I have a Patriot 12 antenna mounted to a 10 foot metal mast which is mounted to the eve on the peaked part of my roof which is all wooden construction. I am running from the metal mast very large diameter wire to a piece of rebar drove in the ground 7 feet. What if anything am I getting from doing this and is 7 feet deep enough to get a ground?
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Antenna grounding
- Thread starter hammer0630
- Start date
7 ft should be fine, running re-bar for a ground rod might be hurting your grounding but still should work for lighting protection. I run a similar setup on my house. I ran a heavy wire from my mast to the ground rod for the house (copper clad steel rod).
The wire I am running as my ground wire is actually the multi stranded guy wire galvanized that they use on telephone poles when the stress on the pole is uneven. And to reply to more grounding rods I had a Hell of a time just to get that one in 7 feet! There must be a better way!
Read through my writeup on grounding and read the links from Nautel, Broadcast Electronics, and Polyphaser. There is more to lightning and ground protection than just pounding rods into the ground. Done improperly you could be creating more of a problem than leaving things floating.
http://members.rennlist.org/warren/grounding.pdf
http://members.rennlist.org/warren/grounding.pdf
I'm running 6 gauge from the antenna mount bolts to a 8 foot copper clad ground rod driven 1 foot under the ground and another from the base of my tower to the same ground rod so my ground rod is actually 9 foot deep and ground wires are buried back to tower base. As for a pain to put in the ground I did mine while the ground was frozen here and used a 3 pound maul......It took about a case of beer
For the actual antenna, isn't the NEC recommendation a 14ga wire to ground?? It simply bleeds off the static charge to prevent the antenna from being hit in the first place??
Commonly used at broadcast and other commercial installations is 3-inch wide copper strap used to bond equipment. The antenna lines are bonded to the tower at the top and bottom (sometimes midway too). The lines should be bonded to the building AC ground before going to the equipment. Flexible 1-inch braid is good for connecting between the transmission lines and the ground strap.
Some manufacturers also suggest quarter wave shorted transmission lines as added protection. For CB, get yourself a Tee connector. It gets placed along your transmission line somewhere. On the third output connect a 6 foot piece of RG58 or RG8 cable with the far end shorted and soldered together. It will ensure the entire antenna is placed at DC ground.
Some manufacturers also suggest quarter wave shorted transmission lines as added protection. For CB, get yourself a Tee connector. It gets placed along your transmission line somewhere. On the third output connect a 6 foot piece of RG58 or RG8 cable with the far end shorted and soldered together. It will ensure the entire antenna is placed at DC ground.
If you dig a small hole-(just about six inches deep) and fill it with water, then put your ground rod in the center of the hole and work it up and down. Keep the hole filled with water and you can sink the ground rod to depth by hand!
I didn't believe it either but after setting a eight foot copper rod through clay, I was amazed!
Try it you'll like it!
I have all my radio equipment grounded to this rod as well!
Good luck!
B
BOOTY MONSTER
Guest
"For CB, get yourself a Tee connector. It gets placed along your transmission line somewhere. On the third output connect a 6 foot piece of RG58 or RG8 cable with the far end shorted and soldered together. It will ensure the entire antenna is placed at DC ground."
can you explain how that works a little more please ?
and how does that not act like a needle stuck in the coax ?
also , what's your opinion of Morgan’s M-300 Series arrestors ?
http://www.morganmfg.us/radio-products/impulse-suppressors-arrestors/
thanks .
can you explain how that works a little more please ?
and how does that not act like a needle stuck in the coax ?
also , what's your opinion of Morgan’s M-300 Series arrestors ?
http://www.morganmfg.us/radio-products/impulse-suppressors-arrestors/
thanks .
This may be lame but in a way it is tied in!
All my equipment is earth grounded through the third plug on the cords!
Before I get thrashed for that comment, I am going to add a couple more rods and bond everything together including the electric company's rod!
My problem is that the electric company's ground rod is on the other side of the house which is about seventy-five too eighty five ft away from my antenna and rods!
All my equipment is earth grounded through the third plug on the cords!
Before I get thrashed for that comment, I am going to add a couple more rods and bond everything together including the electric company's rod!
My problem is that the electric company's ground rod is on the other side of the house which is about seventy-five too eighty five ft away from my antenna and rods!