new grounding requirements?

[Van]

Oh I know its not a garauntee that it will work on lightning, but I have seen it work on when a 220 line dropped on a dish frying the coax down to the ground block and stopping there.

Ive also replaced a system not to long ago where the home took a direct hit from lighting and fried everything in the system regardless of grounding. But as has been said if lightning were to hit an undgrounded dish and the house caught fire and someone got hurt or killed then I dont want to be the tech that installed it.

 

[BrettTRay]

if any of you guys are techs, when you replace a multi switch pop the back off of the switch and take a look at the pcb board. It will take a few before you see what i'm talking about, but one you do it will make you think twice about not having a dish/coax grounded.

 

[ZandarKoad]

I just asked cause you are asking some pretty basic questions about grounding.

Yes you have to bond all cables from LNB and the dish it's self to the house ground.

I have not heard that Dish requires that a DP34 be placed after the ground block. I would suspect that the company you are installing for really just wants the DP34 in the house out of the weather. If you are doing a 3 tuner or 4 tuner install it will be no difference or even less cable to run. If it's only a 1 or 2 tuner install yeah you have to use a bit more cable.

You may think these "basic questions" have been answered by the grounding gods, but they haven't. He's probably been around long enough to see dozens of companies used dozens of standards, with an infiniate array of justifications for which standard is better. I personally 'know' that I should be grounding all the incomming cables from the dish. I don't KNOW that its the hands down perfect way to do it... I just know that's what my supervisor told me to do. So that's what I do. As of yet, my supervisor hasn't told me to ground the coax before the DP34, so I don't. And after 1 year of installing, I have yet to fail a QC for grounding a DP34. Here's waiting.

So far, the vast majority of experienced electricians/installers who've I've heard an opinion from indicate that grounding INCREASES damage probability.

The verdict is still out. And it always will be.

 

[milt007]

I really appreciated your insightful post. You also have been around awhile or are open minded enough to realize the rampant inconsistancy in regards to grounding policy. You're absolutely correct...as I said in one of my first posts I'm really not trying to be a know it all but actually I have been doing this longer than almost anyone currently in this business and as you said, there will always be this debate. I don't know if you went back to the whole thread but I recounted a talk I had with an sbca instructor that echoed your experiences talking to electrician/installers. In the 20 years I've been in the antenna/sat field I've had the opportunity to discuss many issues with 'Hans' ,Wingard company's chief engineer. He's been with them forever and knows more about this than all of us put together.He has always said the same thing in regards the downside of grounding. In fact they had quite a concern about the liability issues arising from someone grounding their products and then finding out after a lightning hit that the well is connected to the house with PVC making grounding to the plumbing a great way to electrocute anyone touching a faucet during a storm. It would just be nice to have the work that subcontract installers are forced to do at their own expense to be "grounded" in solid engineering principle. By the way...I actually read for the first time the little booklet that comes with every SW34 and guess what, pg 8 states the switch CAN be used as a ground block...go figure. Another good post said it all too. Basically just do it like they tell us to and avoid QC problems...I'm sure none of us are going to change any of these policies, after all, we don't know anything....lol

 

[SimpleSimon]

Milt: I'm sure you means the DP34 booklet.

Anyway, there's TWO versions of that. One has what you've seen, the other skirts around the issue big-time. I was tld by the guy that had the other version (sorry, I don't remember who it was) that it was the newer one, but the last few DP34 boxes I've opened (as recently as last week), all had the booklet version that says you CAN use it for grounding.

Oh - and has anyone counted the number of ground lugs on a DPP44?

 

[webbydude]

Too funny about the number of lugs on the DPP44, Simon. Too bad those screws are such a pain to torque down on a groundwire or even a tracerwire.

It's almost as if they were designed to be used as a "pass-thru" ground, on the way to a groundblock from the dish? And yes, I have to agree, it does seem very hypocritical for Dish to say, "no grounding at the switch" to not only allow the lugs in the switch design, but to actually STATE the switch can be used as a groundblock. Even the DPP44 guide says this. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Grandude]

I've always wondered why, if the dish itself should be grounded, why is there no ground tab or point designed to ground it?

Being a self installer, mostly, I use the first switch just under the eve as the major ground point. No problems so far in over eight or so years.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I've always wondered why, if the dish itself should be grounded, why is there no ground tab or point designed to ground it?

Being a self installer, mostly, I use the first switch just under the eve as the major ground point. No problems so far in over eight or so years.

You need to look a bit closer at the mast "foot". There's plenty of holes for a ground bolt.