I just had a new DishNet installation done on 09-04-07. Had a !00.2 dish with a 722 and two 411 receivers installed. The installer did not ground the system, he just has the cables from the lnb going straight to the old cable tv wires going to my outlets. The cable tv system wiring is grounded but the dish system is not connected to this in any way. Should the installer have put in a ground block and connected it to the cable ground rod or to a new ground rod ? Also, one of the 411's was having trouble with losing its sat signal. Installer said it was a bad receiver and contacted dishnet to have a new receiver shipped to me. Could the problem with the receiver be caused by the system not being grounded. The 722 and the other 411 are working fine, Should I contact Dishnet and have them come back out and ground the system ? Thanks.
No Ground Wire On New Dish Installation
- Thread starter frodozz
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So the cables coming from the Dish are not connected in any way to a ground block (even if the old ones from cable)?
If they aren't, call your installer and tell him to get back out there and ground the system!
If they aren't, call your installer and tell him to get back out there and ground the system!
and no, they can't just stick a ground rod in the ground... that could cause floating ground problems. It needs to be grounded back to the utility ground.
Professionally it should be grounded to NEC. My own install is a joke, it's not grounded, but that's mine.
In simple answer whether it is grounded or not won't have anything to do with why your 411 is loosing signal.
In simple answer whether it is grounded or not won't have anything to do with why your 411 is loosing signal.
I have other concerns in addition to your dish not being grounded. It could be your old cable tv wires are split- that will cause a really crappy picture and/or loss of signal. Your existing wiring in the house may or may not be RG-6 cable either.....
Guy sounds incompetent. I'd call and demand someone else come out and re-do everything correctly.
If the coax cables coming from the dish are connected to the ground block, and the ground block is grounded to the house ground, then technically (electrically) it is grounded. It may not be to someone's interpretation of the NEC or the providers requirements, but it is grounded.
But your post made it sound like the ground block has been bypassed. Is this the case? You contradict yourself with your statements, so it's hard to tell.
"..going straight to the old cable tv wires going to my outlets. The cable tv system wiring is grounded..."
But your post made it sound like the ground block has been bypassed. Is this the case? You contradict yourself with your statements, so it's hard to tell.
"..going straight to the old cable tv wires going to my outlets. The cable tv system wiring is grounded..."
Installers do not like to put in correct grounds. It took 3 recalls by dish to my house to get it done correctly. The installer was pissed as the tech I talked to the 3rd time required him to come back and redo the entire installation before he would get paid by dish. He had the gound block on the roof with a copper wire going down to the power ground and all the water from rain was running right down my cables into the center connector and it was getting green from corrsion. Many fly by night installers out there.
All 3 different installers said that if you ground the dish it will get hit by lightning and fry the system and they did not want to he held liable. It has been put in correctly with drip loops etc and no lightening has hit it in over a year.
Yes, using a gound rod is a no no as it could be a a different level of ground than your house ground which is usually your water pipe unless you have a very new house and all plastic pipe, then a ground rod should have been put in by your electrician.
All 3 different installers said that if you ground the dish it will get hit by lightning and fry the system and they did not want to he held liable. It has been put in correctly with drip loops etc and no lightening has hit it in over a year.
Yes, using a gound rod is a no no as it could be a a different level of ground than your house ground which is usually your water pipe unless you have a very new house and all plastic pipe, then a ground rod should have been put in by your electrician.
Thats funny, because our "professional" installer also made me sign a sheet that said he didnt install a ground and says there was no options for that/ Must have been a line of crud? I would assume that there is always some sort of option just the idea that maybe he didnt want to do extra work since he spent probley 5-6 hours there already.
Not true. Hacks don't; real professional installers do. The problem is, as expenses and requirements have skyrocketed and rates have sunk to record lows, professional installers stopped doing residential installations. Oh and let's not forget companies now charging back installers $100 on $60 installs for failing QCs.
I have only personally seen 3 systems struck by lightening. All 3 were properly grounded. 2 were fried from the lightening going through the phone lines. 1 still worked (no phone line) but had a slightly melted coax. Nothing will stop lightening, grounded or not. What IS important is to bleed static off the dish caused by the wind. Just like walking across the carpet, the dish is going to have static buildup on it if it's not drained off. On an all metal dish, this can be done through the shield of the coax, if it's grounded, either at a ground block or through the receivers power plug. Since we never know for sure if the power in a house is properly grounded, or will stay properly grounded , it's just safer to install a ground block and ground it to the house ground. Now on dishes where plastic separates the LNB from the rest of the dish, like the Dish500, then they should be attached or both grounded. Hence you'll see the separate ground wire that should be attached to the dish mast.
We can talk all day, in fact, between installers it's been hashed out for years, the reasoning behind the NEC requirements and reality. Trying to bring the two closer together is like trying to get George Soros to vote for Bush.
