Grounding a tv antenna ...
 

8' ground spike at Homies ...Anyone have to do an antenna ground recently ??? .. thanks ..

If you are attaching it to your home make sure you connect all grounds to your main electrical ground. Otherwise you have the potential to pick up current or damage equipment. If your bonds are not equal and the path to the antenna ground has less resistance to it the voltage will travel through the least resistive path
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how is it looking Eddie..?? Reception? I am ready to do something similar as I am sick of the cable bill for something I use a few times a month. All I want is regular channels, news, weather, ect... 2,4,5,7. Sick of the bill. P.

You need a hi-def antenna now.
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Still working on it ..Internal antenna didn't work .. Got one channel .. ordered this . http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and this ..http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

waiting for this mast ,, The antenna came with an 18" mast .. not enough to clear over hang and give some spin room .. Found existing grounding pin on service side of house .. More to this than I thought and Antenna's and parts like mast not readily available in stores . They have some stuff not much .

got this too .. plus grounding wire ,, shielded cable ,, boots ,, dielectric grease .. I'll be happy with 3 good channels .. A guy up on the hill (Onset Village) gets 35 channels on a good day .. Another guy over by little harbor gets 25 channels . With the antenna on my roof I'll only be 20' above sea level Max .. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I'm in pretty deep ..

There is a store less than a mile from me the guy has all kinds of electronics. Antenna stuff included. Stark Electronics in Worcester, MA
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yea ,, I was checking radio shacks and walmarts ,, sears ... I bet there's a place in Brockton I don't know about .. I seem to do best on amazon .

You should see the copper between my fathers tower and his Ham gear :hihi:
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I am certain. With a tower I would recommend a ground field exothermically welded bonds etc. a halo ring. We have done a bunch of them for VZ. In the western part of the state we drilled wells to drop 100 ft rods in cool stuff.
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I don't trust ANY grounds anymore
when the lightning gets real bad
i unplug everything and break out the Christmas candles
then other cool stuff happens :heybaby:

nudge nudge ,wink wink :usd:

Havnt paid a cable Bill here in 7 years
Radio shack antenna on the roof and a digital converter box
Antenna is mounted on the metal vent pipe thus killing 2 birds
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how many fishfreakin stations do you get?

all pats games too?

I get at least 20 digital channels. local channels, news, kids channels. etc..
Tv isn't that important in our household, it's rarely on.
Nothing but BAD news and crap on anyways. there's a whole world outside the living room

Eddie get a grounding block for the coax cable. Use a #10 solid copper ground wire. Did you have a new electrical service done on the cottage? Now the electrician has to leave a ground lug on the outside for phone, cable, and antenna grounding

Bill ... Is this good ... ? I found the old ground stake under the house where the service is ,, There is other stuff attached to it ..
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

No ,, I did not have a new service but I did have the whole place rewired . I already had circuit breakers , which is special for these shacks .. Started out just a little rewiring ,,new lights ect. ended up going through the whole place ,, hard wired smokes ,, everything ..

Yes that is it, i am out of work with an injury right now or i would get you one when do you need it i can make a call and get you one. And some other things

Thank you Bill I have one ,,, I need to get the ground wire ... I got #10 stranded :smash:

How many feet do you need?

We use solid but i think the stranded is fine. I just texted a buddy to see if he can drop off some to me, if he can you will have to swing by Abington and pick it up. I will let you know.

25'... I'm in Abington almost nightly

I haven't heard back from him give me a coupe of days ill get you the wire and a meter
Socket grounding lug. N
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Here's a list from TVfool.com showing what channels should be available in Onset. The channels are listed by predicted signal strength so the higher up on the list the better chance you should have to receive it. Also there's really no such thing as an "HDTV antenna", that's pure marketing. The frequencies you need to receive are the same as in the olden days. Most are UHF but there's still some VHF as well. If you look at the channel list I posted below anything with a "real channel" shown of 13 or below is VHF. I didn't look at the link for your particular antenna, but it's common for antennas marketed as HDTV versions to be UHF only. Your strongest signal Fox and CBS channels from Onset are VHF.

As a data point when I camp at Scusset I get about 6 channels with my less than stellar antenna. During the daytime a few of them will pixelate in and out. Nighttime is usually much better. Unlike analog TV you don't get the option to watch a snowy picture. It's either perfect or digital blocks.

As far as grounding, it sounds like you've got it under control. IMO the biggest thing to make sure is you've got a grounding block on the coax to bleed of static electricity. Grounding the antenna itself is required by code, but a lightning strike is going to go pretty much where ever it pleases.

I'll be down that way for a couple weeks beginning next Sunday. Be glad to take a look and help out if you're having problems.

Forgot the list pic.

Attachment 56968

Won't be all. Most are on CBS. FOX when they're playing a NFC team. Than you've got NBC if they've got the Sunday night game. All doable with an antenna.

Tonight they're on the NFL Network, and Monday Night Football is on ESPN if they happen to be on that.

So most, but not all Pats games are available via antenna. Sox are a different story, very few games available on free TV.

Eddie I have that wire and grounding attatchents for you. You can pick it up whenever you want.
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tonight ,, Friday ... Thanks Bill .. and thanks Matt ... lot's of good info there ..

Check your pm's
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Thanks Bill .. I've never felt so well grounded . :uhuh: