Standards and Guidelines for Communications Sites

Richard McClelland, AA5S

I was just perusing a request for bid for replacing a communications tower in the hills west of town and I found a reference to this document:  https://sites.auburn.edu/admin/facilities/spw-bid-calendar/11-150%20AU%20Regional%20Airport-Construc...  This looks like it has some value to this crowd (even though everyone is understandably distracted with the new radios.)

WD4EGF

Thanks Richard. This is great info, and especially appropriate here in South Alabama. I read once that if you have cables leaving a tower at 6 feet off the ground (above the twr ground), going into the shack, that point can be several thousand volts at the peak current during a strike. I'm all for keeping that out of my house! I once serviced a station made up of a mobile radio in a mounting tray. The eq. was tied to two grounds in the building. After the radio had been welded into the tray by a hit, we found the two ground points going to two different ground systems, one of which didnt tie back to the tower. Lots of current found its way through that radio... let the smoke out too.

David Decoons, wo2x

The R56 manual that is online is old and has some info that is outdated with today's best practices.
Not sure what they charge or what the latest version is but the link above is to the 2005 version, now 13 years old.

Dave wo2x
(former Motorolan)

Richard McClelland, AA5S

That's good to know, thank you.  I'll hunt around and see if I can find a newer version.  I found this document in a current request for bid so maybe I should pass this along to Larimer County as well.

David Decoons, wo2x

Still good info, just some things have changed over the last 13 years.

Dave wo2x

Marc Lalonde

i curious that it not cover any  Bulkhead surge protector as coax entry point ?

i use it on all my cable entry for better grounding and stop EMI 

David Decoons, wo2x

I use the Poly Phaser devices on my antennas here. I mounted a copper buss bar where the cables enter the garage. The bar is connected to the ground rods and the Poly Phasers are mounted on the buss bar. Dave wo2x

Marc Lalonde

here remote station is build into a maritime container ,so i use it as Faraday cage
the whole container i use as ground buss bar  ;-)  ,whit ground rod all around 
i think it a safe design  ,and i prefer it to  many ground kit