? on grounding 5LNB dish

[daddyscooltv]

Directv came out today and installed my new dish and the H20 for me. The installer did a really nice job and took his time and everything looks really good. My only problem is when he grounded the dish he ran the ground wire to the frame of my mobile home. After he left I noticed that I had a really had humm coming through my home theater system and after checking several things I decided to unhook the ground wire at the frame of my house and the humm went away. My question is how important is grounding the dish and if so what are my other options for grounding it.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

 

[wolfman]

Directv came out today and installed my new dish and the H20 for me. The installer did a really nice job and took his time and everything looks really good. My only problem is when he grounded the dish he ran the ground wire to the frame of my mobile home. After he left I noticed that I had a really had humm coming through my home theater system and after checking several things I decided to unhook the ground wire at the frame of my house and the humm went away. My question is how important is grounding the dish and if so what are my other options for grounding it.
Thanks in advance,
Chris

It is important to ground the dish. Go to an electrical supply house, get a grounding rod, drive it into the ground and attach the ground wire from the dish to it.

 

[dragon002]

wolfman,

and IF the home burns down , who does he blame YOU??

he is not an electrician. im a tech and we ground to the doublewide / trailer frame ....ALWAYS

 

[lou_do]

wolfman,

and IF the home burns down , who does he blame YOU??

he is not an electrician. im a tech and we ground to the doublewide / trailer frame ....ALWAYS

I am not an installer, but an electrician and a firefighter. You should always ground equipment to draw any unwanted electrical current AWAY from the structure. A ground rod or cold water pipe going into the ground is the best bet. By attaching a ground to the frame of a mobile home you are bringing the unwanted current into the frame of the structure and stand a lot higher chance of a fire, than if you used a ground rod or attaching the ground wire to a cold water pipe. Especially if the mobile home is not grounded properly.

If lightning strikes an antenna that is attached to a ground rod, it stands a lot better chance of going directly into the ground, and not even entering the home. If the ground is connected to the frame of the mobile home, it travels through the mobile home looking for a path to ground. Then you better hope you home is grounded properly.

Proper grounding instructions are described in the DirecTV antenna installation manual, that came with your antenna. It also can be found on many of the companies web sites, that sell the antenna.

I am not saying that connecting a ground wire to a mobile home won't work, just that you get a lot safer ground using a ground rod or cold water pipe, going directly into the ground.

 

[universeatwar]

The grounding wire is used to protect the equipment only from nearby electrical storms and not "funnel the energy into the ground" A direct lightning strike has enough energy to power cities. No 12 or 14 gauge wire will direct that amount of energy into the ground. If a wire is overloaded, it will heat and burn up.

If you use a grounding rod, the NEC requires that you still connect the rod into the central building ground. There is suppose to be one point where your electrical outlet ground and satellite dish ground are all connected together. The energy from a "nearby" lightning strike is enough to damage your receiver or tv. Grounding will protect you only in this scenario

Many houses are burned or damaged a year by lightning strikes. Your homeowner's insurance should cover any damage to your tv and satellite equipment from a direct lightning strike. There is little you can do about this Act of God.

 

[syphix]

I thought I'd read that grounding was, as universeatwar says, not to funnel a lightning strike away from equipment, but used to dissipate static electric buildup on the dish to reduce the chance of a lightning strike. Was I told/reading wrong???

 

[lou_do]

I thought I'd read that grounding was, as universeatwar says, not to funnel a lightning strike away from equipment, but used to dissipate static electric buildup on the dish to reduce the chance of a lightning strike. Was I told/reading wrong???

I never said anything about it funneling anything. Grounding doesn't funnel it creates a path to ground. Proper grounding just gives a path to ground to discharge any unwanted electricity, to ground. The unwanted electricity can be static, lightning, electrical short, or any that is not part of the antenna system. Better wording would have been if I said electricity, instead of current.

As everyone knows you will never make any system 100% lightning proof, or for that matter prevent a strike. My point was by grounding the equipment to the frame of the mobile home any electricity looking for ground has to go through the mobile home before it reaches ground, where if it is grounded to the building electrical ground (ground rod) it has a better chance of staying out of the structure.

And like I said every antenna has an installation manual with it and it is explained how to ground it.

