AC5ZO

AC5ZO - Micheal Stuart

These are my notes from my discussion with Micheal Stuart, AC5ZO, on 11 April 2005.

• One ground at base
• 10' or 12' spacing with 8' ground rods
• Trench 18" - Consider backhoing spots where ground rods are to give room for making cadwell bonds
• Cadwell bonds w/2# solid or #4 stranded - #4 stranded has same diameter as #2 solid and Gerry's mold will work. Mike uses the same mold.
• Lay down 2" x 35' copper strip in each trench
• Dope trench with ion heavy salts - calcium cloride, sodium bicarbonate, Bentonite Clay ($10/200lb), fertilizer.
• No strong neutral or acidic salts
• Keep PH > +7
• Use Aluminum rod at base as a sacrificial rod to decay and balance copper content
• Connect to base of tower using 12ga wire.
• Water proof connections - Use Penatrox under stainless steel foil and seal to keep water out
• Use electric hammer to drive ground rods
• Available to Upper Rio FM Society members
• check with Paul Choc (look in roster)
• Will drive rod in two / three minutes and will bend rod if needed around obsticals
• Use Alpha Delta or PolyPhaser surge protectors at tower top and base, and at the entrance of the shack
• Mike doesn't like the base grounding system where you strip and clamp the coax to the ground bar - worries about weather proofing and water in the coax
• Use #2 welding cable to bond tower sections together
• Use cable hangers (chinesse finger trap style) to hang cables - will keep coax from bending at right angles when collapsing tower
• Look at C-4SXL as alternative to C-4XL - shorter boom length (23' vs. 36') without performance loss
• Suggests two seperate runs of coax to feed 40m section and 20-10m section
• Suggests using HDX-555 to increase wind load (from 25sqft to 35sqft) due to high NM winds and his calculations show I am very close to the limit of the TX-455 with the rotor, C-4XL, and having the C-4XL any higher than 24" on mast.
• Static discharge crown from Nott Limitted in Farmington, NM.
• wire, boxes, etc can be had at Border States (I-25 Jefferson & Singer) or Grainger - Order online and specify "will call" to save on shipping
• Bond cross overs at ground rods
• should be able to top bond on existing bonds - may have to clean up 5/8" post for next bond.
• McMaster Carr should have 2" copper stripping - ~$.35 or ~$.45/ft
  www.mcmaster.com
• Get #95 charge for cadwell bonds
• Check Ebay for deals - ~10/$20 (usually ~$7 local)
• Get two or three extra charges to avoid being short if something doesn't work