First let me attempt to describe what I have....
I have a few 2" poles connected together to form my mast. The end of the mast sits right on the ground (buried a few inches). I have a 2 foot 2x4 extending out from under the roof eaves of my house and clamped to the mast. No guy wires.
The total height of the mast is maybe 25 feet from ground to top. I have a simple dual band ground plane antenna attached to the top of the mast.
I have had this antenna up for over 15 years in Kansas storms with lighting and crazy wind.
Never had an issue. The antenna has never been grounded.
Recently I got a bug about house fires from a lighting strike so I got to thinking maybe it's time I ground the antenna.
I did a bunch of online reading and found one instance where a guy had an antenna up for 30 years not grounded and never had an issue, the antenna was replaced with a new one and grounded, a week later a lighting strike hit the antenna and burned down his house.
I read all about having to bond all the ground rods on the property. Is this really necessary for a simple receive antenna? The electric meter ground is over 100 feet away around the house. I could see the need to bond them if I was hooking up an outside air conditioner unit or some such thing that is pulling power.
So.... do i leave well enough alone or do I run a ground rod in the ground and ground the mast?
EDIT: I should also note that I have no concern for the scanner equipment getting fried, my ONLY concern is my house burning down.
I have a few 2" poles connected together to form my mast. The end of the mast sits right on the ground (buried a few inches). I have a 2 foot 2x4 extending out from under the roof eaves of my house and clamped to the mast. No guy wires.
The total height of the mast is maybe 25 feet from ground to top. I have a simple dual band ground plane antenna attached to the top of the mast.
I have had this antenna up for over 15 years in Kansas storms with lighting and crazy wind.
Never had an issue. The antenna has never been grounded.
Recently I got a bug about house fires from a lighting strike so I got to thinking maybe it's time I ground the antenna.
I did a bunch of online reading and found one instance where a guy had an antenna up for 30 years not grounded and never had an issue, the antenna was replaced with a new one and grounded, a week later a lighting strike hit the antenna and burned down his house.
I read all about having to bond all the ground rods on the property. Is this really necessary for a simple receive antenna? The electric meter ground is over 100 feet away around the house. I could see the need to bond them if I was hooking up an outside air conditioner unit or some such thing that is pulling power.
So.... do i leave well enough alone or do I run a ground rod in the ground and ground the mast?
EDIT: I should also note that I have no concern for the scanner equipment getting fried, my ONLY concern is my house burning down.
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