Grounding Help

[Hotsauce142]

I recently moved and I'm going to be setting up my HF antenna again.
At my previous location, my antenna was not grounded. I would always take it down, and unplug the radio and antenna during a storm.
I'm planning on continuing to unplug the radio just to be safe, but would like to keep the antenna up as safe as possible from now on.
From what I understand, grounding the antenna seems to be the way to go.

The type of antenna I have is a Comet CHA-250HD.
It is advertised as:
"No ground radials required and is not a 1/4 wave vertical, but an end-fed long wire type antenna with a matching transformer in a vertical position."

It will be approximately 35-40' in the air measuring from the top of the antenna.

My question is 2 part:
Does "no ground radials required" mean that the manufacture is stating a ground is not needed on this antenna, and its safe enough to run as is?

If I do need to put ground the antenna, is it as simple as putting an 8' copper rod in the ground and attaching a ground wire to somewhere on the antenna mast, down to the rod?

I appreciate the help... I'm still very new to the hobby.

 

[bharvey2]

Talking about "grounds" in radio terms can be a bit confusing. You often hear about ground or ground planes with respect to to antennas but that is most often referring to RF ground. - Sort or the yang to the radiating portion of the antenna's yin. However, there is a also an electrical ground that relates to the antenna system's installation. Roughly speaking the former relates to the antenna's performance whereas the latter concerns itself with the safe operation of the system (They aren't mutually exclusiive however.)

To answer your first question, the manufacturer is suggesting that the antenna will perform (this is subjective though) without an RF ground.

Your second question is more of an "it depends". The mast and coax shield (if using coax) should be properly bonded and grounded as spelled out in Article 800 of the National Electrical Code (NEC) However, there is more to it than just that depending upon your particular application. (Such as type of dwelling/building, whether a pre-existing electrical system is present, etc.)

Here is a link: Chapter 8 Communications Systems: Communications Systems, Texas SFM Electrical Code 2023 | UpCodes

I hope this helps you out.

 

[K6GBW]

Basically the "no ground plane" antenna is kind of a misnomer. The antenna is simply using the coax shield as the other half of the antenna. So think of it as a dipole with one half sticking straight up in the air and the other half laying on the ground. Do it work...yeah, it puts out a signal, although not a very strong one. As for "grounding" for lightning protection and safety then absolutely YES you need to ground the coax before it comes into your house. This will help keep an electrical charge from a direct or nearby lighting strike from coming down the coax and into your house, where it could start a fire. The mots standard way to do this is to place a ground rod near the entrance to your home and use something like a Poyphaser attached to the ground rod. The coax attaches to one side and then the other side has a coax that goes into your house and to the radio. The ground rod needs to be connected to you homes main grounding system, usually a ground rod near the electrical panel. Doing this helps, but can't completely stop, lighting from doing damage. If your CHA-250 gets actually hit by lightning you can pretty much count on it being destroyed as well as the coax. When the charge hits the polyphaser it will "hopefully" shunt the charge to ground. But lighting is increadibly powerful stuff and nothing is guaranteed. Just do the best you can. I still disconnect in storms so....