I was up on my room the other day for other reasons and noticed that there is no ground wires hooked up to either of my 2 dishes. Should I be concerned about this? Seemed odd to me to have an antenna on my roof without any sort of seperate ground.
Grounding?
- Thread starter bdresch
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There are two ways to look at this there should be a small messenger wire hooked to the mast pole if not its no biggie sometimes we get wire w/o messenger attached. Then the fittings that attach to the lnb are also attached to a ground block (or should be) that is grounded. So as long as a ground block is there and that's grounded than your dish is grounded
both the mast and the cable must be grounded. a separate wire is required to ground the mast. sometime there is a messanger wire molded in to the cable and it must be copper clad steel 17awg or better. or a separate ground wire can be run from the mast. in your situation, that is probably the case.
both the cable and the ground from the mast must terminate in a ground block. the ground block must be bonded to either a ground rod which in turn is bonded to a grounding point of the house or the ground block must be bonded directly to the house ground.
grounding only the cable does not meet NEC.
might want to start here:
Installing radio and TV antenna systems
bruce
after confirming that is is NOT grounded.
as stated above, there may be messenger run to the ground block.
I have two dishes, neither of which has a ground wire, but my DPP44 has a ground wire to it.
Dish Quality Assurance inspected my setup Monday and took pictures, but said nothing about the lack of ground wires to the dish itself.
Dish Quality Assurance inspected my setup Monday and took pictures, but said nothing about the lack of ground wires to the dish itself.
The dish must have a ground wire going to the DPP44. usually as they stated in a messanger wire is part of the RG6 cable. If it is not you need a ground so there won't be any problems. Dish advanced tech support will tell you the assurance team did not know what they were doing if they seen there was no ground and passed it. The ground wire on the DPP44 is not enough.
WRONG! The ground block connection to the water pipe (etc.) is the portion that is required for code and electrical safety. The connection to the dish is the portion of the ground that will actually affect the performance of the system. Both parts of the ground must be installed correctly for your system to perform correctly. Look here:
Grounding
Why Ground?
Dish QA, trainers, and installers are ignorant of this need and the ramifications when it is left out, nonetheless (and contrary to what I'd been told), the science bears out the truth of the importance of this dish connection.
Not everyone without these ground wires will experience noticeable affects, BUT if you are having issues such as signal loss, rebooting, or poor picture quality, don't overlook this connection.
I just got a call from the local company that did my receiver upgrade.
They are sending a tech back out Friday pm to correct problems that QA found with my system (which has been operating perfectly for 5 years).
Maybe my dishes will get a ground.
They are sending a tech back out Friday pm to correct problems that QA found with my system (which has been operating perfectly for 5 years).
Maybe my dishes will get a ground.
that's cool. that does not always happen, sometimes the inspectors will fix the problems on-site, other times they wil fail the tech and the problems remain uncorrected. i'ts good they are sending somebody back.
if i read it right, the article why ground states that if the ground for your coax is better than the ground where the receiver is plugged in , this may cause serious problems.
so, how does that affect all the systems (many many i've seen) where the dish system is properly grounded, but the wall outlets have no ground at all.
I have seen these too...
The potential danger comes to play when installing a system. Ideally, the electrical potential of the home's system ground is the same as the actual ground outside - making the house somewhat "invisible" to lightning looking for a strike, but also allowing an outlet for the "draining" of stray voltages and surges.
We technically do not ground, but are "bonding" to the existing home ground. We try to use the homes ground system so that we don't make a second ground. If we can't use the home ground, it may be necessary to drive a stake. Use caution and make all those connections, first, before powering up the system.
The danger comes one of three ways.
Either you've already energized the system and then decide to add a ground rod instead of bonding to the home's ground...
or
you decide to disconnect someone's ground (like the telephone's connection).
IF THERE IS an imbalance in potential, any excess electricity CAN flow through you as you connect the system.
The third danger really is at your receiver and CAN be deadly.
In an older home without third wire grounding' an electrician is the best answer,
Look Here:
WikiAnswers - Can you ground an electrical system on an old two wire system without putting in new wire
The potential danger comes to play when installing a system. Ideally, the electrical potential of the home's system ground is the same as the actual ground outside - making the house somewhat "invisible" to lightning looking for a strike, but also allowing an outlet for the "draining" of stray voltages and surges.
We technically do not ground, but are "bonding" to the existing home ground. We try to use the homes ground system so that we don't make a second ground. If we can't use the home ground, it may be necessary to drive a stake. Use caution and make all those connections, first, before powering up the system.
The danger comes one of three ways.
Either you've already energized the system and then decide to add a ground rod instead of bonding to the home's ground...
or
you decide to disconnect someone's ground (like the telephone's connection).
IF THERE IS an imbalance in potential, any excess electricity CAN flow through you as you connect the system.
The third danger really is at your receiver and CAN be deadly.
In an older home without third wire grounding' an electrician is the best answer,
Look Here:
WikiAnswers - Can you ground an electrical system on an old two wire system without putting in new wire
as an installer, about 50% of the homes i put receivers in do not have grounded outlets...i would say something to all these customers about calling an electrician, but most dont care. they just rent, anyway.
i have unhooked the #10 on several jobs afer installing it, cause after getting shocked several times, i conclude the ground is 'hot'
disconnecting the ground seems to fix it in these cases.
but, then its not bonded.
Yes, improper wiring can cause the back-feed voltage to be very large. How large? I don't know...I just jumped back when I attempted to connect the receiver line to the ground block. A very large accompanying flash and pop made me investigate further. Not all plugs in this particular house were wired incorrectly, so I was just adding the second receiver when this occurred. That was the day I purchased an A/C line checker.
Tech and a supervisor came by Friday pm and added a 4 wire (2-2 wire) ground block between my DPP44 and my dishes.
Supervisor said Dish grounding requirements had changed since my system was installed. I'm not sure I buy that, because several other things we talked about, I know he did not know of which he spoke.
Supervisor said Dish grounding requirements had changed since my system was installed. I'm not sure I buy that, because several other things we talked about, I know he did not know of which he spoke.
The ground wire was run to my DPP44 switch, all they did was insert a ground block before the DPP44 and tie the ground block to the ground wire on the DPP44.
