Grounding an outdoor antenna inside the house
 

Hi,

I recently had a local installer put in an antenna on the roof. He ended up installing it and the reception is great but the only place where it is grounded is at my fuse box in the basement.

Will this suffice?

It might in Whitby, ON, Canada, where you are located, but it wouldn't satisfy the requirements of the NEC here in the US.

The code here says the coax shield should be grounded with a grounding block that is connected to the house electrical system ground with 10 gauge copper wire for electrical safety and to reject interference. For further compliance with the electrical code (NEC), the mast should also be grounded in a similar manner to drain any buildup of static charge, but the system will not survive a direct strike.

So, when you say the antenna was grounded at the fuse box, do you mean the mast and the coax were grounded there or only the coax?

http://forum.tvfool.com/attachment.p...9&d=1441917363

Based on my experience, the first thing to do is to ground the coax with a grounding block connected to the house electrical system ground for electrical safety to protect you from electrical shock.

An example:

Getting A/C voltage on converter box's antenna input !
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/81-o...ml#post1457594

Equipment Leakage Current
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/81-o...ml#post1457668

There is a grounding thread on the Canadian DHC forum:
Grounding OTA / Dish / CATV / Telecom - See Post 1
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/15-h...-post-1-a.html

The original installation is not even code in Ontario Canada. It's probably the misinterpretation of the code/shortcut by the installer.

As rabbit73 shows, it should have a ground rod outside and a connection to the electrical service panel. But I've read (various threads) that 10AWG goes to the ground rod & grounding block and 6AWG goes from the rod to the panel.

GA

Thanks for the help. All I have right now is the coax grounded to the house electrical system ground through a copper wire. In other words the copper wire is going from the screw at the splitter (where the coax from outside splits to the 2 TVs) to the house electrical system ground all at my fuse box in the basement.

That's a good start to protect you, because the coax is connected to AC operated equipment.

In the US, the mast and the grounding block must be connected with separate 10 gauge wires to the house electrical system ground. If the grounding block is connected to the house electrical system ground and the mast is connected to a separate grounding rod, the grounding rod must be connected ("bonded") to the house electrical system ground with 6 gauge copper wire, which is expensive. The reason for that is to eliminate the difference in potential between the two grounds.

Some dish installers use coax that has an attached 17 gauge copper coated steel grounding wire (messenger) that connects the mast to the grounding block. Then only one 10 gauge copper wire goes to the house ground, which is called a "piggybacking." The 17 gauge copper coated steel wire is allowed to ground the mast if it is run to the house system ground, but combining two into one at the grounding block isn't according to code.

Todd Humphrey doesn't speak for the NFPA that publishes the NEC code, but he has some ideas that are helpful. The local electrical inspector has the final say if you are willing to get him involved. Some inspectors are more friendly than others; a local electrician could tell you.

Satellite System Grounding
Part 2 - NEC Overview
Presented by Todd Humphrey
http://www.dbsinstall.com/diy/Grounding-2.asp