lightning surge supression

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Tampa Satman

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Oct 13, 2006
41
0
Texas
Dear Forum,

I am interested if anyone uses a lightning surge supressor in line with the dish and a multi-switch? The ground block just doesnt do enough for my situation. I have seen some units that go inside the home and connect to the ground screw on an outlet and that is not any good at all.

Has anyone seen one like a POLYPHASER unit. What is the highest frequency used from the LNB to the multiswitch in the new HD antenna?

Lightning is and will be an issue at my install. I do not want to invite any thing into the house that should stay out.
 
If you have that much lightning activity, I'd suggest that you install actual lightning rods so that the lightning is diverted to them instead of your dish. A simple surge protector won't protect against direct hits.
 
Dear Forum,

I am interested if anyone uses a lightning surge supressor in line with the dish and a multi-switch? The ground block just doesnt do enough for my situation. I have seen some units that go inside the home and connect to the ground screw on an outlet and that is not any good at all.

Has anyone seen one like a POLYPHASER unit. What is the highest frequency used from the LNB to the multiswitch in the new HD antenna?

Lightning is and will be an issue at my install. I do not want to invite any thing into the house that should stay out.

There's no evidence that putting surge protection on the lines from the dish to the receiver has any value. And as you obviously know (from your post) many surge protectors do not handle the DirecTV signals well. It is NOT just the frequency range; the receivers are setting up satellite selection voltages and tones, and also (in the case of an SWM) using out-of-band signalling to control the operation of the system.
 
If you have that much lightning activity, I'd suggest that you install actual lightning rods so that the lightning is diverted to them instead of your dish. A simple surge protector won't protect against direct hits.

Just an FYI, judging by his name he lives in the Tampa Bay area of Florida (me too) and Florida (even more specifically, Tampa Bay) is the lightning capital of the world. We get A LOT of lightning. Made an insurance claim for lightning hitting a tree in my yard myself this year. It jumped several feet and came into my home through one of my security cameras. Not fun. Not fun at all. We have a real problem with lightning here in FL. It comes out of nowhere. In fact, the strike I am talking about came out of a nearly clear blue sky. It will start raining on a dime with very little notice and then comes the lightning. I was actually in the shower. Good thing my house didn't take a direct hit. Thank you Mr. Tree.
 
Just an FYI, judging by his name he lives in the Tampa Bay area of Florida (me too) and Florida (even more specifically, Tampa Bay) is the lightning capital of the world. We get A LOT of lightning. Made an insurance claim for lightning hitting a tree in my yard myself this year. It jumped several feet and came into my home through one of my security cameras. Not fun. Not fun at all. We have a real problem with lightning here in FL. It comes out of nowhere. In fact, the strike I am talking about came out of a nearly clear blue sky. It will start raining on a dime with very little notice and then comes the lightning. I was actually in the shower. Good thing my house didn't take a direct hit. Thank you Mr. Tree.

Here in Texas much the same. House in the next street was completely destroyed last week.
 
There is a need but where...

Direct Tv and other DSS services are not providing true service for its customers... I am being pro-active for my own needs and inquiring about a voltage suppression unit that can handle the freq and voltage of the LNB/recievers. If I were bring this to D* CSR they wouldn't understand much of my concerns. As with a previous poster, I have a CCTV system in my house. There is concern of a rapid rise in voltage incurring on multiple systems. I have a several multiple whole house TVSS units and have a whole house grounding ring for the service entrance. Who has this in a normal install?

But yet there are many $ out there in a HD multi reciever enviroment.

I was looking for some basic info if there was a product someone was using to protect the F-connectors from the LNB/dish to the entrance of the house.

If you do not know of such a device, keep your comments to your self.

A lightning rod on a roof is not the answer.

I have looked for months and not found such a device to handle D* issues. Maybe its time to make such a monster.

thank you all.

Tampa Satman
 
I was looking for some basic info if there was a product someone was using to protect the F-connectors from the LNB/dish to the entrance of the house.

If you do not know of such a device, keep your comments to your self.

May your house burn to the ground from a single bolt of lightning hitting your LNB, destroying everything from the family pictures to the pretty annuals around the fence. One good zap and your house is gone! Your attitude is going to collide with karma one of these days. Don't come around here with that attitude.
 
May your house burn to the ground from a single bolt of lightning hitting your LNB, destroying everything from the family pictures to the pretty annuals around the fence. One good zap and your house is gone! Your attitude is going to collide with karma one of these days. Don't come around here with that attitude.

:up:up:up:haha:haha
 
People were actually trying to help you. But, good luck with that now with your raving rant. If you have the Dish Mast grounded to a Ground block and that ground block wired into an active home ground you have done pretty much all that you can to ground the dish. The Coax is also going through the ground block which does "help" make it not a juicy target.

TBH if lightning hits your house, TV should be the last of your worries.

if you do happen to find an inline Suppressor it needs to be able to simultaneously pass 12-19v and 22khtz tones and be in range of 5mhtz to 2150mhtz (at this time) but again its a suppressor.

