# Antenna/Coax grounding



## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

I have an Antennas Direct LaCrosse antenna for OTA HD reception. It works quite well, and I have the coax properly grounded via a grounding block (connected to the grounding electrode used by cable and telco) withiin 2 feet of the entry to the house. However, I'm going to have to relocate it to make it more accessible to the rooms that have HD receivers. I'm looking at a location that will be close to 50 feet from the house's primary grounding point. There isn't a convenient grounding point nearby, and driving a few 3 foot ground rods into the soil here is pretty much out of the question. Is it reasonable to run 50 feet of #10 copper to the primary ground?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Can you leave the antenna where it is and run RG-6 to the desired locations?


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Richard King said:


> Can you leave the antenna where it is and run RG-6 to the desired locations?


Yes, but if we return to Satellite, it will pose a problem. Our house is prewired with RG-6 -- there are 4 RG-6 lines running from the service entrance by the equipment ground point to a tech box in a closet. One of those feeds is currently coming from local cable co. One is currently being fed from my LaCrosse. The amplifier for the LaCrosse is in the tech box and its output goes to a splitter, which feeds two of the three HD-capable receivers in the house (one has an ATSC set top box, the other has built-in ATSC tuner). Each of the three HD capable receivers is in a room having two RG-6 feeds from the tech box, and there's the problem. If we go to satellite, two of these rooms would have HD DVR's, the third an HD settop box. On the second floor, another room would have a non-HD DVR, and yet another room a basic set top box -- total of 8 tuners, with a possible two more. That brings it to a possible total of 10 tundrs (per E*'s definition)! :eek2: 
In the Charlotte area, E* doesn't offer HD locals. D* does, but then D* HD PQ is reputed to be of low quality.
I bought the LaCrosse, anticipating we'd go with E* in the near future. I haven't called them as yet to find out how to get 6 tuners on 4 lines entering the house. 
I could run another RG-6 line for the LaCrosse from its present location, but it would be ugly -- entering the garage, going some 20 feet to where the amplifier could be located, then another 15 feet to a splitter with one leg to go to den through wall, around two walls to TV in that room. The other leg would go thru wall at ceiling level, across 2 hallways, into master suite, down to floor level, to another splitter. One leg from that splitter would feed the TV in the master suite, the other would go thru wall to big screen in Great room. UGLY! It would certainly be nice to use combiners to accomplish all this, with one on one leg from dish and another splitting the two signals in the tech box -- even then, cabling would be a pain. Also, I've been led to believe that combiners wouldn't be feasible.
All this because I hate Time Warner!


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

_"Is it reasonable to run 50 feet of #10 copper to the primary ground?"_

I sent you an answer via PM Cholly but the simple answer to this question is no unless that 50 ft is vertical distance and you use the right ga wire that is recognized by the codes for this use! I also sent you a latest NEC brief with reference to the source for your reading.

In static grounding, one of the three types of electrical ground, being RF, power, and static. You want to have the earth ground as close as possible and reduce the corona point leakage of charge buildup to a minimum. Unlike RF grounds that use high surface area conductors, static grounds minimize the surface area and hopefully corona points. This is rather impractical to achieve so minimizing the horizontal distance to ground is your best option. Practically speaking, the game plan is to drive a standard ground rod into the ground as close to the house entry point of the antenna coax as possible and use the standard coax grounding blocks. Ground the dish or antenna mast to this with as short a path as possible. Worry about horizontal distances, not vertical.

I don't understand your concern about driving a ground rod 3 ft into the ground as not being possible unless you live on a solid rock a hundred feet deep! Hey I know of some areas like that. Rocky soil is fairly easy with a drill rod but solid rock must be handled with ground radials. This is a system that works better than nothing but I would feel happier using metal well casing if that is available. If you need an explanation of how the radial grounding system is built, let me know. Trust me, it is a lot more work than a rod!

Much has to do with the location and how well your soil is. Desert soil will require very deep grounding to be effective but moist swampland can use an 8 ft rod with good results. 3 ft???? That is foolish and will most likely be ineffective unless you live on a houseboat on the ocean! 

PS- the article you saw I wrote was actually a post by me on a forum and it was pull quoted by the publisher. He did ask my permission to reprint it and I gave him permission to do that. That is why it reads much like this one as a general response in a forum thread.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Don: excuse my typo in my first post. Obviously, I should have said 8 feet! I never reread that. That being said, I'm not really certain that I'd be able to sink several 8 or 10 footers. Over the years, I've seen many instances where proper equipment grounding hasn't been done, including my old house in NY. All the bonding was to the ground in the AC service entry panel in my garage (although I think there was a line also running from the AC panel to the cold water pipe that entered the house in the furnace room - a distance of 30 feet or more). The nearest "real" ground was at the utility pole at my property line. No rods into the ground. As a matter of fact, when Time Warner replaced a defective grounding block at the house at the side 60 feet from the service entrance, they disconnected an existing ground rod at that location and ran copper wire (probably #12!) to the copper water pipe in my furnace room.


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