On Nov 21, 9:46*am, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Per :

In that situation the technically correct thing to do would
be to have another ground rod on the end of the house
with the antenna and have that ground rod bonded to the ground rod at
the main panel. * However there are plenty of houses out there that
just have the antenna ground on one end and the panel grounded on the
other. * This common
ground is one reason utilities, ie electric, phone, cable,
etc come in at the same place.

Given that one of the building's grounds is a cold water pipe, it
sounds like attaching that antenna ground wire to the nearest
cold water pipe would do the trick.

Or would I be trying to electrocute anybody who happened tb using
a faucet at the time of the strike?
--
Pete Cresswell

Here are my concerns with that approach. You have
an antenna mast up on the roof with a ground wire
that leads back into the house and is connected to
a cold water pipe. Lightning hits the antenna and
where are you asking it to go? Into the house.
Don't know about you, but I'd prefer to keep it out of
the house. And the longer the path from the antenna
to earth ground, the higher the impedance. Also
adding to the impedance are any turns the ground
wire and piping make on their way through the house.
If you have a couple 90 deg, sharp turns where the
ground enters the house on it's way to the water pipe,
there is the distinct possibility that the lightning will
decide there is an easier path to ground and go that
route. For example, it could just arc over to earth
near where it enters the house. Again, I'm sure you
can find plenty of houses where this has been done
with no ill effects.

An interesting alternate method would be to have a
ground rod for the antenna and then use the cold water
pipe to bond it to the main grounding system of the
house. That way with a strike, the vast majority of
the energy is going to go right to earth, not into the
house. By having that ground rod bonded to the other
system via the cold water pipe, it would keep the
ground voltage level close, ie the two will be at
somewhat similar levels. Without it, you could
have the ground reference at the antenna point
thousands of volts different from the main house
ground. And then the TV for example, could get
damaged.

But I don't know if it's kosher to use the cold water
system to do the bonding. I could sleep OK if it
were my house, but technically I suspect something
in the code says you have to run an actual grounding
conductor between the two ground rods. Perhaps
Bud can weigh in on this.