To ground, or not to ground, that is the question...

[Vince6444]

Hey yall, just a quick question, may open a big can of worms, but I am a asking, should a base antenna be grounded or not, I have a Comet DS-150S discone base antenna set up on a bracket off my porch, framed with PT lumber, and stainless antenna mounts, on a 10 ft pipe, a top rail of a chain link fence, it works great, but I wonder if it would do better if I had the mast grounded?

What yall think??

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[dave3825]

Pretty sure if its connected to the house, or has feed line running into a house, it needs to be grounded. You should read up on the National Electrical Code.

 

[mmckenna]

Grounding isn't likely to improve performance if everything else is done right.

But dave is right, it is required by the NEC and for a good reason.

 

[murphcc1]

Lightning is frightening........

 

[trentbob]

Even if your house doesn't burn down, the radio is not going to like it at all if you're hit by lightning.

 

[kc2asb]

Lightning is frightening........

People who don't ground and have no issues are simply lucky, but that can run out in an instant. Years ago, a neighbor's TV antenna took a direct hit. He found aluminum pellets all around the yard.

 

[gmclam]

When "lightning"/etc. hits your antenna, where do you want it to go? Your radios? Yourself? Your family? It's not about what provides for better reception.

 

[EAFrizzle]

People who don't ground and have no issues are simply lucky, but that can run out in an instant. Years ago, a neighbor's TV antenna took a direct hit. He found aluminum pellets all around the yard.

Back in the 90s I lived in a house that had strange things appear after thunderstorms. 1" wide strips of pine wood 6-8' long all over the yard, couldn't figure out where it was coming from.

After a while, I noticed a tree in the back of the property with strips torn out of it. Up near the top was a 108" steel whip with about 10' of torn-up coax hanging from it. Apparently some kids in the 70s had a base station.

 

[dave3825]

In the last year had 2 strikes near me. First was in back yard and blew out my network switch, lan card in PC and 2 led lights. This was without any antenna on my home. Second was on side of house and hit a small maple tree causing it to split and burn. I have family in upstate NY farming area and they all have lightning rods on their homes.

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, important thing to remember is that it doesn't take a direct lightning strike to do damage. Assuming "lightning won't strike my antenna" isn't going to make a difference if you have a strike nearby.

 

[kc2asb]

Yeah, important thing to remember is that it doesn't take a direct lightning strike to do damage. Assuming "lightning won't strike my antenna" isn't going to make a difference if you have a strike nearby.

Yep. Found that out the hard way when a nearby strike damaged my R-8500. Stupidly, I did not disconnect it since the weather looked fine. Definitely a costly lesson.

 

[n7maq-1]

We had a customer that lost their RX antenna at the top, this is what the tower crew found.