[Crimson]

Recently had my dish upgraded from 3lnb to 5. Installed put a grounding block on the outside of the house, its basically just a metal script screwed into the siding. The ground wire on the dish goes to it, and another ground wire on the bottom of it was just tucked under my siding. Should that ground block be connected to something OTHER than just being screwed into some viynl siding and the wood behind it? I assume the wire coming off the bottom of it should go somewhere, but not sure where it should go? I do have an outlet nearby I could run it to I suppose.

Also, the installer used one white wire from the dish, and the rest were black. The black all say RG6 on them, the white doesn't as far as I can tell.. I asked him if there was any difference and he said no. Any reason to run a different wire from the dish other than he had some extra white wire he wanted to get rid of? I do believe it lists the same frequency on it as the black wire, but I'd have to doublecheck.

 

[HDTVsportsfan]

Recently had my dish upgraded from 3lnb to 5. Installed put a grounding block on the outside of the house, its basically just a metal script screwed into the siding. The ground wire on the dish goes to it, and another ground wire on the bottom of it was just tucked under my siding. Should that ground block be connected to something OTHER than just being screwed into some viynl siding and the wood behind it? I assume the wire coming off the bottom of it should go somewhere, but not sure where it should go? I do have an outlet nearby I could run it to I suppose.

All grounds should go back to one single point. It should be run to your "house ground", the main grounding rod. I beleive a water pipe is O.K. (NO GAS LINES). If the metal screw is only screwed into siding then it doesn't appear to have been done correctly.

If I understand all of this correctly you shouldn't have multiple grounding points(rods) either. If you do have two grounding rods then those two need to be tied together. You want one common ground. I hope someone comes along and confirms all of this.

I don't see how D* doen't have a stroke over these things. Talk about a liablity IMHO.

 

[HDTVsportsfan]

Also, the installer used one white wire from the dish, and the rest were black. The black all say RG6 on them, the white doesn't as far as I can tell.. I asked him if there was any difference and he said no. Any reason to run a different wire from the dish other than he had some extra white wire he wanted to get rid of? I do believe it lists the same frequency on it as the black wire, but I'd have to doublecheck.

The color of course doesn't matter. The only cable I've seen w/ no identifiers and specs imprinted on the cable itself was usually the cheap stuff. I would try and go back and check the cable for the type and the specs.

 

[greenie95125]

All grounds should go back to one single point. It should be run to your "house ground", the main grounding rod. I beleive a water pipe is O.K. (NO GAS LINES). If the metal screw is only screwed into siding then it doesn't appear to have been done correctly.

If I understand all of this correctly you shouldn't have multiple grounding points(rods) either. If you do have two grounding rods then those two need to be tied together. You want one common ground. I hope someone comes along and confirms all of this.

I don't see how D* doen't have a stroke over these things. Talk about a liablity IMHO.

You're correct, except that it needs to be a COLD water line. That bond is better than nothing, which is what he has now. Ideally, everything is bonded to earth at one point. In reality, many times it's difficult to do that.

--Mike

 

[HDTVsportsfan]

You're correct, except that it needs to be a COLD water line. That bond is better than nothing, which is what he has now. Ideally, everything is bonded to earth at one point. In reality, many times it's difficult to do that.

--Mike

Thanks for the confirmation/clarification. Yea, I had to run my ground wire from the dish, under the front porch, along the rest of the front of house, and half way down the side to where my grounding rod is. PITA for sure.

 

[Crimson]

Thanks for the info.. I only have one grounding block.. but its not really connected to anything other than screwed into the house.

 

[frank29]

..................but its not really connected to anything other than screwed into the house.

You don't have a ground. That's like having a sink's drain deadending into a concrete slab.....it looks like you have a drain; but, as soon as you try to use it, you will have a problem.

 

[Crimson]

You don't have a ground. That's like having a sink's drain deadending into a concrete slab.....it looks like you have a drain; but, as soon as you try to use it, you will have a problem.

Which is why I am asking about it.. Not sure what I should run it too, like I said its on the outside of my house.. and the house ground is not accessible from where this strip is. There is an outdoor outlet within about 2 feet of it I could run the wire to its grounding plug I suppose.

 

[frank29]

..................There is an outdoor outlet within about 2 feet of it I could run the wire to its grounding plug I suppose.

Perish that thought. That outside receptacle's ground is not even remotely intended for such an application. #1: it's probably only 12 or 14 gauge wire and your ground should be something on the order of 6 gauge. #2: even if, for some strange reason, that outdoor outlet's wiring was super oversized, you still would not want to use it for this application.

Look in two places: where your electric service enters the house and where your load center is......near these points you should find your ground. If you still can't find it, go to a home improvement store and buy a 8' ground rod to drive in the ground as near as possible to your dish. Even not connected to the house ground, this will be a vast improvement over no ground or trying to ground to an outlet. When you buy the rod, pick up some 6 gauge solid copper wire (bare, single conductor) and clamps.

Good luck.

ON EDIT: I see you didn't say the ground was not to be found; rather, it was not accessable. In that case, I would drive a new ground rod and hope for the best.

 

[TigersFanJJ]

Save yourself a lot of money and just ground it to the outlet ground. The ground is a static ground and won't protect it from a lightning strike, no matter if you were to use 0 guage wire.

You could drive in a new grounding rod if you want. But if it makes a better ground than the rod for the house, congratulations, you just made yourself a 5lnb lightning rod.

 

[Mertzen]

You're correct, except that it needs to be a COLD water line. That bond is better than nothing, which is what he has now. Ideally, everything is bonded to earth at one point. In reality, many times it's difficult to do that.

--Mike

And on top of that it can not be further then 5 feet away from the point of entry. This mainly since if you do it somewhere else you might not know if there are PVC repairs on the cold water line. Just adding some info.

 

[greenie95125]

And on top of that it can not be further then 5 feet away from the point of entry. This mainly since if you do it somewhere else you might not know if there are PVC repairs on the cold water line. Just adding some info.

You're absolutely correct. Thanks for pointing out my omission.

--Mike

 

[samo]

Save yourself a lot of money and just ground it to the outlet ground. The ground is a static ground and won't protect it from a lightning strike, no matter if you were to use 0 guage wire.

You could drive in a new grounding rod if you want. But if it makes a better ground than the rod for the house, congratulations, you just made yourself a 5lnb lightning rod.

I second this opinion. Satellite grounding block need to be grounded to remove a build-up of static electricity on a dish. It does absolutely nothing to protect you from lightning strike. If you are not in dry climate area, you may not need grounding at all (unless it is required by some building code).

 

[Larry H]

We use the 17 gauge wire also called a messenger wire from the dish to the ground block, then from the ground block you should have a 10 gauge ground wire run to a ground source not more than 20 feet away. Anything more than 20 feet the energy will find a shorter path to ground. Bonding is a better term for grounding the dish as you maybe use a water pipe for that purpose and dish grounding or bonding is required by the NEC. Just my thoughts on this.