You're grounded.

[14karat]

Ok guys. I took ACRadio's advice and started this thread...
I know this has been beat into the ground (no pun intended) forever, but I would like opinions and experiences here to settle this...
I'm attaching a diagram of what I have.
Both dishes are aluminum mesh - 10 ft and 8 ft.
I have 8 ft ground rods at points A, B and, of course, at the service entrance.
Cabling is completely in PVC conduit between the sats and the house entrance.
As best as I can tell, per code, points A & B MUST be bonded via #6 copper back to the service ground.
I have no issue with that as I can run the #6 underground, no problem.
BUT... where should the coax, etc. tie to ground?
Should I do that at the dish or at point C where it enters the house?
If I have to do this at the house entrance, then I'll have to break out of the conduit to attach the grounding blocks. PLUS, best I can figure, I'll have to bond a 3rd ground at this point as I will be over the 20' limit to ground back to the service entrance (there is nothing else to ground to here)...
I'm sure this is a pretty typical scenario and surely there's others out there just like it.

Thanks all...

 

[rv1pop]

I will put in my 2 cents worth and maybe some one will want to quote the code to correct me.

My posts are grounded and bonded together in the concrete bases and the rebar goes out into the dirt, so that give me an earth ground at the dishes. I do not have lightning arrestors in the coax line, unless those ground blocks do have a gap in them. But I do usually mount those to the steel structure or pipes. The coaxes fasten to a chassis that is grounded though the power cord to a grounding outlet, with the ground wire hooked up to the ground in the breaker box. And because of my buildings, most of the outlet boxes are mounted to the steel framework of the buildings which is bonded and connected to an earh ground.

All that said, I think any normal static is drained off very well. A direct lightning strike would blow out everything, anyway. The last direct strike in this neighborhood (if you can call it that) brought down one of the high tension towers and the associated 110 KV power lines.

 

[truckracer]

I don't use ground blocks either. My dishes are grounded. A good direct hit would like you said take out everything anyway. Ground blocks are just another potential connection issue to me. I know it is NEC regulation but IMO grounding your coaxes to your service entrance ground is just another potential source of AC noise. I have seen this on telephone lines back when people used dial up internet. The noise from the AC line would cause lower connection speeds when using dial up on an analog phone line.

The problem would be most severe in neighborhoods where many homes ran off of a common transformer. You have a lot of motor loads switching on and off. Flourescent light ballasts introduce a lot of line noises too.

I think in the real world if your dish and steel pole is properly grounded that should dissipate enough energy to keep you safe as possible. My poles are in the ground almost 5 feet anyway. along with the 8 foot copper coated ground rods and #6 AWG solid copper ground wire I should be pretty safe for the most part.

I have heard stories of people losing lnbs from the "static surge" from a nearby lightning strike. I guess the dish could act as a passive amplifier to the strong static field nearby from a lightning strike funneling the energy right into the feedhorn killing the lnb(s).

 

[Corrado]

In my experience with a lightning hit last July, mine followed the dish actuator wiring. From there my Uniden Ultra delivered the blast to everything else in the system which was all interconnected. My dishes weren't actually hit but a large tree nearby was. The buried cables run right next to the tree and close enough to carry the charge right into the house.

I ended up with a new digital KWH meter from the utility company the next week also. It even took out the central AC compressor also well as TVs, etc. I don't think there was anything that could have prevented it except disconnecting components. As a routine, now my satellite equipment is disconnected when a storm is forecast.