dish grounding questions - please help

[dvr]

I am planning to install a WS9036 dish in my backyard, and the distance to the house central grounding point (pipe in the garage where the circuit breakers are) is about 130 feet. I will use 10 awg insulated solid copper wire - about 40 feet of it in underground plastic pipe (this is the length crossing the yard), and the rest along the house either above or below ground (no pipe).

Apparently, it is not OK to only use a grounding rod close to the dish (a direct connection to the house central grounding point is still required.

Is this plan OK? Is it a concern that the grounding wire is so long (about 130 feet)? Do I need a separate grounding wire for the LNBF?
I am located in Florida (quite many storms and lightning strikes).
Thank you for your help.

[Jim-S]

Grounding Satellite Dish and Lead-In Cables

This is the site I used to ground my dish.......
I used a ground rod at the dish, grounded the mast, used a continuous #6 bare copper ground wire and grounded it as close to the main ground of the house as possible or to the house grd rod if you have one (should be one) or water pipe ground.
See the web site it is a good one.
For me grounding is very important, two of my homes that I lived in were hit by lighting, ground may not prevent all of it, but it helps to neutralize the potential.
Jim

[dvr]

Originally Posted by Jim-S

Grounding Satellite Dish and Lead-In Cables

This is the site I used to ground my dish.......
I used a ground rod at the dish, grounded the mast, used a continuous #6 bare copper ground wire and grounded it as close to the main ground of the house as possible or to the house grd rod if you have one (should be one) or water pipe ground.
See the web site it is a good one.
For me grounding is very important, two of my homes that I lived in were hit by lighting, ground may not prevent all of it, but it helps to neutralize the potential.
Jim

Thank you for your input. Your configuration, with a ground rod, is the best choice. Regarding my situation, I am making some (slow) progress. In the last few days, one of my projects was completed (large concrete slab/patio in the backyard.
The dish grounding is somewhat of a controversial subject. I checked several websites and there is universal agreement that, in the case of a direct lightning strike on a dish, nothing helps (everything is fried). Starting from this point of view, people choose different solutions. Some people criticize the electrical code requirements.

So far, this is what I have now:
- from the backyard intended dish location, I have two AWG 10 (insulated solid copper in plastic pipe) wires, each 120 ft. long, going to the electrical panel (circuit breakers) located in the garage. Two AWG 10 wires are equal (cross sectional area) with one AWG 7 wire. If necessary, I could add a third underground AWG 10 wire running parallel and outside of the pipe with the two AWG 10 wires.

- from the intended dish location, I have two AWG 10 wires (in plastic pipe under the concrete slab) going to the point where the RG6 cable would enter the house.

Considerations/questions/things to do/etc.:

- to go to the local building dept. to find out if they have any specific requirements.

- the fusing/melting current for AWG 10, 8, 7, and 6 are only 333, 472, 561, and 668 amps. Thia alone may explain why in the case of a direct dish lightning strike, nothing really helps (everything is fried).

- instead of locating the dish in the backyard, I may install the dish in front of the house (hopefully, the installation on the wall would be feasible). With this arrangement, the RG6 length would be greater, but the length of the ground wire would be 10 times shorter.

- apparently, members of a German forum believe that no grounding the dish is necessary when it is some 2m below the roof line and not more than 1.5m outwards from the house walls

- in the case of the dish backyard installation, in the case of an approaching storm, I could disconnect the RG6 where it enters the house.

- my electrical service panel is in the garage, and the electricity meter is on the other side of the house. Both of them have plastic pipes going into the ground. I am quite sure there is a ground rod at one or both of these locations but don't know how deeply I would have to dig to find the rod. I'll try to find out. In any case, I don't like the idea of connecting the dish ground wire to the electrical service panel, and fry the panel, etc.


Altogether, a lot of wasted time and money for a few FTA channels (I already have cable TV).
Please let me know if you have any comments about what I wrote above. Thanks.

Regarding your houses hit by lightning, were those events caused by satellite system/dish? I am sorry to hear about the lightning strikes and the major damage they must have caused.

[Jim-S]

I'm not an expert although I read an article on lighting rods which do not attract lighting they neutralized the area. I believe in good grounding.
The lighting hit was not from a dish I didn't have any at the time. The first house that was hit I could not find were it got hit but it took out a few GCFI recepticals, a telephone answering system a police scanner and eventually my well. I can only guess it hit the power.
The second home the lighting struck the ground (Lawn) about six feet from the house and left a 10" hole about two inches deep we had mud on the side of the house it tookout six of eight of my sprinkler valves and the control box in the garage. It blew the cover of the control box across the garage about 16 ft.
So now I'm sure I have my dish at the same ground potential as the house.
Like you said lighting is awe powerful.