Outdoor antennas: To ground or not to ground?

[OnkyoMan]

I'll be putting up a new outdoor antenna next month. Since my roof is pretty high up there, I'm leaning towards getting it professionally installed.

I've spoken to two different antenna specialists who are in the local area, who are highly recommended and have been doing this for decades, and to my surprise, they both recommend AGAINST grounding the antenna. Their contention is that if I ground the antenna, I'll actually be attracting lighting. More or less, their argument was, 'lightning is looking for the easiest way to get to the ground.... by grounding the antenna, you are making it a more attractive pathway than if it wasn't.' They both told me they would do the grounding if I wanted, but their advice was not to do it.

Observationally, the house I have lived in for the last year has had the same medium sized antenna attached to the chimney for 30 years. It's not grounded, but no lightning strikes. I've checked with about 6 of my neighbors who live on my block, all of whom have outdoor antennas but no grounding. None of them have ever been hit by lightning.

I live in the western part of New York state... one of those specialist said the 'type' of lightning we have in this area also plays a role in making a decision about grounding. I never knew there was more than one type, to tell you the truth (other than heat lightning, of course).

FWIW, the antenna would be about 35' off the ground, and it wouldn't be the highest point... I've got 100-300 year old oak trees within 100 yards of the house that are over 100' tall.

What do you guys think? Ground or no ground for the new antenna? Please remember also I'm in the same boat alot of you are in - if the antenna ever DID get struck by lightning, I'd have more to fear from my wife than the electricity! ;)


Thanks,

Fred

[cd637299]

I am in the same boat as you. I have both an FM & a TV antenna at 20', neither being grounded.

When thunderstorms are forecast, I disconnect the cable from the outdoor antennas b4 I leave for work....and now that I am married, I fear for my wife as well, so I have to make sure they are disconnected....however, I use the "push-on" F connector to make it a snap...............I also make sure that the end of the cable "dangles" in mid-air, so that the lightning would not affect anything else.

DXing is fun, but not worth a loss of life.....

cd

[NN2E]

Just a few thoughts on my experience with lightning...

I have a 140 ft base insulated tower that I use on 160 meters. At first, I didn't properly ground the tower when it wasn't in use. It's first lightning strike shattered 11 of the guy wire insulators. After replacing the insulators I installed a heavy ground strap from the base of the tower to the ground system. I hook up this ground whenever the tower is not being used. The tower has since been hit a dozen or more times with no further damage.

Simply unhooking the coax, from the antenna, and floating it in the air isn't going to do much good if the antenna gets hit. Think about it...the lightning has traveled tens of thousands of feet to get to the antenna so what's a few more feet of air space going to do to stop it? Nothing. I've seen a Ham Radio transceiver with a hole burned all the way through the top cover from a lightning strike. The Ham thought that if he unhooked his coax and hung it up away from his equipment it wouldn't get hurt.

I believe that the last time I looked in the NEC code book they recomended grounding outdoor TV antennas. The idea being, to give the lightning a path to ground OUTSIDE of the house instead of it looking for a path to ground INSIDE the house.

I have a Ham friend who has several towers, all of them properly grounded. Some of these towers are 100 ft tall. During a thunderstorm lightning came down between all of the towers and exploded an apple tree that was only 15 ft tall. So much for that "lightning hits the tallest object" idea.

With all of my Ham / TV antennas & rotors I have cable disconnects where they enter the house. Before a storm gets close I unhook EVERYTHING. If you want it to work AFTER the storm you'd better unhook it BEFORE the storm.

My own experience has taught me...Lightnig will do, whatever it wants, whenever it wants, and you'd better be out of the way when it does it.

73, Ed NN2E
Owner/Operator- Murphy's Law Test Site & Thunderstorm Proving Grounds

[Danny]

Installation directions that come with TV antennas say that antennas need to be grounded. Ground rods are available at hardware stores and lumber yards like Lowes and the Home Depot.