Also if you are not satisfied with the the way the system is grounded, contact a local electrician and see what else he can do, my guess is he may just beef up the grounding wires and possibly drive a dedicated looped ground rod for the dish itself.

But as you are probably aware if lightning does hit your house, even the houses grounding system is not going to handle the entire strike. Just as Power Surge suppressors are going to have a fail rate. Take a surge of say 150-300v can still take out a tv or other electronics vs a strike of 1mil + which will do damage.

As stated your best bet bet here would be to install a target for lightning ie install a lightning rod system
 
Wow, if the answers you're getting are not what you're looking for, don't ask the question.

or at least try to have a discussion don;t come in here stamping you're feet because you didn't get what you wanted.

Maybe you should try enclosing your house in a Faraday cage.

Of course, D* reception may not be very good, but your F connectors will be saved.
 
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But as you are probably aware if lightning does hit your house, even the houses grounding system is not going to handle the entire strike. Just as Power Surge suppressors are going to have a fail rate. Take a surge of say 150-300v can still take out a tv or other electronics vs a strike of 1mil + which will do damage.

I own a computer business servicing business and residential customers. Some of you guys would be surprised at the ignorance out there in the residential community regarding lightning and taking a lightning hit. You are absolutely right, if you take a direct hit, your TV is the least of your worries. I have seen lightning take out a tree (not the one in my yard, but one in Grand Haven Michigan on US31 near a Blockbuster video during a major rainstorm). The tree was zapped right out of the ground! It was an amazing sight.

A few things to remember....

1- UPS and surge protectors are great to have. A UPS will keep your computer up during a blackout for a few minutes or keep it from being damaged during brownouts. I use the $60 APC brand UPS' on all my computers AND my cable and DirecTV DVRs. There is nothing worse than a 5-8 minute DVR reboot because of a 1/2 second blackout or a brownout. Talk about spoiling your TV time while you wait for that Sat box to come back up. Put it on a UPS. It is worth the investment vs. frustration.

2- Many power companies offer a whole house surge supressor that gets installed at the meter. You pay a monthly rental for these. OR, you can have one installed for a one time fee when you have your house built or wiring redone. The power company won't just sell you this $75 part, they want to rent it. An electrician will sell you one but I believe it has to be installed when the power is turned off feeding your house from the utility. So the electrician would have to jump through hoops to put this into an existing power install. Of course the power company has no problem getting this done. They just turn it off and rent it to you after install.

3- Surge protectors/supressors are great, IF, and I say IF, you do not take a direct hit. If the strike hits down the street, everybody is fair game in getting a surge in the immediate area. If you have the whole house protection at the meter, great, it will stop the surge before it comes into your house. If you have a surge protector on your electronics such as the TVs and computers, etc, it willl stop the surge from hitting them. But remember, these devices are only effective if you do not take a direct hit. If your house is hit directly, you are lucky if you do not lose your house. Even with a surge supressor, proper grounding, etc, you are going to lose your connected electronics. That means the appliances, computers, TVs, video games, etc. Surge protection will not survive a direct hit. Having that said, it is a very good idea to have surge protectors and UPSs on all your stuff. The whole house surge protection is a good idea too. Because the odds of a direct hit are very unlikely. If I hadn't had security cameras, I'd proably not have lost anything inside when my tree was hit. But it came in through the line. All my stuff inside is connected to proper surge protectors and grounding, but that doesn't matter when it came in through the cable that carries the security camera signal. It even went through my Slingbox and took out Ethernet ports here and there throughout the house. Crazy stuff.

4-Just remember- If a direct hit strikes your house, you are f*ck*d!

One more thing. When I made my insurance claim, it was of course legit, but I was very surprised to learn that the weather center keeps a log of all strikes in the US. The insurance company actually verified the strike to near perfect accuracy. She looked it up and saw for a fact that my tree, indeed was hit by lightning. I was amazed. So anybody that loses a $3000 TV out of warranty who is trying to scam insurance, think twice. Lightning insurance fraud would not work this day in age. They know whether or not lightning hit right down to the fraction of a second and within feet of perfect accuracy.
 
I can't seem to reach the Polyphaser web site. I.C.E. has some devices but they are for 900-1500 MHz and won't work with the Ka-band satellites.

I was able to get through to the polyphaser site today. They have a device which are rated for the frequencies used (although possibly not with a SWM): PolyPhaser | Satellite System Protector. It would offer some protection but with a direct hit all bets are off, of course.
 
WOW skotty... didnt mean to turn you into a hater. I dont care about the equipment in the house. I wont make any comments about karma <snide>

Nextek

Finally after much searching, it looks to a better fit than any.

As far a direct lightning hit. A residence can survive with minimum issues if all transient voltages are addressed. There is an inital spike/peak of DC volatge and if the entire structure rises together and falls together there will be minimum damage.

I wont post anymore on this issue. This is not the place to address.
 
WOW skotty... didnt mean to turn you into a hater.

Maybe I read your comment wrong. Judging by the other responses, we all took it as you being nasty. It looked like you basically told us to keep our comments to ourselves if we didn't have the solution you were looking for. If I misinterpreted what you were saying, I am sorry.
 
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