Reply To: Grounding your station
I went through this exercise recently setting up my QTH. In short, yes, I did drive an 8′ ground rod. I have a single random wire antenna going through a lightning arrestor, grounded to the rod. the rod is also tied to the rebar in my house foundation. While not currently tied to my electrical ground rod I will be running ~100′ of #6AWG stranded copper connecting the two. Similar to Charlie, when we start getting electrical storms I unplug my antenna and stick the connector in a ceramic jar away from my radio. Also, as Charlie mentioned, Joe (K6AWA) is a good resource of information however, his home is in the coastal mountains ~1,400′ ASL so his situation calls for more drastic measures.
I figure do it once, do it right. In the rare chance a strike does happen at or very close to me I’d like to give my equipment the best chance of survival.
Slightly off topic and this needs no response but there are websites and apps (if you’re a smart phone user) that can show you lightning strikes:
Blitzortung
73
Aaron
KK6ZDB