I am planning on installing bracket and mast at the gable end of the house.
Will be attaching a vertical antenna for VHF/UHF
Question is :
Any suggestions as to mounting systems that have worked well for any of you people?
Also any brands to beware of?
Thanks for any suggestions or comments
This has been stated many times on here, but will bring it up again.
Grounding of the antenna mast is a must. To do it correctly, you will need to follow the NEC (National Electrical Code) and maybe contact your home owner's insurance company to get their feedback. Done incorrectly could put you in a position of the insurance company turning down any claim for damages caused by lightning.
No sharp bends in the down wire from the mast to the ground rod. Wire should be at least a number 2 in size. Anything smaller and you can consider it a fuse. Make sure the down wire doesn't come in contact with any other metallic object on the path from the roof to the ground rod. Do not use any metal clips in trying to keep it close and neat to the house. Metal clips act as a choke and lightning doesn't like any restrictions.
The simple guide to follow is to run a good sized ground wire connected to the mast down to earth where you have at least an 8 foot ground rod. Your soil conditions will dictate if it needs to be longer and if multiple ground rods will be needed. Do not place the multiple ground rods near each other if you have to go that route. Space them at least twice their length apart. This takes into account the "cone of influence" around each ground rod. Spacing them closer causes this cone of influence to be overlapped and you loose the full benefit the 2 ground rods will provide.
Do not use the standard water pile clamp on the ground rods. Use the correct ground rod grounding clamp. This is a bronze unit that slips over the rod and has a bolt on the outer edge to tighten the ground wire to the rod.
Ideally your looking for a 5 Ohm resistance to ground or less for your grounding system. Problem is this can only be measured with a low resistance meter designed for this purpose. Normally it takes at least a 3 point measurement system to come up with the measurement. Not all electricians even have this meter.
Use of one of the clamp on meters to measure the resistance will also not work. You don't have a complete circuit to another grounded point to use it with.
Some people will also tell you to connect your ground to the electrical meter ground. I have some reservation on doing this as many of the municipality electrical inspectors don't fully understand section 850 of the NEC. In there, there is a section for communication facilities that allow the ground connection to be bonded to the electrical meter ground rod to provide a common bond between multiple ground systems.
Good luck with your install.