How to weather protect lightning arrester mounted directly on ground rod?

Question

I have a very simple home HF setup, just one wire antenna. I'm having a ground rod installed soon, and am planning the best way to set up my exterior buss bar.

I'd really like to do an all-in-one solution right on the ground rod, like this:

In this configuration, a lightning arrester is mounted directly to a copper plate on the rod, and I'd run my ground strap right off the same plate into my shack.

This is very appealing and simple, and avoids more complex mounting solutions to the exterior of my house.

However, the lightning arresters and coax will be exposed to the elements. How are these typically weatherized? I don't see any examples of this in any photos, though it's regularly shown that this is a viable setup right on the ground rod.

I already have some weather proofing tape for coax, would it be enough to cover the connectors going in and out of the lightning arrester? Do I need to do more? What's best practice?

I can't find any examples that weatherize this kind of on-rod setup. Thanks.

Answer 1

Don't forget that for the sake of lightning protection, you should bond your ground rod to the ground rod at your electrical service panel, underneath where the electrical mains enter your house. This is required by electrical code in the US. Ideally all your feed lines should enter the house through a single service panel also, which is near the electrical mains service panel and bonded to it. I would strongly recommend that you give up some of the simplicity of your proposed solution and wire your antenna to the house according to the electrical codes that apply in your jurisdiction. Otherwise your station and your house would be very vulnerable to nearby lightning strikes, even if you disconnect the coax from the radio as the storm approaches.

Anyway, to answer your question, I would wrap the coaxial connections and about 4" or 10 cm of the coax with black self-fusing stretchy silicone tape, which is great for keeping water out. (Why black? That color resists fading and embrittlement from UV light the best.) Then I would put an upside-down bucket or something similar over the whole thing to protect the connections from rain and snow.

If a bucket isn't fancy enough, then you could sink a pressure-treated wooden post next to your ground rod into the earth, or in concrete, and then mount a box meant for electrical connections on the post, and have the coax and the ground rod come up through holes in the bottom of the box. Don't try and seal the box completely, because condensation would inevitably get inside and cause trouble. Leave some "weep holes" in the bottom of the box to allow any collected moisture to drip out.

Answer 2

That can be waterproofed with mastic tape or pads. Polyphaser sells an overpriced kit which is just a mastic pad (probably 3M 2229) and a roll of ordinary vinyl electrical tape.

The mastic comes in big pads or in rolls of various widths. A wide roll or pad will be easier to apply in this application, but you can probably find a 1" roll at your local hardware store which will also work. This stuff is very tacky and more like putty than tape. The mastic will be broken down by UV exposure so you can wrap over it with vinyl electrical tape or put it in some kind of box.

Protip: put one wrap of vinyl electrical tape around your connectors before you apply the mastic. If you do not, the mastic will ooze under the barrel you turn to unscrew the connectors and you'll never get them off.

Tangentially related to your question, if your objective is effective protection against equipment damage from lightning it's important that you have a single-point ground. I don't see any grounding for your AC power in this setup, so you'll want to consider adding that or introducing another grounding point where the feedlines and AC power meet up. See How can I protect equipment against a lightning strike?