Avoiding ground loops (or not!)

[MikeInAlaska]

I am terminating about 45 RG6 in my central wiring closet. I have Leviton structured wiring boxes so I was planning on using their coaxial bulkhead which holds terminates 6 coax per unit. They look like this:

Thats a metal plate with six F connectors bolted in. Obviously, they're all going to share ground. Is that a problem?

Thanks!
Mike in Wasilla

 

[magnum2066]

It is okay as long as you aren't sharing a grounding point with multiple wires.

If running Dish equipment you need to replace those low-frequency pieces of junk and use the proper (blue) high-frequency barrels or it may cause problems.

Low frequency is rated 900-1450MHz
High frequency is rated 900-2150MHz or more and is required for Dish Pro Plus equipment.

 

[MikeInAlaska]

> It is okay as long as you aren't sharing a grounding point with multiple wires.

Sorry I do not understand fully. All six coax terminated on one of these plates will share their ground through the metal plate.

Thanks for your response
Mike

 

[magnum2066]

Hopefully this helps.

You only need 1 ground wire to properly ground the system, 2 would be fine as well but its overkill from there.

 

[MikeInAlaska]

I'm glad you posted and mentioned the old 1ghz barrels on the Leviton picture above. Your post got me looking further into Leviton products and found they do have 2.5 ghz rated barrels on their quickport adapters -- and they sell a bracket similiar to my 1st photo which holds six quickport adapters instead. So... in a roundabout way you've got me sorted out here!

The quickport adapters are plastic cased so no conductivity.

holds six of these:

(Imagine that with a blue insulator though ; )

 

[magnum2066]

It won't be grounded if you use the plastic quickport adapters because plastic isolates the barrel from the bracket. The barrels and bracket need to have a metal-to-metal contact in order to be grounded.

You could use the quickport adapters but you would need to ground the system separately with something like I posted above. It would be easiest to just get the bulkhead you want then buy the barrels/wallplates/quickport adapters (whatever is cheaper) and just swap out the barrels.

Here is a source for them: http://www.summitsource.com/3-ghz-f...ice-plug-extension-part-8dtvff10b-p-6696.html

You can get the 2.5GHz but why not spend the extra 4 cents a piece and get the 3GHz rated barrels?

 

[MikeInAlaska]

Thanks for the tips. I do already ground the cables at the entry to the building with some grounding blocks similar to those you posted. This message is concerning my interior wiring closet, where all the RG6 from the house come together. I need to terminate them all. The plastic Leviton quickports will do the trick.

As for 2.5 ghz, versus 3 ghz, Leviton prints "2.5 ghz" on their boxes, I'm just going to buy the quickports and run with em.

best wishes
Mike

 

[peaked]

3.0 rating is the spec. rating approved by Dish. If you are going to use 2.5-remember where they are. If you have signal problems later, check 2.5's first. Lower-rated barrels are fine for CATV or TV#2. If using them for incoming sat. signal, be ready to see some of those milky-white barrels turn gray or black. When you see this, replace barrels with approved fittings. Also check the stingers of the gray-barrel junctions, as they may be carbon-coated and need to be cleaned or cut back above the heat damage and replaced. Stingers should be bright copper. If black, gray, dusty or muddy, replace cable end, cutting back cable to a clean point on the center conductor. You did leave enough slack in coax to accomodate backing up a fitting, didn't you?

 

[MikeInAlaska]

> You did leave enough slack in coax to accomodate backing up a fitting, didn't you?

Great stuff, thanks. Yes indeed I made a monster curve above the wiring panel with the entire coaxial bundle that has an extra 6" at least for any cable to work with in the future. I usually leave a foot of cable inside a wallplate.

These new Levitons are all blue-capped barrels with "gold" plate. Generally, (indoors) I have never had a problem using the old Levitons barrels with legacy or DP so the new "high rated" ones must be better at least. I've even run some aggressively long test loops from the wiring closet and still not lost signal. (With these connectors in several places.)

> Stingers should be bright copper.

Connector wise I am using all Canare FP-C like these which seem to be a dream quality wise. But the stingers are incased in gold crimp-on pins so I cant really evaluate them afterwards ever.

Mike

 

[bhelms]

Here is a 4-barrel 3GHz block from Dishstore for $6. Why not support one of our sponsors?

The Dish Store - Powered by Metro25

 

[MikeInAlaska]

: ) But... that would bond all the grounds of all the coaxial cables together. (Which was my original question here, is that bad?) I am not talking about grounding at premises entry, this is for a giant RG6 patch bay area terminating 40+ cables from all over the house. This is the distribution hardware, going out to all wallplates.

 

[Bob Haller]

: ) But... that would bond all the grounds of all the coaxial cables together. (Which was my original question here, is that bad?) I am not talking about grounding at premises entry, this is for a giant RG6 patch bay area terminating 40+ cables from all over the house. This is the distribution hardware, going out to all wallplates.

theoritically all the grounds should be together anyway.

since nearly everything today uses 3 prong plugs

 

[sam_gordon]

Hopefully this helps.

You only need 1 ground wire to properly ground the system, 2 would be fine as well but its overkill from there.

Pardon my ignorance, but how are the two pictures different? The metal frame ties all the grounds together regardless, right?

 

[QCK]

+1 ^^^^ It is exactly the same reference. They are all tied together either way. I think you should re-take electrical/electronics 101 magnum2066.

 

[whatchel1]

Leviton center

Here is a 4-barrel 3GHz block from Dishstore for $6. Why not support one of our sponsors?

The Dish Store - Powered by Metro25

He is working inside of a Leviton distribution center that is why he is using the Levition equipment that fits inside of it. It isn't a grounding block he is installing.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Heres what you need...

 

[MrDogDad]

Let me see if I can answer the OP's question about ground loops.
If your dishes and switches are in the same general area and are grounded to the same ground point, and the cables run together, you should have no problem using a metal distribution panel that connects the shields together. If it is indoors and not near anything that could contact the panel and energize it, I would not ground the panel. If your switches are in multiple locations and using different ground points, then I would use a panel that isolates the shields.

 

[MikeInAlaska]

Thanks everyone. In the end I went with the Leviton barrels which come in plastic quickports, so it will be isolated from the panel and from each other. This is definitely a mix of stuff coming from all over the house, indoors (~40) and out (8) and from equipment plugged into a variety of 120V branch circuits. I would never have even considered the issue but I saw someone selling F-connector patch bays and offering an option for $20 or $30 more to electrically isolate all the connectors from each other.

 

[magnum2066]

+1 ^^^^ It is exactly the same reference. They are all tied together either way. I think you should re-take electrical/electronics 101 magnum2066.

It is considered a shared ground and the NEC states it is not allowed.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I would just ground all the Dish/antenna feeds coming into the house. Makes no difference if the feeds to the individual rooms share the same ground through the patch panel as the devices they are all connected to share the same ground through the house anyways!