Hi,
I have a big self supporting tower in the yard, it is grounded by grounding
rods and of course itself. I am attaching two satelite dishes to the tower.
The most practical way is using 2x4 wood, this will work great just screwing
them to the wood and it will squeeze itself to the brackets and support
nicely. I am wondering about the connection to the tower because there will
not be grounded to the tower. There wont be any connection (metal to metal)
form the satelite dish and the tower, that leads me to believe that the only
grounding would be the shielded cable which gets grounded to the nice new
50" plazma.

My question is should i ground that? Should the satelite dish itself be
grounded to the tower? Is there any reason for this? Safety wise or
interference wise? It would be very simple to do, but not sure if I should
or want to. Please give me advice as to either ground the dish to tower or
not to. Does anyone think there will be issues? Should I or shouldn't I?

Thanks for any advice.

" Tuuk" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I have a big self supporting tower in the yard, it is grounded by
grounding rods and of course itself. I am attaching two satelite dishes to
the tower. The most practical way is using 2x4 wood, this will work great
just screwing them to the wood and it will squeeze itself to the brackets
and support nicely. I am wondering about the connection to the tower
because there will not be grounded to the tower. There wont be any
connection (metal to metal) form the satelite dish and the tower, that
leads me to believe that the only grounding would be the shielded cable
which gets grounded to the nice new 50" plazma.

My question is should i ground that? Should the satelite dish itself be
grounded to the tower? Is there any reason for this? Safety wise or
interference wise? It would be very simple to do, but not sure if I should
or want to. Please give me advice as to either ground the dish to tower or
not to. Does anyone think there will be issues? Should I or shouldn't I?

Thanks for any advice.


Thre can never be too much grounding when it comes to lightning. You want
to bond everything together. That way any near by discharges gets grounded
and all the equipment goes up and down with the dishcharge at the same time.
Voltage does not hirt the equipment ,it is just the differance in the
voltages that does.

I think I would ground the dishes/coax to the tower and then atleast once
more just before it comes into the house. Grounding at the bottom of the
tower would also be good if the coax goes all the way to the ground.

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:45:19 -0400, Tuuk wrote:

Hi,
I have a big self supporting tower in the yard, it is grounded by
grounding rods and of course itself. I am attaching two satelite dishes
to the tower. The most practical way is using 2x4 wood, this will work
great just screwing them to the wood and it will squeeze itself to the
brackets and support nicely. I am wondering about the connection to the
tower because there will not be grounded to the tower. There wont be any
connection (metal to metal) form the satelite dish and the tower, that
leads me to believe that the only grounding would be the shielded cable
which gets grounded to the nice new 50" plazma.

My question is should i ground that? Should the satelite dish itself be
grounded to the tower? Is there any reason for this? Safety wise or
interference wise? It would be very simple to do, but not sure if I
should or want to. Please give me advice as to either ground the dish to
tower or not to. Does anyone think there will be issues? Should I or
shouldn't I?

Thanks for any advice.

I would [hah!] try to avoid using lumber. Have you ever played with
Unistrut?

On 9/25/2011 4:11 PM, dave wrote:
I would [hah!] try to avoid using lumber. Have you ever played with
Unistrut?

Figures.

Several commercial tower sites I used to service used wooden
cross supports between telephone poles. The antennas were
bolted directly to the wood cross pieces.

And no, there was no grounding straps/bonds across the supports.
The only grounds the antennas saw was the "ground window" going
into the building.

Jeff

--
"Everything from Crackers to Coffins"

"Jeffrey Angus" wrote in message
...
On 9/25/2011 4:11 PM, dave wrote:
I would [hah!] try to avoid using lumber. Have you ever played with
Unistrut?

Figures.

Several commercial tower sites I used to service used wooden
cross supports between telephone poles. The antennas were
bolted directly to the wood cross pieces.

And no, there was no grounding straps/bonds across the supports.
The only grounds the antennas saw was the "ground window" going
into the building.

Jeff

The thing with lumber is that it can hold moisture and cause the tower to
rust where the wood is.
Also if it is treated wood, the chemicals may cause the same thing only
faster.