 

[wolfman]

wolfman,
and IF the home burns down , who does he blame YOU??
he is not an electrician. im a tech and we ground to the doublewide / trailer frame ....ALWAYS

dragon,

And if the home burns down, he could blame you!!

 

[RIRWIN1983]

dragon,
And if the home burns down, he could blame you!!

Yea, but in this day in age, you both would be wrong according to a clever defence attorney. LOL

 

[universeatwar]

I don't know about static buildup, I am not an electrician. Maybe an expert could chime in on what grounding exactly does. I know an electric strike produces gigawatts of power. A good size electric power station produces a few hundred megawatt to power cities.

Every wire has a load on what it can handle before it overheats and burns. So if you do the math, a common 12 or 14 guage wire would not be enough to handle an electric strike that could power cities.

I lived in an apartment and ran a 10 or 12 gauge wire to my electrical socket ground. If you use a grounding rod, it still has to be tied into the buidling ground according to the NEC.

Is that wrong to tie the grounding block into the socket ground? Has anybody had their Directv dish hit by an electric strike?

 

[dragon002]

Yea, but in this day in age, you both would be wrong according to a clever defence attorney. LOL

the trailer frame is supposed to be grounded according to code. im not an electrician. so on my next install in trailer city ill have the code enforcement officer and a certified electrician check it out first.....LOL.....SURE I WILL.

 

[universeatwar]

I found the article today and it confirms what I have been saying. Grounding bleeds static energy thereby reducing voltage spikes to your expensive HD equipment. However, I underestimated the impact of nearby lightning strikes as the articles mentions the likely damage to building wires and equipment. Even grounding won't protect you from "nearby" lightning strikes due to the amount of energy that is present.

Grounding is not a joke as it reduces the probability having a direct lightning strike due to the static buildup. If you live in an apartment complex, it is even more important because you put the people in your building at risk for a major fire because your dish was not grounded properly.

Directv use to have receivers that had grounding screws on the back of the receiver. The screw was connected to the building ground through the electrical cord. I now have to connect through an electrical outlet ground. You have to disconnect the power to one your outlets (safety reasons) than connect a heavy gauge wire to the green screw/bare copper wire of the outlet. Put the electrical plate back on and run that to the coax ground block and you will be connected to the central building ground.

I read a misinformed post whereby somebody was told they could not install a dish on the second floor of an apartment because they could not drive a rod in the ground below. Utilizing the method mentioned above, there should be no problems grounding on the second floor.

If you want to create more work for yourself with a grounding rod, it should be tied/bonded to your house's electrical system ground rod to create a single point ground. That way the house won't use your coax as it's electrical system ground. Directv mentions the bonding of additional grounding rods to the central building in their installation manual

 

[dragon002]

all of directvs newer IRDS have three prong power cords... what ,pray tell ,do you think the round third prong is for?

 

[dragon002]

Directv use to have receivers that had grounding screws on the back of the receiver. The screw was connected to the building ground through the electrical cord. I now have to connect through an electrical outlet ground. You have to disconnect the power to one your outlets (safety reasons) than connect a heavy gauge wire to the green screw/bare copper wire of the outlet. Put the electrical plate back on and run that to the coax ground block and you will be connected to the central building ground.

univer, you are making a funny,, right???!!! i really hope so!

 

[universeatwar]

That is not what I am talking about. Of course they had a 3 prong cord for all of their receivers. But their use to be a metal screw with a grounding symbol on the back of the old IRD. It was not like the machine screws that held the IRD case together.

Not to hijack the thread. If the guys trailer frame is not bonded to the central building ground than the trailer electrical system will want to use his IRD coax as ground. This will cause interference. The method, I mentioned before will avoid all the hassle of finding the trailer grounding rod.

 

[dragon002]

That is not what I am talking about. Of course they had a 3 prong cord for all of their receivers. But their use to be a metal screw with a grounding symbol on the back of the old IRD. It was not like the machine screws that held the IRD case together.

the hughes d series and the sonys only had two prong cords.

 

[universeatwar]

You are also right about the tivo series, it did not have a 3 prong cord. Therefore, it would not make sense to put a grounding screw on the back

This discussion about grounding has triggered a nice business idea..........