I want to put up a small OTA TV antenna on the side of my house to see what I can pull in and am reading up on grounding it. Do I REALLY have to pound an 8 foot grounding rod in for a stupid little mostly plastic antenna? Seems like total overkill to me.

Using the existing grounding rod for my electrical service is a no-go as that is all the way on the other side of the house.

What is a good way to ground this thing? There are no water pipes nearby either so that's out.

If you're in an area that gets lightning and the antenna sticks up higher than the highest point of your house, and it's permanent, it needs the ground rod.

If you set it up for a couple of weeks to try it and that's all, there's a very small chance it'll take a lightning hit.

Your choice.

I’ve put up a lot of antennas on towers and I guess the tower is the ground but I’ve never ran a specific wire to a ground rod on an install.

NEC has very specific rules for outdoor antennas.

these rules should be followed. you may not like the rules for adding another ground rod because you may be forced to buy some heavy wire to tie it to your existing ground, but the rules are very specific.

You can't just add another ground rod without following the NEC guidelines for tying them together with heavy wire. there are good reasons for this.

Or you can buy a bunch of 10 AWG and bond to your existing ground rod.

quote:

If you're in an area that gets lightning and the antenna sticks up higher than the highest point of your house, and it's permanent, it needs the ground rod.

lightning doesn't always hit the highest point. NEC is worded such that all outdoor antennas need grounding regardless of whether it's the highest point or not.

an attic antenna on the other hand requires no grounding per NEC.

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Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

If you're in an area that gets lightning and the antenna sticks up higher than the highest point of your house, and it's permanent, it needs the ground rod.

lightning doesn't always hit the highest point. NEC is worded such that all outdoor antennas need grounding regardless of whether it's the highest point or not.

True, it doesn't always hit the highest point, but it does most of the time and I always play the odds.

I recommend placing the improved OTA antenna inside the home. Grounding antennas is very challenging, if you read the numerous threads on the subject on www.qrz.com, the amateur radio forum.

Your biggest problem is "electrical potential". ..... Lightning can and will make its way to less height under the correct conditions........ Have installed several 8ft ground rods over the years by using less than 1 gallon of water by working the rod up and down while removing ground rod and adding some water and working the ground rod up and down... has to be the correct ground composition for this method to work. ................. drill sgt.

Yikes guys

Maybe I'll just put up a Mohu Leaf in the window nearby and be done with it.

When I read the original post I knew this was going to take on a life of it's own .
I know what I would do . And have done many times ...

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Originally posted by PASig:
Yikes guys

Maybe I'll just put up a Mohu Leaf in the window nearby and be done with it.

That might be the wisest course of action. Proper outside antenna installation, incl. grounding, isn't trivial.

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Originally posted by Flash-LB:
True, it doesn't always hit the highest point, but it does most of the time and I always play the odds.

If you get hit your insurance company will not find that a reasonable course-of-action. They'll note the absence of proper grounding and tell you "Too bad. So sad. Denied!"

Lightning is a capricious SOB. It cannot be depended-upon to do what it "should" do.

Why not put it inside the attic? I've always used (last 50 years) one of those large OTA antenna that have the little rods that fork out placed in my attic. Recently moved and placed one in my attic. Pulling in about 85 stations from 80 mile away. Just the regular old antenna and it works perfect with digital signals.

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Originally posted by cndrdk:


Why not put it inside the attic?

Running coax would be tough in this old house I think

I would suspect that this system does not require a ground under the NEC. What power (voltage) goes to the antenna? Is it under 50v (and a few other probably not applicable conditions) grounding is not required. If the mfg wants a ground (I doubt they do, but ok) then you can get it in any number of ways. But no you don't need an 8' rod to get a good earth ground depending of course on your soils etc.

 
For good OTA reception, a directional (yagi) antenna cannot be beat. Whether above or below the roof line, if it has good line of sight to the transmitters, reception will be good. Of course yagis are metal, and need to be grounded, but I found that with a good line of sight, I can use less (size) than the manufacturer's specs. I use a "47 mile" antenna to pull in all the PHX stations perfectly, which are at 68 miles distant.
 
Adding a hawk improves reception, as well.
 

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Originally posted by hrcjon:
I would suspect that this system does not require a ground under the NEC. What power (voltage) goes to the antenna? Is it under 50v (and a few other probably not applicable conditions) grounding is not required.

Sorry, no. That's entirely incorrect.

Antenna System Bonding and Grounding Requirements in the USA, for example.

How To Properly Ground A TV Antenna

I wish members would take to heart Para's previous caution to members that they should abstain from commenting about things in which they've little or no expertise.

It might help to have a little more info other than " It's small and mostly plastic " .

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Originally posted by selogic:
It might help to have a little more info other than " It's small and mostly plastic " .

It’s a GE and it’s about 22 inches wide at its widest point. I’ll play around with it inside and if that doesn’t work, I’ll try a Mohu Leaf again, I had one of those some years ago and it seemed to work pretty well.






I’m now getting most of my TV via YouTube TV but there are a few channels I am not getting like METv that I’d like to get and some of the fun local stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
... I’ll try a Mohu Leaf again, I had one of those some years ago and it seemed to work pretty well.

I A/B'd a Mohu Leaf against a Winegard Flatwave Amped a few years back. The Flatwave Amped far out-performed the Leaf, particularly on VHF-High, where the Leaf did nothing at all.

YMMV

You're worried about grounding THAT ?

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Originally posted by selogic:
You're worried about grounding THAT ?

^^ It doesn't even look like an outdoor antenna.

From the vids at antenna man on YT there are plenty of better antennas.
Additionally, it depends on what channels you want to get and where they are located and what band they are on.
I know the OP was only concerned with the grounding so sorry if this is off drift.
Also there is no such thing as a "HD" OTA antenna _ they are all HD or not depending on the actual broadcast and TV capabilities.