On 9/25/2011 6:29 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
"Jeffrey wrote in message
Several commercial tower sites I used to service used wooden
cross supports between telephone poles.

The thing with lumber is that it can hold moisture and cause the tower to
rust where the wood is.
Also if it is treated wood, the chemicals may cause the same thing only
faster.

Each cross brace has about a dozen 2" diameter galvanized stubs to
attach the antennas to. They are bolted directly to the cross braces.

All the wood was treated with Creosote just like the poles themselves.
The site was at least 40 years old the last time I was up there in 2005.

The stubs didn't look any worse than the usual stubs bolted to metal
tower assemblies.

Jeff

--
"Everything from Crackers to Coffins"

"Jeffrey Angus" wrote in message
...
On 9/25/2011 6:29 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
"Jeffrey wrote in message
Several commercial tower sites I used to service used wooden
cross supports between telephone poles.

The thing with lumber is that it can hold moisture and cause the tower to
rust where the wood is.
Also if it is treated wood, the chemicals may cause the same thing only
faster.

Each cross brace has about a dozen 2" diameter galvanized stubs to
attach the antennas to. They are bolted directly to the cross braces.

All the wood was treated with Creosote just like the poles themselves.
The site was at least 40 years old the last time I was up there in 2005.

The stubs didn't look any worse than the usual stubs bolted to metal
tower assemblies.

I think Creosote is mostly a form of oil. Probalby helps iron not to rust.

The newer treated wood needs special screws depending on the chemicals used.
Thank the EPA for that.

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:46:17 -0500, Jeffrey Angus
wrote:

Each cross brace has about a dozen 2" diameter galvanized stubs to
attach the antennas to. They are bolted directly to the cross braces.

All the wood was treated with Creosote just like the poles themselves.
The site was at least 40 years old the last time I was up there in 2005.

You mean like this?
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/Old%20Repeaters/slides/LoopMtn02.html
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/Old%20Repeaters/slides/LoopMtn03.html
We had similar derrangements at 3-4 other sites. Telephone poles and
lumber were about 20% of the cost of a galvanized steel tower.

Lightning protection was at the entry point to the building with a
metal plate with some PolyPhasor feed through protectors. The end and
highest antennas were also grounded with a undersized #4 copper wire
running down the pole to a ground rod at the base. We didn't get any
lightning hits because there was an all metal forestry lookout at the
highest point on Santiago which took all the hits.

The stubs didn't look any worse than the usual stubs bolted to metal
tower assemblies.

We used the same hardware that was used the Ma Bell. Thick galvanized
and loose fitting steel hardware. Same as what the typical steel
tower is made from these days. It works nicely on both metal and
telephone poles.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sep 25, 7:46*pm, Jeffrey Angus wrote:
On 9/25/2011 6:29 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:

"Jeffrey *wrote in message
Several commercial tower sites I used to service used wooden
cross supports between telephone poles.

The thing with lumber is that it can hold moisture and cause the tower to
rust where the wood is.
Also if it is treated wood, the chemicals may cause the same thing only
faster.

Each cross brace has about a dozen 2" diameter galvanized stubs to
attach the antennas to. They are bolted directly to the cross braces.

All the wood was treated with Creosote just like the poles themselves.
The site was at least 40 years old the last time I was up there in 2005.

The stubs didn't look any worse than the usual stubs bolted to metal
tower assemblies.

Jeff

--
"Everything from Crackers to Coffins"

Same here Jeff, creosote poles and cross arms 30 years old with hot
dipped galvanized hardware. No sign of deterioration.

Jimmie

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:24:01 -0500, Jeffrey Angus wrote:

On 9/25/2011 4:11 PM, dave wrote:
I would [hah!] try to avoid using lumber. Have you ever played with
Unistrut?

Figures.

Several commercial tower sites I used to service used wooden cross
supports between telephone poles. The antennas were bolted directly to
the wood cross pieces.

And no, there was no grounding straps/bonds across the supports. The
only grounds the antennas saw was the "ground window" going into the
building.

Jeff

I'm not sure I'd want to hang a TVRO dish on one. Have you ever been on
the upper levels inside the Post Office building on Mt. Wilson?