Grounding an Antenna Mast

Paintedcow · 2015-11-16T19:40:06+00:00

Last year I put up a TV antenna mast. I didn't want to screw it to the roof, so I ran three 10 foot lengths of 1 1/4 EMT conduit up the side of the house, and bracketed it to the side of the house. I buried the bottom about 10 inches in the soil. That got the top of that mast about 8 foot above the roof. Which is where the antenna sits. (I had a machine shop make me some sturdy splicers to connect the EMT conduit sections together, because those connectors sold for EMT are too weak for my use). There are also a few guy wires to secure this mase in case of wind. Those are connected to the side of the house. Anyhow, I never really grounded this mast, and think I should. That 10" buried into the soil is not really a suitable ground. One of the ground rods for my house's electrical system is only about 8 feet from the mast, so I can run a wire to that. My problem is how to connect that wire to the conduit. The commercial ground rod clamps are not big enough to go around that conduit. I thought about clamping it with a stainless steel hose clamp, but that's not the best connection. A muffler clamp os my other thought, but the way they rust, I'd almost think a S.S. hose clamp would be the better if the two. I suppose I could also drill a hole in the conduit and put a bolt thru is, but I'd prefer to not weaken the conduit with a hole. Maybe some of you will have a better idea about what to use to clamp it. I'll probably use #8 or #10 bare copper wire for this, or insulated, depending on what I have laying around. Ideally, I think a Stainless Steel muffler type clamp would be best, if I could find such a thing.

Nov 16, 2015 22 Replies

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gfretwell 10 years ago

I linked you a Home Depot source and they will mail it to you.

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Paintedcow 10 years ago

Oh, never mind. He left a URL in his post. I just looked at it and that looks perfect. I wonder if Home Depot ships stuff like this? ( I dont think so). There is no H.D. within a reasonable driving distance. Menards is closest and that's 1.5 hours away. That's the drawback of living in a rural area.

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trader_4 10 years ago

Just looked on Ebay for "pipe ground clamp", there are plenty of them there and they ship. Just need to get the right size.

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