Antennae Mast & Lightning?

[bubbaridesfast]

In an effort to receive Fox 6 OTA I will experiment with raising my antennae higher using a mast attached to my chimney.

Should I be concerned about a lightning strike? Any tips or comments are appreciated.

[jimbop99]

I would say that it should be grounded, if its not already.

[Gregg Lengling]

The electrical codes not only require you to ground the mast but also to install a surge/lightning arrestor where the coax enters the home.  This also has to be grounded.  Theoretically if you got hit by lightning and damaged something or burnt the house down, your home-owners insurance wouldn't be responsible for damages due the home not meeting code.....

[Talos4]

My concern would be how much higher you're going to raise the mast on that chimmney mount.

If memory serves me right you should have a max height above the chimmney of 8 to 10 ft.

That's without installing guy wires for additional support.

If you're looking at more than that I would consider a tripod mount.

Just food for thought.

[bubbaridesfast]

The grounding and all makes perfect sense. But, please bear with me here, I still have a question.

I can easily ground the mast (which will extend about 7 feet above the chimney) using a rod driven into the ground,. The coax is already grounded to a water pipe right beyond where it enters the house, BUT after checking at Radio Shaq, Elliot's ACE Hrdwr, Home Depot, Menard's and Graybar Electric, I can't find any type of lightning/surge arrestor except a "whole house lightning arrestor" that gets wired near the breaker box which would do nothing for coax I'm thinking.
The wonderful city of Greenfield tells me they have no code requirements at all for an antennae. I have a call into American Family to see what fine print they would hold me to.

What/where can I find a lightning arrestor for this application?

[Talos4]

Check at Radio Shack for this part to ground your Coax

It's called a grounding block

It attaches to the house where the coax enters then a ground wire connects to it and then the ground rod.

[bubbaridesfast]

Thanks, I already have a grounding block installed. From Greg L's previous posting about

surge/lightning arrestor

I thought there might be more needed than a grounding block which wouldn't seem like it would be very effective against a direct lightning strike.

If a grounding block is sufficient, than I'm good.

[Talos4]

Y'know, After I replied I realized what you were looking for.

40 lashes for NOT reading the entire thread thoroughly.:blush: