Grounding HD Antenna

[wireguy8169]

A customer has put up an HD antenna, I did not do it. Anyhow I was looking at the instructions as I was curious and saw a section on grounding. There are no metal parts and the cable that comes with it has a low voltage supply and the coax (one cable). If it needed to be grounded what would you gound it to if there are no terminals and nothing metallic, I would say it would not be grounded I think the instructions are for more than one type of anttena the manufacture makes and so its in there.? I know this is an ambiguous question and leaves much room for interpretation as well as may not have enough info for some to answer but figured I would see what comes up.

Thanks

 

[Cavie]

The dish is not aluminium?? I gotta get out more.

 

[97catintenn]

You run the coax through a grounding block

 

[Smart $]

You run the coax through a grounding block

Yep....

The shield of coax is required to be grounded with a grounding block (mostly if the antenna is mounted outdoors vs. in say an attic where all coax is indoors).

Also, it is not the antenna which needs to be grounded (the antenna wouldn't work if it were grounded) but if there is a conductive mast associated with mounting the antenna, it is required to be grounded.

 

[hurk27]

If the amplified HD antenna ( I get a kick out of them being called this) is mounted on a metal pole I would use a F-grounding block at the antenna bonding it to the pole then at the bottom of the pole run a grounding conductor to a rod using the shortest path possible then bond this rod with a #6 back to the service grounding electrode system.

Use another F-grounding block at the point the coax enters the building and bond it also to the grounding electrode system, which if the grounding conductor is over 20' to the grounding electrode system then either use the same ground rod and bond back to the electrode system or install another also which has to be bonded back the the electrode system, if you lay it out right you can hit the first F-grounding block hit the mast, hit the second grounding block, then hit the installed rod, then to the electrode system. the F-grounding up at the antenna is not required by code but with some of these types of antennas it the only way to bond the antenna which can still be struck through the plastic case by lightning.

Oh the reason I get a kick of an antenna being called HD, is an antenna is designed for the frequency bandwidths it will operate in, not the mode of operation such as digital, HD, FM, AM, USB, LSB, FSK, CW, Etc... any common good quality designed Yagi with a good high gain amp will will deliver just as good of reception and maybe even better because when they stoop to advertise an antenna as design for HD, what else are they covering up.:roll:

 

[K8MHZ]

If the amplified HD antenna ( I get a kick out of them being called this) is mounted on a metal pole I would use a F-grounding block at the antenna bonding it to the pole then at the bottom of the pole run a grounding conductor to a rod using the shortest path possible then bond this rod with a #6 back to the service grounding electrode system.

Use another F-grounding block at the point the coax enters the building and bond it also to the grounding electrode system, which if the grounding conductor is over 20' to the grounding electrode system then either use the same ground rod and bond back to the electrode system or install another also which has to be bonded back the the electrode system, if you lay it out right you can hit the first F-grounding block hit the mast, hit the second grounding block, then hit the installed rod, then to the electrode system. the F-grounding up at the antenna is not required by code but with some of these types of antennas it the only way to bond the antenna which can still be struck through the plastic case by lightning.

Oh the reason I get a kick of an antenna being called HD, is an antenna is designed for the frequency bandwidths it will operate in, not the mode of operation such as digital, HD, FM, AM, USB, LSB, FSK, CW, Etc... any common good quality designed Yagi with a good high gain amp will will deliver just as good of reception and maybe even better because when they stoop to advertise an antenna as design for HD, what else are they covering up.:roll:

You sure know more about radio than the average Sparky.

There are some antennas that are better with OTA digital than others and are being marketed as such. All they are is Yagis or LPDA's with more elements in the UHF band. Overall gain is determined by boom length.

The best set up is a long boom Yagi or LPDA on a rotor with a pre-amp mounted at the base of the antenna. Don't use coax from Rat Shack as the shielding is just about useless. The low loss quad shield the CATV company uses is the best.

New TVs are much more sensitive than using an old CRT with a box. The difference is quite remarkable.

All I have right now is an old (20 plus) year old antenna with an element or two missing. It's stuck pointed straight north and has some really crappy coax feeding it. I am only 600 feet ASL and get the stations from Traverse City like they were next door and they are over 70 miles away. Today's project was to fix my buddy's bucket truck so I can use it to work on my TV antenna. But it's now snowing. Snow is just retarded rain. It's not smart enough to melt when it hits the ground.

Most people don't have a clue as to how many OTA channels you can get and how great the signal is.

Another thing people don't do is re-scan the channels once in a while. Tropospheric propagation can increase both UHF and VHF reception distances up to a couple hundred miles and sporadic E propagation can increase VHF reception up to 1000 miles. Tropo is common mid to late summer and sporadic E is dependent on what's happening on the sun and can affect us at any time of the year. As we are getting into the more active part of the solar cycle, more sporadic E propagation will occur.

 

[wireguy8169]

The dish is not aluminium?? I gotta get out more.

Not that I see, and what ever is inside the plastic rotates and finds the signal. There is nothing metalic on the whole set up again that I can see.

 

[wireguy8169]

You run the coax through a grounding block

the cable is ran all the way back to the other cable drops that exist in the house and the HO is going to have it hooked up there. Could the grounding block be installed there and the conductor and connected to the GEC from there as it is next to the panel? Again, her friend did it for her so she may not even want me to do it.

 

[Smart $]

the cable is ran all the way back to the other cable drops that exist in the house and the HO is going to have it hooked up there. Could the grounding block be installed there and the conductor and connected to the GEC from there as it is next to the panel? Again, her friend did it for her so she may not even want me to do it.

The grounding block has to be located outside or inside near as practicable to the cable's point of entrance to the building.