Grounding Satellite dish

[piefairy]

I am having a satellite dish installed at my house and have some questions on grounding. The dish itself will be mounted on a pole, not connected to house, other than the coax. I live in a condo, and access to the grounding rod and the power entry into the building is not available. The distance between this point and the installation location is also over 20ft apart. I paid to have an electrician drive a new grounding rod near the install site, but he insisted that it did not need to be bonded to the existing ground. This does not seem to meet NEC code from what I understand.

So 2 questions,

1. Is he correct?
2. If not, what can I bond the new ground rod to since neither the main bus, nor the power entry point for the house are accessible? There is a household AC condenser that is right next to the install location, can I bond to the ground on this? I know its driven by wire gauge and distance, but the condenser should have had to have been installed with similar grounding consideration as the satellite.

Primary concern is lighting, I live in FL, and a satellite dish is a prime target.

Thanks

 

[Megawatt]

I am having a satellite dish installed at my house and have some questions on grounding. The dish itself will be mounted on a pole, not connected to house, other than the coax. I live in a condo, and access to the grounding rod and the power entry into the building is not available. The distance between this point and the installation location is also over 20ft apart. I paid to have an electrician drive a new grounding rod near the install site, but he insisted that it did not need to be bonded to the existing ground. This does not seem to meet NEC code from what I understand.

So 2 questions,

1. Is he correct?
2. If not, what can I bond the new ground rod to since neither the main bus, nor the power entry point for the house are accessible? There is a household AC condenser that is right next to the install location, can I bond to the ground on this? I know its driven by wire gauge and distance, but the condenser should have had to have been installed with similar grounding consideration as the satellite.

Primary concern is lighting, I live in FL, and a satellite dish is a prime target.

Thanks

If you look at your meter there should be a # 6 bare wire coming down to an already existing ground rod. Go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy enough # 6 bare wire and bond the 2 ground rods together. The Satellite persons job is to ground it there self to your main bonding wire.

 

[pc1966]

If the dish is at or above the house height it is a serious risk of being hit so should be grounded.

The ground wire has to be thick enough to survive and should be as straight and direct as possible to ground, so ideally have a rod not too far from the point immediately below where the dish is located.

@Megawatt suggested #6 wire, that is around 13.3mm^2 which is in the sort of range we would chose for protective grounds in the UK (typically 10mm+) so I would agree with that.

As lightning is fast (under 10 microsecond rise time) what matters most is inductance, not resistance. So you want the wire to run straight down to ground as far as physically possible, that is often more important than making the gauge heavier.

 

[pc1966]

Just to add that you should also be doing what @Megawatt said about bonding the rods together - that will avoid 60Hz power circulating via your coax (which is not a good thing!).