250.94 and 810.

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dereckbc

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OK no rants this time, serious code question. Allow me to setup the question.

So you are Sammy Hammy Amateur Radio operator who can't spell NEC, and only knows enough to get hurt and even less about Grounding and Bonding. Without any planning or thought, you stick a tower up outside near an outside wall next to a room you call the SHACK. Go figure radio shack. Never occurred to you the AC Service is on the opposite side of house. So you get on DIY and Amateur Radio sites seeking help, bad mistake. Most tell you that is how it is done. Just pound a Ground Rod in dirt where the coax enters. You at least get enough info and told to make it safe, by running a 6 AWG radial Bonding Jumper in the dirt, and connect it to the AC Service Ground. So after you make the required bond to make a compliant GES, you bond the coax to the rod along with ADU, run the Coax inside along with a 750 MCM cable you use as a Station Ground that has no purpose. Then solder the 750 to a Ground Buss made out of 3/4 copper water pipe. Then you proceed to make a lot of rats nest and trip hazards bonding jumpers connected to everything in no order or fashion. As Sammy Hammy, your are proud, and have no clue what you just did or why. Comes right out of the ARRL Grounding and Bonding for Amateurs book. Or at least that is what they think. Are we on the same page guys? Can you see it or have you seen it.? I have way too many times. :). Doh! i am a hammy sammy. :cool:

OK I have been in Telecom all my 40 year career and would never ever recommend such a practice placing your home and equipment between two Earth Grounds. I know for fact that was Permitted in the code and it may still be, Don't do it that way. Honestly I have not looked in depth at 2014 and 2017 code cycles but have seen some possible significant changes to that practice. It appears the NEC has finally come around to my way of thinking and changed to Single Point Ground Entry Topology. We in Telecom ben doing that for 40 years. Really simple Grounding and Bonding topology. Bond everything in below dirt together, bond everything above dirt together, then bond the two together at one point only. To further expand, anything that comes from outside like Radio Coaxes , Telephone, CATV, SATV, ISP AC, Service , and I mean anything electrical. Must be brought to and bonded to the Ground Window aka IBT 250.94 before entering building envelope and kept isolated from any contact to Earth. In other words once the shields, SPD's Grounded Circuit Conductor and EGC will be an open circuit going no where. Ground begins and ends at the same point in space and never moves. In a Grounded System, Ground is where GEC meets utility Neutral Grounded Circuit Conductor. That is Zero-Voltage Reference. Exactly how any AC system is designed. You have ben doing that you rwhole career on th eAC side of the house. All EGC's originate at that Bond Junction. No outside faults can enter from utility and lightning. The Ground goes no where inside, straight to EARTH. No path to Earth after entering building. We all on the same page still?

Well if you look at NEC today, looks like that is what is implied pictorially in illustrations. Especially if you look at the Illustrations in 810 and the white paper Mike published on 810. However it is not spelled out that way in any text that I can find. Certainly implied in illustrations, but not spelled out.

OK took a long time to get to the question. Did the code change in 2011, 2014, or 2017 requiring Single Point Entry for all communications circuits? I have not noticed any text spelling it out yet, just illustrations. Or can Sammy Hammy keep his poor misguided practices, and stick a a rod in the dirt and pretend it is Ground?

THX guys.

Dereck
 
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Essentialy makes a single point ground.

Not when sammy hammy runs a lead from the IBT over to their shack, connects the coax to that, then runs another lead out the window to a new rod (GES -> IBT -> something-to-the-shack -> additional rod*). The problem is that extra rod; grounding radials for an HF rig add more fun. If they took a bonding jumper from the existing GES to their tower and any rods near by, then another lead from the IBT to the shack, then managed to keep the coax isolated from the tower structure, then.... it might be OK? (How's my logic, Derek?)

*I can't bring myself to call it a grounding electrode right now.

(Off to find my Handbooks, I think the earliest I have is 1950.)
 

dereckbc

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NEC requires an intersystem bond, see article 100 definition and section 250.94.
Essentialy makes a single point ground. Added maybe 2014 NEC?
Tom thanks I know the IBT can create the SPG, but I cannot find a test reference to be used in the manner I described. What I get out of the text the coax can be on the other side of the house from Ac Service, slap a ADU on the wall, and run a 10 AWG on the wall back to Service IBT. Coax does not go to before entering the house.

I am talking about running the coax trenched in around the house to AC IBT, bond the Coax , and then go inside through house or even back around on the house if necessary,

The illustrations do so all coax going directly to IBT after exiting tower to be bonded. But no where can I find that SHALL be done. What are the options today.?
 
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