I don't know where you're from but here in MI every house is supposed to have a main ground rod, and 99% of the time, they do. In fact, I did a WildBlue install a couple weeks ago on a brand new house that DIDN'T have a ground rod! The ground wire from the transformer is supposed to go to a ground rod at the service entrance (meter), but this electrician didn't bother. Not only is it not to code, but somehow the inspector passed it! And you expect code inspectors to worry about satellite grounding? NOT!
Using a ground rod is not a no-no if it's the main house ground rod. Grounding to a separate, self-installed ground rod is a no-no unless it is connected to the main house ground rod with #6.
I think thats what he meant was that installing another ground rod to hook to the dish was a no no as the potential may be different. This is a big no no, have seen some though were this is done and a big cable was used to tie the 2 rods together.
Was it possible that the new house you worked on had the ground inside the foundation? Cant remember the name but there is newer system were there is a metal gridwork installed when the foundation is poured and buried which is acceptable to be tied into.
Was it possible that the new house you worked on had the ground inside the foundation? Cant remember the name but there is newer system were there is a metal gridwork installed when the foundation is poured and buried which is acceptable to be tied into.
Somebody tell me if this is safe.
My in-laws got Dish this weekend. The installer put the dish on the opposite end of the house from where the power comes in. He ran the lines through the attic of the house, out the other side to the ground block and then back into the attic to the various drops.
Safe, or dangerous?
My in-laws got Dish this weekend. The installer put the dish on the opposite end of the house from where the power comes in. He ran the lines through the attic of the house, out the other side to the ground block and then back into the attic to the various drops.
Safe, or dangerous?
Safe? Yes.
Aesthetically pleasing to the eye? LOL I'll leave that up to the homeowner to decide.
Installers do not like to put in correct grounds. It took 3 recalls by dish to my house to get it done correctly. The installer was pissed as the tech I talked to the 3rd time required him to come back and redo the entire installation before he would get paid by dish. He had the gound block on the roof with a copper wire going down to the power ground and all the water from rain was running right down my cables into the center connector and it was getting green from corrsion. Many fly by night installers out there.
All 3 different installers said that if you ground the dish it will get hit by lightning and fry the system and they did not want to he held liable. It has been put in correctly with drip loops etc and no lightening has hit it in over a year.
Yes, using a gound rod is a no no as it could be a a different level of ground than your house ground which is usually your water pipe unless you have a very new house and all plastic pipe, then a ground rod should have been put in by your electrician.
All 3 different installers said that if you ground the dish it will get hit by lightning and fry the system and they did not want to he held liable. It has been put in correctly with drip loops etc and no lightening has hit it in over a year.
Yes, using a gound rod is a no no as it could be a a different level of ground than your house ground which is usually your water pipe unless you have a very new house and all plastic pipe, then a ground rod should have been put in by your electrician.
CableSux, how can you tell if a house has a ground rod? Aren't they usually driven down below the surface, covered up? My cable coax ground block on the side of the house by the electric meter has a green wire going underground someplace. When I test the water plumbing in the basement at several locations with a multi-meter it appears to be grounded. All of the plumbing in the house is copper with the exception of the incoming pipe from the water meter. It is a black plastic pipe coming thru the basement wall and then attached to copper and a shut off valve.
O.k... they cay say want they want, but grounding something doesn't cause lighting strikes to hit it. If it was that simple, stuff would be getting hit all over the place. You think those light poles out on the street are not grounded?
Grounding is required to protect humans when a surge, or lightening strike occurs. The majority of the energy should be shunted to ground so that it doesn't pass into the home.
You use a ground rod when you are too far from the home ground to run a ground wire there directly. You drive the ground rod, and then bond that ground rod to the home central ground with a 6 AWG copper conductor.
Grounding Satellite Dish and Lead-In Cables
Often the electrical service itself acts as the ground point assuming it runs through the ground. The central earth ground for the home will be where the gas service, telephone service, and electrical service all have their grounds bonded to.
Grounding the dish causes lightning to avoid hitting your dish by equalizing the electrical potential between the system and the earth...the lightning wants something with a little charge in it.
The grounding also helps to dissipate electrical charge from a nearby strike, but won't carry the voltage from a direct strike unless you have a wire resembling a large tree trunk in diameter.
My concern was if lightning were to hit the dish, the current would flow through the attic all the way to the ground rod at the other end of the house and potentially cause a fire in the attic.
This tech did what any tech would d to get the system grounded. Of course the mistake he made and he may have know this littel trick is he wasted a whole lotof time and material.. He went into the attic. What is the one thing just about every attic has?..A light..Bingo.. My way?...I would have grounded to the light fixture in the attic by attaching a pigtail wire to the ground screw of the light fixture..Do it all the time....Anyway, the tech did the right thing by doing what he knew best to properly ground the system.
