Tower Grounding

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With the towers up, it was time to work on grounding. Two books influenced my thinking and actions on this topic.

Grounding and Bonding for the Radio Amateur, Ward Silver, N0AX. Published by ARRL

Lightning Protection – A Comprehensive Guide for Amateur Radio, Ron Block, NR2B. Available at https://www.wrblock.com/book

Both are excellent and recommended reading for anyone with a station in a lightning-prone area (like Ohio).

July 21, 2026

I decided to use one ground rod for each leg of the tower, with a copper strap circling the tower to connect everything.

Driving the ground rods was easy in the rich topsoil. I had to stand on a ladder and use a sledgehammer to get them started.

For the south tower, I tried just making a slit in the earth and pushing the strap into it.

I used clamps from DX Engineering to connect the copper strap to the tower legs. The clamps are simply hose clamps with a piece of stainless steel welded to them. The intent is to reduce corrosion due to dissimilar metals at the connection. I used plenty of SS-30 between every connection.

The clamps that connect the strap to the ground rods are a piece of art when you take them out of the package. They made the connection easy and very solid. The strap going all the way around is bonded to the strap coming from each leg at the ground rod.

August 3, 2026

For the north tower, I dug a trench around the tower. It was too hard to push the copper strap into the dirt. The trench was the way to go.

I filled in the trench and covered the ground rods. And with that, several hundred dollars of copper disappeared waiting for their chance to conduct (or prevent) a lightning strike.

Grounding bill of materials (per tower):