Thanks for the help Thomas D. Horne and everyone else. Sorry about the
cut&paste manner in which I'm responding. I'm having newsgroup trouble.
The guy helping me is a retired electrician. We're waiting on the gas
company to label the gas lines before pounding the rod in the ground. Given
your answers I can see you're being more techincal and accurate than he was,
which is good! It's my job to go pick up the parts we'll need to do the
job.

Replies are in line.
Mark Wilson wrote:
I recently had an electrician verify that I need a new grounding rod but
before he does the work I wanted to get clear regarding the manner in
which
telephone, cable, roof mounted TV antenna, and water pipes should be
grounded to the main service ground.

The rod will be planted a few feet from the house just opposite the
inside
service panel. Must the TV Antenna ground go all the way to the top of
the
rod or is it okay to split-bolt to the grounding wire at or just below
.ground level?


You can attach the grounding conductors of other services to the
Electrical Service's Equipment's Grounding Electrode Conductor (EGC) at
any convenient point along it's exposed length.

Thanks I understand, (assuming the EGC is just a fancy way of saying
main-ground-wire-coming-from-the-service-panel-and-heading-toward-the-ground
ing-rod.) I'll use a split bolt to ground the outside TV antenna ground
conductor to the EGC after the EGC leaves the basement but before it reaches
the ground rod.


The main water pipe enters the house about 25 yards away from the
grounding
rod. Is it acceptable to ground the cold water pipe to the service
ground
from inside the house? In this case I would split-bolt to the service
ground wire just before it goes through the basement wall.


You may not make any connection of the EGC using a split bolt connector
or any other reversible splice. You can run the EGC from the bonded
buss bar of the service equipment to the pipe and a separate EGC from
the same buss bar to the driven rod. Alternatively you can run the EGC
to either the rod or the piping and from that electrode to the other
electrode.

Thanks for clearing that up. I'll bond the water pipe to the bus bar in the
service panel, and then run the main ground EGC from that same bus bar to
the ground rod. (Techincally, for the main EGC, I'll use the bolt-like
attachement provided at the bottom of said bus bar) Because I'll be
replacing the main EGC with fresh 4 gauge conductor, I'll probably just use
some extra 4 gauge for the pipe to bus conductor as well.


My house is cabled for cable TV (although I don't currently subscribe).
Where is the best (practical) place to ground the TV Cable? Split-Bolt
again to service wire as it leaves basement?

Yes you can use a split bolt connector to attach the grounding conductor
of other services to the EGC.

Thanks to you and "w_tom", I see I may be referring to something different
when I say TV cable ground. After the cable enters the house, it goes to a
standard RCA splitter and it's from there that there is some kind of bleed
off ground wire. It was this ground wire that I was referring to rather
than something coming off a block outside the house. Right now the plan is
to just split bolt the cable ground wire to the EGC just before it heads
outside through the basement wall. I'll will have a look at the outside
block for the TV Cable.


Finally, what about Telephone system ground? Split-bolt as it leaves
basement? Is this something the phone company must do (for demarcation
reasons) and if so, are they gonna charge me for it?

The telephone system ground is attached using a saddle clamp and in most
areas that work is done by the telco staff at no cost to you. The rules
governing communications grounding in the US NEC require that the
conductor used to ground the communications wiring be kept to six feet
or less in length. If six feet will not get to the Service's accessible
grounding means then install a separate ground rod and bond it to the
service grounding electrode with a #6 AWG bonding conductor.
(assuming six feet means six meters as was corrected earlier)

The six meters is no problem as the telephone line enters the house right
next to the service panel. However, I'm a little confused by what is meant
by "Service's accessible grounding means". "Accessible" being the key
word, I'm assuming you mean that Telco will ground to the EGC after exists
the service panel, but before it heads outside through the basement wall.


IV. Grounding Methods
800.40 Cable and Primary Protector Grounding.
The metallic member(s) of the cable sheath, where required to be
grounded by 800.33, and primary protectors shall be grounded as
specified in 800.40(A) through (D).
(A) Grounding Conductor.
(1) Insulation. The grounding conductor shall be insulated and shall be
listed as suitable for the purpose.

Hmm. Assuming this section "IV" is referring to the EGC, are you saying that
the main ground conductor must be insulated? And by insulated does that
mean plastic wire covering? I thought I'd be safe with a bare solid copper
4 gauge wire? I must be reading this wrong...

(2) Material. The grounding conductor shall be copper or other
corrosion-resistant conductive material, stranded or solid.
(3) Size. The grounding conductor shall not be smaller than 14 AWG.

Again, although this specifies 14 as the smallest, even 10 or 8 seems too
small. Maybe this part of the code is not referring to the main EGC?

It's very kind of you to take the time to respond, Mr. Horne. If you'll
indulge me in a little further clarification, I'd appreciate it all the
more, but I'm already plenty grateful at this point.

Thanks again.