Attic Antenna Ground Question

Status
Not open for further replies.

Dewey

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,024
I've used a wonderful "Sputnik" (RS 20-176) on my roof for many years. Mid last year when having the roof re-shingled, I replaced the Sputnik with a Diamond D130J. I must admit that I was a little disappointed to find that the D130J was only marginally better than the Sputnik. And that performance opinion is based on a Sputnik that only had two of its three ground plane radials. BUT, that is another conversation for another day.

Anyway, I'm thinking about placing another Sputnik in my A-Framed attic for use during thunderstorms. In the past when we would get thunderstorms, I would switch to my RS double coiled magnetic mobile scanner antenna in the room with the scanners (2nd and highest floor). Of course an attic mounted Sputnik should provide better coverage since I would have elevation and ground plane on my side (I don't have a sufficient metal surface for a ground plane in the room with the mobile antenna). My question is... since the attic mounted Sputnik would NOT be the highest point on the house since it's inside, would it still need to be grounded since I would be using it during thunderstorms? If so, I need to figure out how I would go about performing that task. Right now, the only thing I can think of is to ground it to the upstairs furnace unit since it is also in the attic. Of course if grounding in an attic is not as important, I wouldn't have to worry about it.

Thanks,
Dewey
 

GTR8000

NY/NJ Database Guy
Database Admin
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
15,417
Location
BEE00
No, it doesn't need to be grounded if it's in the attic. Using the furnace as a ground point wouldn't have been a very good idea anyway. If you get a direct lightning strike to the house that penetrates into the attic, you've got much bigger issues to worry about than it hitting that little antenna and frying your scanner, believe me.
 

EC-7

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
225
Location
Saginaw Co. Michigan
You dont have to worry about grounding for lightning, but you might want to try and ground it for static and RFI noise interference. If not, ground your radios. Since its inside and closer to wiring, you might pick up some electrical noise.
 

kb2vxa

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
Banned
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Messages
6,100
Location
Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.
"Grounding it for static" has a dual meaning here. First, no grounding will eliminate "static" referring to electrical noise picked up by the receiver, other issues come into play here. Second and more importantly are static charges that accumulate on the antenna and coax when a thunderstorm is in the area that can give you nasty shocks like when you walk across the carpet on a dry day and reach for a doorknob and if the voltage gets high enough possibly cause damage to the receiver. Connecting a simple wire from the coax shield or metal chassis to the electrical outlet ground (the U terminal or cover plate screw) will bleed off any charges.

As stated above lightning isn't an issue unless the antenna is high and outdoors, then everybody has an opinion and they all try to outdo each other with their own ideas on how it should be done. (;->)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top