Warning! Ground your Dish

svx94

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Mar 21, 2004
35
0
Here is what happened. This weekend, after a storm (not a big one), my house got fried. The computer router, AV receiver, VCR, VOOM receiver, Furnace, all Ethernet cards on all connected computers...

I just found out that my 2 neighbor house got similar damage.

The reason is unknown for now, but I do think the dish cause it. After the installation, I went up to the roof and put some tar to add protection to the roof, and I did not find grounding line installed.

All led to a conclusion that VOOM dish may be the cause...

It seems a large number of people do not have the dish grounded. It is not a good sign.
 
I also have gone to RS and thrown cable surge protectors on everything. very small spikes can take out cable modems. Had 2 of them repaired in the past. Lost one small TV before.
 
:yikes........I am saying nothing this time after the roasting I took on this subject the other night! :mad: Make your installer do it to code, if its not done right GET THEM BACK OUT TO FIX IT or report them to the state electrical board!

Insist on seeing your installers........
SBCA 1+2
VoOM Certificate
License if needed
Photo I.D.
Otherwise its not an installer, its an impostor!
 
Sometimes it does not matter how good you ground your dish or phone line, if the hit is bad and/or close enough then it will damage the electronics anyways.

The most likely surge you can get is through a phone line. I had a surge come through on my phone line and since I have a surge power bar protector that has a place to plug the phone line in, and had my main phone line plugged into that before it goes into anything else, it saved my laptop and phones that were connected when the lightening bolt hit very close (I could see the very bright light right at my window and by blinds were closed.

The lightening bolt also got my neighbor's phone line. I had to replace my phone line because it burnt it up. My neighbor said there were two very close hits so the other hit could have gotten his. I had a phone surge through a 7100 I had a while back and it fried the modem and ever since I will not connect a phone line up to any of my satellite receivers.
 
I was off on Friday and my door bell rings. It was a Quality Controll guy from Installs, Inc., He was doing a random follow up to my install. I walked him over to where the install was done and mine was not grounded either. Also he said the installer used incorrect fittings for outdoor use. He re did all the fittings and hooked up the ground line.

AT least they are trying to controll their installers.
 
WELL DONE I.INC. I hope they pulled the contract and gave it to a quality company! This is a good sign!
 
SVX,
I fail to see how a satellite dish on your roof getting struck would fry everything in your house. The most likely scenario is that the strike came down near your house and changed the ground potential. This will cause reverse electrical flow and will fry a lot, that also explains why your neighbors got hit also.

I agree that everything outside your house needs to be grounded, I still have to do mine, but there are cases where no matter what you do it doesn't matter. That's why we all have home owners insurance right, and hopefully lightning coverage??

I work in the wireless industry and we are grounding nuts, every site has a 10 to 15 foot deep grounding halo around it. The wires are about 2 inches in diameter. This is filled with electrolites to make an excellent ground and we still lose equipment with lighting strikes.

Anyway, welcome to summer.

CM.
 
PSB,

I contacted my electrical inspector here and looked in the code book and have figured out why the installers get away with no ground wires in this state, the bad installers that is. I recently started a poll on it too and my guess is that many states work the same way and that is why we have so many people without ground wires. PSB was correct, the NEC code does require ground wires on antenna masts, I think its chapter 810-21 (in my outdated 1990 code book) lol. The problem here is, according to the inspector, that the state doesnt regulate low voltage electrical systems under 50 volts, so the city inspectors dont inspect it or issue fines for violations of NEC code for these systems. And without that threat of an installer getting busted by a local inspector, I am not sure how you get them to correct it. In short, customers here may have to do it themselves.
 
cmslick3 said:
... The most likely scenario is that the strike came down near your house and changed the ground potential. This will cause reverse electrical flow and will fry a lot, that also explains why your neighbors got hit also. ...

Chris, Thanks for the education. According to eyewitness when everything broke down, there was a loud noise outside the house and a orange flash. No sign that the lightning stroked the dish directly. It is possible it happened the way you descript.
Thanks again.
 
My installer gounded the dish but did not ground the OTA mast. In the storm that StoneMan refered to earlier in the post my OTA jack was arcing to my dish jack. So the dish is tested and works fine (it is grounded). I simply plugged my OTA though my monster power center and this resolved it.

Since I did the OTA mast install and they just replaced the antenna I installed I cannot really complain, however, I did ask him to gound it and he did not. So I bought to 14GA THHN and I am doing the damn thing myself.

As far as equipment getting hit anyway ... if the strike is close enough there is enough voltage in the air to kill electronics that are not properly grounded. If you look, most electronic do not have the ground plug like a power tool does, less amps, less need. But lightening cam be like an EMP and fry everything in a given radius, but this is VERY UNLIKELY. Transient voltage ... some static shocks can kill a full grown man!
 
vurbano said:
PSB,

I contacted my electrical inspector here and looked in the code book and have figured out why the installers get away with no ground wires in this state, the bad installers that is. I recently started a poll on it too and my guess is that many states work the same way and that is why we have so many people without ground wires. PSB was correct, the NEC code does require ground wires on antenna masts, I think its chapter 810-21 (in my outdated 1990 code book) lol. The problem here is, according to the inspector, that the state doesnt regulate low voltage electrical systems under 50 volts, so the city inspectors dont inspect it or issue fines for violations of NEC code for these systems. And without that threat of an installer getting busted by a local inspector, I am not sure how you get them to correct it. In short, customers here may have to do it themselves.


Your electrical inspector is hopefully a bit confused. If his statement is correct, this means they couldn't enforce the grounding of Telephone (-48V)or Cable systems at either the customer premesis or the pole. Rediculous! There would HAVE to be an additional provision that allows them to enforce the proper grounding of these systems.
 
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