Re: grounding was Eithernet Vs. Tesla Coil...

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Pete Komen by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<pkomen-at-zianet-dot-com>
> 
> Justin,
> 
> I live in the desert southwest.  The ground is dry unless watered.  I ran
> 240V isolated by transformer to two 8 foot grounding rods about 5 feet
> apart.  It drew about 2 amps.  I have since improved the ground, but I don't
> have any new measurements.  The two rods seemed to work but the resistance
> seemed high.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Pete Komen

	That current would imply a resistance of the order of 200 ohms.  Here
in rather dry Southern Californi I get a resistance of 600 ohms between
similar rods.  Lousy grounds and not suitable for ham radio "vertical
against ground" antenna system, as the mike "gets hot" when the power is
on.  Connection to the water main from the street gives much better
performance.  I measure an equivalent ground circuit resistance of about
30 ohms.  We have about 150 feet of 2" copper pipe coming to the house
and I don't know whether the connection at the street is insulating or
not.

	I run my TC in the attic of the garage at the back of the lot, where I
use a ground connection consisting of a #10 wire running to the tower
with my beam on it.  The base of the tower is "grounded" to three 8 foot
ground rods, and is next to a rose garden which receives lots of "tender
loving" care and watering from the other half of the family.  This
ground seems quite satisfactory and I use it primarily because I don't
want to get any primary circuit HV appearing on the secondary due to an
accidental primary-secondary arc or short.

Ed

Ed