Do you use protection???

[Dishman Dan]

Proper grounding methods for satellite systems have been discussed here recently. With all of the wild weather this spring I was wondering what kind of power surge equipment do you use to protect your electronics???


The last 2 nights we have had severe thunder storms plus tornadoes in my area. The lightning shows have been awesome and that makes me worry about my electronics! Currently I have a Monster surge protector on my entertainment center and a couple of cheapies scattered about. I also have a whole house surge protector at my breaker box. I bought a Panamax surge protector and some of those modules just like the Skyvision has had over the years. With the modules all the motor wires for the BUD will be protected along with the coax lines. Do most of you protect all of your wires on your dishes???

 

[stanleyjohn]

With my 3 footer on the garage roof i have the mast and dish grounded to 6 foot ground rod with a lightning surge protecter in series with my receivers LNB input.Should help for near misses but with a direct hit all bets are off.The 6 footer on my deck at the moment has no lightning protection on it.

 

[Magic Static]

I'm moving all but one dish to the top of a shipping container I use for storage. The electrician is coming today to bid the job of wiring the container for lights. The container will then be connected to a proper ground system and thereby all the dishes. When the dishes were on the side of the house I had a ground lead from them to the breaker box in the house. Was only 6' away. I have two APC UPS units keeping TV going for up to 15 min in a blackout. I'm adding more stuff so that will drop the time down soon. My 10' dish will be on a pole 15' high and 6' in the ground on one side of the house. But I have two pines a lot taller than that on the other side of the house. Which will lightning prefer? who knows? The neighbors place or the power pole in the alley.

 

[sergei]

I have all my dish cables and OTA first going through grounding blocks which ares grounded to my electrical box ground and then connected to different surgesat-guard protectors for each dish wiring and the receiver. All my 4dtv receivers and FTA are on UPS systems. My OTA tower which to the top of my UHF antenna is 40' and has a ground rod down to 14 feet and that's tied back to my other ground which gives a resistance reading of below 25 ohms.
Last year storms we had a lighting hit on one of my 30-40 foot walnut trees which gave use the flash/bang all at the same time as the tree is only 250 feet from the house, didn't cause any problems with any of my gear.

 

[sergei]

With my 3 footer on the garage roof i have the mast and dish grounded to 6 foot ground rod with a lightning surge protecter in series with my receivers LNB input.Should help for near misses but with a direct hit all bets are off.The 6 footer on my deck at the moment has no lightning protection on it.

I hope that you've got the 6' ground rod tied back to your house ground other wise you stand a good chance of having a grounding loop which is something you don't want.

 

[Mr Tony]

all electronics are hooked to surge protectors...replaced one last year after a power surge burned it out

 

[stanleyjohn]

I hope that you've got the 6' ground rod tied back to your house ground other wise you stand a good chance of having a grounding loop which is something you don't want.

No!Have found no easy way to secure to the main house ground which all the way on the other side of the house.I could connect the ground to a garage power outlet ground which should be tied to the main house ground if you think that might help.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I've got a big surge suppressor on my 10foot Winegards electronic stuff including coax but no special ground at the dish. It's been up now for 11 years with zero problems.

My 7.5ft SAMI I put up last year has only got a small surge suppressor here in the shop for the receiver and Vbox X and none of the coax is protected on it. I do unplug that system though when storms come through.

We had one of them "flash boom" hits somewhere close yesterday but nothing in the house seems to have been hit.

 

[sergei]

No!Have found no easy way to secure to the main house ground which all the way on the other side of the house.I could connect the ground to a garage power outlet ground which should be tied to the main house ground if you think that might help.

I not sure and since I'm not an electrician, I'm not sure how they would have gotten power to your garage, was this an original or add on garage. But I'd check your outlets in the garage with one of those 3 prong testers just to make sure that it was wired correctly, if OK then I can't see why it wouldn't work for you. But to be safe you might want to ask an electrician about it.

 

[trinidex]

My feeds pass through arrestors which are grounded into the ground with earthing rods, then, as the feeds pass into multiswitches, the switches are grounded with earthing rods too.

I took a massive hit last year that cost me $$$$

 

[amc1]

i learned the hard whey i lost an reciever and a ku-lnb through a thunderstorm .i never had a surge protecter connected to it in my bed room .the reciever in living room was ok.that was a bummer. i lost 1 of my best recievers.now everything is grounded and surge bars where needed.there is a valuable lesson there i guess.