Proper Grounding Again

[gmtussb]

I am a new member to this forum but have monitored it for a while. You guys do a great job!

I wanted to jump in on the grounding stuff again with my particular setup with a diagram so everyone is talking about the same thing specifically. I have read all the other grounding threads that I could find but still could not get my answer.

I installed my old 3 LNB dish on the side of my house and had the 4 wires go through a grounding 2 dual blocks. The grounding blocks and the dish itself were attached with the proper sized copper wire to the 8 foot ground rod driven into the dirt next to my electrical service. My house uses that 8 foot ground rod.

I used an authorized local DirecTV to install my new Slimline because I did not want to deal with the DirecTV subcontactor that comes out of another city. My local person is a good guy with 12 years of experience and also does home theater systems and other low voltage house wiring stuff.

He had to move the Slimline to the back of the house and install it on a pole because of the position of blocking trees on the west side of my house.

He says the following:
A. The metal pole that the dish is mounted on is OK to "ground it" to the ground. The pole is probably 2 1/2 feet in the gound. I do not need another 8 foot long grounding rod driven into the ground next to the dish support pole.

B. He did not use grounding blocks in the coax because he states it's just not nessesary. Any voltage or static from the dish will go through the "path of least resistance" and go down the dish support pole. It will not follow the coax in to the house.

C. He says he will come back and install whatever I want.

So my questions still are.

1. Is a dish support pole really as good as a 8 foot grounding rod?

2. Should I have him drive in a 8 foot grounding rod next to the pole? There is a lot of rock in my area and we may not get it down far?

3 Should I have him install grouding blocks in a weather proof box and run a wire to the support pole?

4. The old 8 foot grounding rod next to my electrical service is pobably 60 feet away so I don't think I can use it?

Thanks for your input.

[RobertE]

1. No

2. I wouldn't. Do avoid the possibilty of a ground loop, you'd still need to bond that ground rod to the house ground.

3. Maybe.

4. You can.

What I would do, if possible, is to run the coax from your new slimline to your existing ground blocks and go from there.

Btw, like the fact that your house is not to scale in your pic. :D

[Dknow]

No the FLOODED cable must run to the home ground where a quad groundblock must be installed and then grounded. Also the flooded cable must have a messenger wire that should be self-tapped and ground lug mounted at the bottom of the pole mount. This messenger wire must then be screwed in at the ground block for your system to be properly grounded. The pole alone is not an acceptable ground. Your local guy either is naive or lazy.

[K4SMX]

Welcome to DBSTalk.com!

I don't know why the location of your 3 LNB dish wasn't used. It works for a 5 LNB dish 99% of the time. That would solve all these grounding problems. The only additional LOS issue is for 99 and 103 degrees , and that's only 2 degrees away on either side from 101, which we know already works. Possibly you already have LOS problems there?

[gmtussb]

RobertE,

If I run the new coax from the Slimline to the old grounding blocks that is about a 60 foot run. Then I would have to run back into the house to the 4 coax drops in the house which would be abother 20 to 40 feet going the other way. So that is about 100 feet of coax before the receivers, is that OK?

Also, that still does not take care of grounding the dish itself. Do I run a thick copper wire around the foundation of my house to get to the service grounding rod?

Thanks for your response RobertE.

[gmtussb]

K4SMX,

Thanks for the welcome.

I really believed him when he said there were trees that were going to hurt my signal on the west side of my house for the 5 LNB. My signal with the 3 LNB was getting marginal because the trees, in my neighbors yard, have been going with time. The other night we had a big rainfall here and the new Slimline had no rain drop out at all. I was impressed. I think my old 3 LNB would have dropped out.

[bt-rtp]

gmtussb,

The standards for grounding are defined in the National Electric Code (NEC).

In your case, it can be argued which approach is better. I had a similar situation with my satellite antenna location from the ground rod being far away becasue it was located at the main electric panel.

My solution was to install a second 8' ground rod at the antenna location. At this point the antenna frame and the four coax cables are grounded. A second #6 copper wire is also connected and run along the side of the house at ground level to the original ground rod at the main electric panel. It is called "bonding two ground rods together".

This is compliant to the NEC and assures that the antenna and coax cables have a path of least resistance to earth ground. See this thread, in particular post 4.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=114865

And this diagram:

http://www.dbstalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11646&d=1199577253

[gmtussb]

bt-rtp,

Thanks for responding.

I've read the threads that you linked to and they lead me in the direction that you suggested, but the threads still were not perfectly clear to me. That is why I posted the diagram of my problem, to try to get a clear answer.

You have stated it quite clearly and I understand it and I am going to work to getting it grounded prpoerly even if I have to pay an electrician to help me do it.

My friend just had a Slimline installed on eve of his roof by the DirecTV subcontrator and I don't think anything is grounded at all. That is why I wanted to try my private local DirecTV authorized dealer, but it looks like he cut corners also.

Oh well, it was a test and I got my answer, in this day and age you have to know as much, or more, than the people you hire to do work for you. It happens to me all the time, I wish I could just trust someone to come to my house and do things correctly the first time!?

Thanks

[bt-rtp]

I installed the second ground rod myself. These, the #6 copper ground wire and the copper ground rod clamp and copper split bolts are all available at Blowe's or Home Cheapo.

bt-rtp,

Thanks for responding.

I've read the threads that you linked to and they lead me in the direction that you suggested, but the threads still were not perfectly clear to me. That is why I posted the diagram of my problem, to try to get a clear answer.

You have stated it quite clearly and I understand it and I am going to work to getting it grounded prpoerly even if I have to pay an electrician to help me do it.

My friend just had a Slimline installed on eve of his roof by the DirecTV subcontrator and I don't think anything is grounded at all. That is why I wanted to try my private local DirecTV authorized dealer, but it looks like he cut corners also.

Oh well, it was a test and I got my answer, in this day and age you have to know as much, or more, than the people you hire to do work for you. It happens to me all the time, I wish I could just trust someone to come to my house and do things correctly the first time!?

Thanks