Proper Grounding of attic antenna

[psubill78]

What is the best way to accomplish this?

Is the groundblock that the coax passes thru connected to a cold water pipe sufficient?

[waterhead]

I don't believe grounding an indoor antenna is required. A rooftop antenna is grounded to a 6' ground rod driven into the ground. This is to route any lightning that may strike the antenna.

As for grounding anything via a water pipe. It should be ok if you use the cold water pipe, and there is a ground jumper present, jumping past the water meter. The meter has seals in it that may electrically isolate it, hence interrupting the ground path. This would also be true for the water heater, if you ground through a hot water pipe. The water heater is isolated to prevent galvanic corrosion. You would not want to put a jumper on this.

[psubill78]

Well, my ChannelMaster 4228 is in the attic.  And about a week ago, during a storm, we lost all the OTA channels from this antenna on our HD Tivo.

After the storm cleared, they never came back.  The OTA received in the HD Tivo got fried.

We didn't loose power, or get surges that day, but there was a lightning hit and boom that effected the antenna, and 2 outlets on the same wall near where the antenna is in the attic.

I don't think it got zapped, but maybe static electricity or something?

[waterhead]

I understand that lightning can travel quite a distance from where it originally strikes. If it strikes a power pole, it can travel down the phone line into the house. It sounds like it may have surged into the circuit that feeds those outlets, somehow. I'm no expert, but my brother is a Master electrician and a Ham operator, I just helped him install a new rooftop antenna to replace one in his attic. I'll give him a call and see what he says.

[psubill78]

I'll give him a call and see what he says.

I'd appreciate that...

[tlarsen76]

My experience with antennas has been that grounding them will increase their performance.  If it would be an outdoor antenna on the roof, it acts like a lightning rod so it must be grounded.  The ground wire distance must be less than the coaxial's distance to any inside equipment.  Lightning takes the shortest path to the ground (the real ground).  But for an outdoor antenna that is in the attic, a proper ground would not hurt.  I'd install its ground to the nearest cold water pipe and then test the porformance "with vs. without" to see which works best.

[dj1111]

I agree with giving it a try.  At the least it would eliminate any build up of static electricity.

[waterhead]

I finally got a hold of my Bro', he was out of town.

He says that there is no need to ground an indoor antenna, it won't do anything for reception. My thinking is, if it's not too difficult, go ahead and try it.

As for the lightning strike. When lightning strikes the ground, it can travel quite a distance in the ground. He said that it will actually travel into your household electrical panel through the ground. And since the ground wires are not attached to the circuit breaker, it will travel into the outlets and burn out any connected equipment.

Also, if your Tivo is connected to a phone or internet connection, lightning has been known to take this route too.

The only protection is to install a surge protector between the equipment and ALL external connections. He said a surge protector can also be installed in the main panel, to prevent surges from taking that route.

On a rooftop antenna, the mast of the antenna should be grounded and a lightning arrester installed in the coaxial line.

Looks like I'm going to have to make some improvement to my own system!

[mhz40]

Grounding an antenna has virtually nothng to do with reception.  It has everything to do with saftey and providing a modest form of protection to your expensive consumer devices.  

{storm}