Re: fire hydrant rf ground?

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>

In a message dated 4/9/03 4:32:50 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:
>Hi Adam,
>
>At 03:10 PM 4/9/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>
> >Do fire hydrants make good rf grouds for tesla coil use?
>
>I can't imagine anything much better!
>
> >how would i go about hooking a wire up to the hydrant?
>
>Some type of clamp.  Maybe a C-clamp.  Be sure not to hurt the hydrant or
>attract attention of the authorities that might not see the beauty of the
>setup ;-))
>
>I would not go loosening any bolts on the hydrant.  You don't want to hurt
>it in anyway.
>
>You might have to scrap away 50 layers of paint to get a connection.  Paint
>it back over when done.



Hi Adam, Terry,

As a professional firefighter, I'm going to pretend that I didn't just
read any of the above paragraphs :-) Seriously though, like Terry
says, I don't think that the municipal authorities would appreciate
your sparks as much as you would if they noticed your special RF
ground connected to their beloved hydrant. And if the connection
were to interfere in any way with the fire fighters from attaching
their soft suction hose from their  pumper to the plug with their
plug wrench, I can assure you firsthand that they won't appreciate
it either <:-O Remember, the house/life they save could be yours!
So although a hydrant would make a heck of an RF ground, "I"
would encourage you to obtain one or more of those 8 ft. long cop-
per clad grounding rods at your local builders supply/ hardware
stores (Home Depot, Lowes, ect.) and pound all but about 6" of
it into preferably damp soil. They make good RF grounds, too :-)

David Rieben