Grounding a base station antenna

[WRWE744]

What is the best way to ground a base station antenna so my equipment or house isn't fried by lightening?

[WRKC935]

On 1/22/2024 at 5:26 PM, Doggorunning1 said:

Dont GROUND and WHY>>My power pole will be 10 feet taller than my antenna mast, thats what will get struck.  For one you are creating a ground that makes your antenna more likely to get stuck, basically making a lighting rod, no amount of surge protection or ground will protect your equipment.  Anything under 30 feet is not required to be grounded as per home insurance, if it's over 30 a licensed electrician MUST do the work.  Why would you also wish to tap into your home electric panel, do you wish to destroy your entire homes wiring? Are you an electrician, LICENSED? didn't think so. If you are not the tallest thing around you will not be attractive to mother nature ; unless you GROUND your self and make it so.  my e mail is ndi911108@yahoo.com YouTube BaaSicStuff  

I could be wrong but the whole Kite and Key thing makes sense to me; on a stormy day just disconnect and place your coax in a mason jar 

Well, I can explain why that's not true if you are willing to listen to the reason.  If there is a grounded and an ungrounded object in the same area at roughly the same height, or even shorter in the case of the ungrounded object, that object will take the hit over the object that is grounded every time.

Reason.

electricity will always take the path of least resistance.  That's pretty well established.  But it applies to more than a good conductor VS a poor conductor.  Meaning the electric will flow through a wire instead of a nylon rope every time. 

BUT. the path of least resistance is ALSO going to be through something that already has some induced voltage on it instead of something that has NO voltage on it with reference to ground.  People continue to get in their head that a ground wire to a tower, antenna or whatever is there to take a full hit of a lightning strike and shunt it to ground.  And that's just not the case.  Grounding and bonding is done to dissipate static charges from objects and shunt those charges to ground.  If you look on the roof of a tall building, you will see a grounding grid.  It's connected to everything on the roof that's metal.  That is then attached to the building steel and the steel is grounded to a ground ring in the ground outside the building.  During a storm, from wind, there is static built up on different metal objects.  If you are a mason jar guy and ran the StarDuster CB antenna's that were notorious for building up static, you would hear the charge flash over in the jar and possibly see the small arc when it would do it.  That was because the center conductor on those antenna's was a floating element with no DC ground by design.  The distance between the radials and the angle of the radials made those antenna's a giant high voltage capacitor.  It would charge up in the wind, without a thunderstorm even, and then you would hear it discharge once the air gap could no longer offer enough resistance to the flow of voltage (voltage got too high) and the air would break down and there would be an arc.  Static electricity, pure and simple.  When your ungrounded tower is standing there in the wind, it is building a charge.  IF that charge is a couple thousand volts, it's a more direct path because there is less voltage difference than there is directly to ground. 

 

[Doggorunning1]

It was a joke, I will be posting my grounding images soon, just finished, very easy to explain, and not some rabbit hole of confusion.  IMG_3762.heic

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[Doggorunning1]

IMG_3762.heic  

Have some M & P Coax coming also, from Italy, the grounding rod also has a spot for my 10 gage that will come from my lighting arrestor.  Im higher than the roof lines and at 600 elevation so the valley should be mine 

IMG_3763.heic

[Doggorunning1]

I noticed no one was giving an easy explanation or showing their builds, I also noticed many unanswered questions on the forum.  As a YouTuber I understand the only way to get a response/comments is sometimes to be ridiculous.  I'm posting pictures of my straight forward build, I will also provide a shopping list for the newbie.  Grounding is not rocket science its just some like to over complicate everything, I appreciate the items you posted, these help 

Grounding essentials for the shack....great manual thanks again  IMG_3762.heic

Here's what I have so far, and I plan on adding a lightening arrestor just before the entry point and ground this to the empty spot on the grounding rod.  Then I will pound her down a bit more and that should be good enough 

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[Doggorunning1]

Advice welcome,

I'm returning the lighting arrestor I got, any recommendations or links to the best choices would be cool.   

[Doggorunning1]

This will fit perfect in my Mason Jar 

[gortex2]

All my antennas on my roof and shop are grounded via Polyphasers. In the house the cables enter via a 1 1/2" Galvinized pipe and as soon as the leave the pip go to a brass ground bar with the polyphasers on it. From there a a #2 goes to my basement and out to my main ground rods. All ground rods are bonded together and to my main electrical system. 

Shop is done similar but all cables enter thru a standard shelter entry port with a brass bar just inside. 

[Eustis]

On 1/27/2024 at 8:55 PM, Doggorunning1 said:

Advice welcome,

I'm returning the lighting arrestor I got, any recommendations or links to the best choices would be cool.   

I watched your YT vid as well as Randy's re: installation of a GMRS base station. Very helpful. I'm also going thru the files that have been shared here. This thread has been great help in my planning. I can't make a rec for a lighting arrestor, but I do have a question.

I see you used armored cable (or, armored your conductor) for the antenna ground. I have a bit of a longer run (say, 75 feet) to get to my grounding rod from the antenna base than your situation. And the conductor would run exposed across a not small portion of my roof here in Central FL, where we do get a fair bit of lightning. The question is, doesn't the armoring (spiral wound aluminum, if not mistaken) for the cable create yet another path for static/lighting? I would think that would have to be grounded as well - or did you address that in your vid and I missed it? I'll look thru the files, but what other options might there be for protecting the ground wire across its run besides armorflex?

Thanks for any help.

[Doggorunning1]

Dont GROUND and WHY>>My power pole will be 10 feet taller than my antenna mast, thats what will get struck.  For one you are creating a ground that makes your antenna more likely to get stuck, basically making a lighting rod, no amount of surge protection or ground will protect your equipment.  Anything under 30 feet is not required to be grounded as per home insurance, if it's over 30 a licensed electrician MUST do the work.  Why would you also wish to tap into your home electric panel, do you wish to destroy your entire homes wiring? Are you an electrician, LICENSED? didn't think so. If you are not the tallest thing around you will not be attractive to mother nature ; unless you GROUND your self and make it so.  my e mail is ndi911108@yahoo.com YouTube BaaSicStuff  

I could be wrong but the whole Kite and Key thing makes sense to me; on a stormy day just disconnect and place your coax in a mason jar