ml wrote:
In article ,
Jake Brodsky wrote:

ml wrote:
so how do the pro's do it??
The steel structure of the sky scraper is one of the best grounds you
could have. It is effectively a Faraday shield around everything.

You ought to find out where the ground connections for the existing
lighting rods are and use that. If there are no lightning rods around
(shudder) find some structural steel close to your antenna, and bug
(clamp) on to it. I would also suggest following an electrical panel
ground around to see where its ground is. They too ought to be on
building steel.

Good Luck!

Jake Brodsky
Amateur Radio Station AB3A

hate to show my ignorance, but are the ibeams really 'ground'?
usually i've seen them either sitting on concreate squares or on
larger concreate foundation wall like things so i always figured
they'd be rather isolated from ground beside what little connecitivity
was in the concreate itself which i know would carry a lightning
strike, if hit but not the other way around ie higher resistance
so i ponder

same for the electrical pannel ground to be attached to the building
steel ??

i dunno

If the building steel weren't grounded, you'd have serious damage every
time a thunderstorm came along. The building would get struck by
lightning and then it would have to make a path to ground SOMEHOW.
Often, static charges could build up just from wind blowing past a
building. Can you imagine the static discharge of a whole building
against some poor slob who happens to touch it by accident? It would be
deadly...

In any case, most building standards I've heard of do require building
steel to be grounded.


Jake Brodsky
Amateur Radio Station AB3A