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Jay

@chrisfarnham Nicely done. That huge copper plate will be handy for so many future projects! Curious though, why the nice thick strap indoors, and then a lighter wire to the panel ground? That's the wire you want to "melt last."

@ve3mal I am not an electrician but here is my understanding. The wire to the panel ground is pretty heavy. It is 9 gauge solid copper whereas the strap is braided. I believe that lightning will take the shortest path to ground (i.e., the panel) so it will travel that way and ignore the braid.

The braid goes to the grounding bus and is there to prevent ground loops and inside the shack RFI.

@ve3mal The overall configuration is there to solve three separate but related issues:
- Preventing ground loops and in-shack RFI with the ground bus and braid
- Lightning protection from the antenna with the arrester, copper sheet and bonding conductor
- Electric shock protection inside the shack with the traditional electric grounding

@chrisfarnham Lightning will take all paths to ground, distributed approximately in proportion to the impedance to ground. So yes, nearly all of it will go through that short wire to the panel as you intend. For the cost, however, I would want to ensure that the coax melts before that wire, and keep the impedance to ground through it as low as possible. There's no harm in adding some of that nice thick braid to the panel ground too, or a very heavy gauge wire.