My main concern is safety, because I know for a fact we get strong lightning here by the scars on the trees.
I think I need to bond-solder some super thick wire to- to tie the two ground rods we had put in when we upgraded our electric service to a 'shack' antenna entrance plate, which must be made out of a big chunk of solid copper. (where to get? - or would the thick copper sheeting that I have (but thin enough to be bendable) be okay? I do have one piece of copper large enough for a bunch of larger antenna connectors (it currently has a bunch of small ones on it already) which I could use for now.
I can put in additional ground rods too. I just don't want to spend money to have somebody come out and do it when I can do it myself. Maybe to check it if the code requires that. That would be okay.
I'd rather spend the money on more copper pipe to hammer into the ground and wire to connect it all together. Wire between house ground and antenna base ground? That's likely to be long and costly.
The tree I am going to put my antenna into has already been struck by lightning once.
I live less than a kilometer from a ridge which is one of the main north south 'mountains' in the area and if I lived there I would have a commanding view in all directions of the entire tri-state area. (NY, NJ and CT) Commercial tower providers exist along that ridge, its that good of a view. Unfortunately I am down a fair bit and behind it so I have to go on a hike and up a bit of a hill as well, to enjoy such a view (Or buy a big tower! Too big, price wise for me now.)
We don't have the view, but we do get the lightning. And we do have the volcanic rock too. The crappiest grounding anywhere?
Maybe not. There is also clay here which isn't so bad from what I have read. The soil here was likely deposited here by glaciation and so its a mix of all sorts of stuff from north of here that was carried southward.
But it seems as if its perhaps not so good from the RF noise and failure of my attempts so far to get rid of it fully.
tkamiya, have you tried putting a "unun" there where your long wire antenna starts? You might want to give that a shot - a 9:1 unun. Receive especially would definitely be quieter with an Unun- there connecting your (transceiver)and coax to the long wire+ground.