You have gotten good advice so far. I particularily like this one:
I do not have any of my radios connected to the ground system other than via the coax shield.
I want to put lightning energy to ground outdoors, Not THROUGH my equipment.
That's very true. That's also contrary to most people's conceived notion that this must be a big short wire or strap.
- Tower is grounded to a ground rod located right next to the tower.
As others have already said, you need more than one ground rod. The more ground rods you have at the tower, the less lightning current you will have going thru the ground wire to the house. Most people recommend at least three rods. I usually recommend 9. I have more than that.
- The ground rod from the tower is also connected to the ground rod from the house using size 4 copper wire.
Is that the ground rod at your radio entrance panel or the house AC entrance panel ground rod? For minimum lightning current going thru your gear, the connection length between those two ground rods should be short.
- I have on order a copper grounding bar that will be mounted on the outside of the house just below the feed entrance.
- The two lightning arrestors will be mounted to the grounding bar.
- The grounding bar itself will be connected to the ground rod at the antenna base using size 4 copper wire.
Do I bring in a ground from the grounding bar, to connect to the gear?
It sounds like your tower is very close to your house. How far away is it? The closer it is to the house, the more important the lenght of the wire connecting the radio entrance panel ground rod and the AC ground rod. If the tower is close to the house, you don't have the large inductance of a long ground wire to the house. That means there will be much more current directed toward the house, and that means you have to greatly minimize the voltage drop between the radio entrance panel ground rod and the AC ground rod to keep current from flowing thru your equipment.
- I have some components with a three prong (grounded) plug, do these need to be grounded to the incoming ground as well?
- Would I not be creating a "ground loop" this way?
When you tie the entrance panel ground to the AC entrance ground rod those grounds will be connected together outside the house. They will also be connected together at your rig because both grounds tie to the chassis of your rig. The ground loop which can cause a problem is when the outside connection between these grounds is long. A voltage drop between these points will force current thru your rig. To elminate the ground loop problem, the connection between these two ground rods much be short enough that they don't look like they are separate (minimum voltage drop between the two). The only way to do that is to keep the wire short. The impedance of that wire at high frequencies (lightning has a lot of those) is almost totally dependant on its inductance and that is dependant on its length.
Jerry, K4SAV
