Antennas and Grounding

Antennas and Grounding

I recently installed an antenna on my house. I was told it should be grounded. How do I do that?

The best place to ground an antenna is to the cold water pipe for the house within a couple of feet of where it first enters the foundation.

If your house uses a plastic water line instead of copper or metal, then you'll need to connect your ground wire to the common ground wire for the home's electrical system. This is usually a bare copper wire that you can find entering your circuit breaker panel. You can use a suitably listed clamp to attach the antenna ground to the building ground wire without the need to open the electric panel. NEVER cut the building ground wire; this must always be left in tact and unbroken.

In most cases, the best ground wire to use for an antenna is a piece of insulated #8 solid copper. This should be run in one unbroken length from the antenna's grounding terminal to the ground point you've chosen as described above. Be careful not to make sharp bends in the wire when you install it, as this may impede the flow of any fault current back to ground.

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