusts up to 70mph.
My house is old and the basement is full of copper, even my sewer pipes are giant copper pipes. I am using the water pipes as a grounding bus. There are 3 small basement windows on 3 different sides of the house with the water main running past them. Each window well I pounded in an 8ft grounding rod and bonded it to the water main with 4ga solid copper wire. Sanded the water pipe fresh at each junction. The window well on the back side of the house is feet away from the power main, I bonded the rod in this window directly to the rod my circuit box is using again with 4ga wire.
My Radios are mounted in a Steel Server Cabinet with a solid copper stick running across the back rails of each rack and bonded together. The grounding rail is bonded to water pipe few feet away with 4ga solid copper wire. The window well in my server room I mounted a 3ft piece of nickel coated angle iron directly to the grounding rod with stainless u-bolts... I can only afford gas arrestors at this time but they are bolted directly to the angle iron. The feed line enters my server room through the same window.
In the laundry room I bonded the water main to the sewer pipes (masts are on sewer remember) with 4ga wire. I have a swamp cooler on the roof already grounded to the water main in the basement with 4ga, I need some more wire but I plan on bonding the masts directly to the swamp cooler ground on the roof.
Is there anything I am missing/doing wrong? I read up alot but its all so complex.. I tried to make nice gradual turns and bends as much as possible.. I dont know how wise it is to use my water mains, I assume it'll work fine with alot of paths to ground but it does take sharp turns which isint good.
It'd take several hundred feet of copper to directly bond the masts to a grounding rod; would it be worth it?
Eventually I'd like to put up a 40' self supporting mast outside my server room, perhaps then I can bond everything externally then with an array of rods going around the house.
I'd like to be able to survive a modest lightning strike; I do have home-owners insurance but they wont cover the hundreds of hours I have into work being done down there. I am not made of copper however.
*edit*
Radio Power supply on a pair of 30A APC Battery UPS, my electrical box is too old for a whole house surge protector but I might be able to put one in the basement subpanel. (Which can only be grounded to power main)
Thanks,
-R
My house is old and the basement is full of copper, even my sewer pipes are giant copper pipes. I am using the water pipes as a grounding bus. There are 3 small basement windows on 3 different sides of the house with the water main running past them. Each window well I pounded in an 8ft grounding rod and bonded it to the water main with 4ga solid copper wire. Sanded the water pipe fresh at each junction. The window well on the back side of the house is feet away from the power main, I bonded the rod in this window directly to the rod my circuit box is using again with 4ga wire.
My Radios are mounted in a Steel Server Cabinet with a solid copper stick running across the back rails of each rack and bonded together. The grounding rail is bonded to water pipe few feet away with 4ga solid copper wire. The window well in my server room I mounted a 3ft piece of nickel coated angle iron directly to the grounding rod with stainless u-bolts... I can only afford gas arrestors at this time but they are bolted directly to the angle iron. The feed line enters my server room through the same window.
In the laundry room I bonded the water main to the sewer pipes (masts are on sewer remember) with 4ga wire. I have a swamp cooler on the roof already grounded to the water main in the basement with 4ga, I need some more wire but I plan on bonding the masts directly to the swamp cooler ground on the roof.
Is there anything I am missing/doing wrong? I read up alot but its all so complex.. I tried to make nice gradual turns and bends as much as possible.. I dont know how wise it is to use my water mains, I assume it'll work fine with alot of paths to ground but it does take sharp turns which isint good.
It'd take several hundred feet of copper to directly bond the masts to a grounding rod; would it be worth it?
Eventually I'd like to put up a 40' self supporting mast outside my server room, perhaps then I can bond everything externally then with an array of rods going around the house.
I'd like to be able to survive a modest lightning strike; I do have home-owners insurance but they wont cover the hundreds of hours I have into work being done down there. I am not made of copper however.
*edit*
Radio Power supply on a pair of 30A APC Battery UPS, my electrical box is too old for a whole house surge protector but I might be able to put one in the basement subpanel. (Which can only be grounded to power main)
Thanks,
-R
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