Hi,

We have a nearly new home in FL (built in 2001) and I noticed recently that
our cable TV coax comes into a box on the outside of the garage before
coming into the house. I also noticed that in this box, the cable has a
grounding block attached to it, but no ground wire. So I bought some #10
copper wire and ran a wire ground wire from the grounding block in the box
down to what I thought was the grounding rod where the electrical service
and the phone were grounded. But instead it looks more like rebar instead
of a "smooth" grounding rod looks. It comes out of the ground at about a
15-30 degree angle off vertical (i.e. almost vertical).

I can see a #4 or #6 bare copper wire (which I assume is the electrical
service ground) coming out of the house and clamping to this rebar, as well
as following the grounding wire from the phone demarc box to this rod
(actually, the phone grounding wire is clamped to the electrical ground wire
about 2 inches from where the electrical ground wire clamps to the rebar. I
bought a 5/8" grounding clamp, stripped about 2 inches of insulation from my
cable TV coax ground wire, and clamped it directly to the rebar with the
rest of them.

Then, I noticed about 16 inches away was what looked like a regular
grounding rod sticking out of the ground about 2 inches. This rod is
smoother and does not appear to be rebar, but more of a regular grounding
rod (or at least what I thought a regular grounding rod looked like). Both
the rebar and the grounding rod are less than 6 feet from the AC service
panel in the garage. I dug down about 6 inches, but couldn't find anything
attached to this smooth grounding rod.

So my questions a
(a) Why is everything grounded to the rebar when there's a grounding rod
right next to it?
(b) Should the rod and the rebar be bonded together somehow?
(c) I can't determine if the rebar is part of the foundation rebar or a
piece of rebar driven straight down into the ground. Is it ok as the
house's ground if it's part of the foundation rebar and not an 8' stake
going down into the ground?

Thanks in advance!
-- Vinnie