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Lightning conductor for ametuer radio antenna mast - electrician says regular PVC sheated yellow green wire is ok from mast to earth rod

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
As per title I am getting a corner of my house setup as a radio shack and wanted to protect it appropriately.

The antenna is made of fibre glass but sits on an aluminium pole that brings the total height to 10m tall (only house in the area).


We have agreed to setup an earth rod below the antenna mast and earth it but the question is - will regular 35mm green/yellow sheated earth be good enough to provide earthing for antenna mast while being exposed to the elements? How long will it last?


Any thoughts on the electrical setup for the radio? We are planning to use the same earth rod and make a TT island for the power socket that feeds the radio unit (as main electrics is PME). The radio will be fed electric connection through an MCB by taking power from the main distribution box protected by a Type 1/2/3 SPD (I have 3 phase 100A supply from DNO) and we will use the earth rod for earth supply.


The radio unit will be powered by a seperate consumer unit which gets it's earth supply from the rod (I might also get a Type 1 SPD in the TT island consumer box).


The antenna and the TT island powering the radio will be linked by a 700A rated earth bar enclosed outside the property in an IP65 enclosure.


Appreciate any thoughts on my setup.
Am I being overkill and do not need a TT island for my radio setup? Will earthing the antenna be sufficient?
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  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    mapj1:

    well, there are 2 questiions here -

    1)is taking the PME earth outside on the coax an issue - probably not to the radio user, there are PME earthed lamp posts and bus shelter lights up and down the land, and each and every morning we are not sweeping up a huge pile of dead bodies because of it.

    There is a research paper that looks at the risk of pme earth for car charging which may give some  ideas I will try and link to in a minute.

    try this link


    If you are in control of who is in the garden, then the risk of a shock between bare feet on the grass an a  hand on the mast may be further reduced . Or paint it.



    2) lightning - from where you are in the country, we can look at the lightning map, an see the chance of a strike per square km in any one  year, (see map on page 5 of this article (based on NI but the map is whole of UK )) and then work out the odds of your mast being struck by converting the vertical height to a capture area.


    Thanks for the article, I did go through a similar discussion about Open PEN and PME earth risks for EV charging as I have the charger for my Tesla outdoors. We went for an Open PEN detection device in addition to a Schnider Type B EV RCBO with an isolator to provide the multiple points of safety before using PME Earth on that. I believe we used this device from a quick google search - https://library.e.abb.com/public/08cefc79cc241acec125713f0033df9f/1SDC210015D0201.pdf?x-sign=ZFxYXI8m02t6tkgZa8IUsSY5LN3RqThEat97kcLHH61nrn71lr676pH9hdRxN08Q


    The antenna is mounted just below the first floor roof so there is zero touch risk, only the coax comes down from it.


    Very concerned about safety considering I have 0 DIY skills....


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  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    mapj1:

    well, there are 2 questiions here -

    1)is taking the PME earth outside on the coax an issue - probably not to the radio user, there are PME earthed lamp posts and bus shelter lights up and down the land, and each and every morning we are not sweeping up a huge pile of dead bodies because of it.

    There is a research paper that looks at the risk of pme earth for car charging which may give some  ideas I will try and link to in a minute.

    try this link


    If you are in control of who is in the garden, then the risk of a shock between bare feet on the grass an a  hand on the mast may be further reduced . Or paint it.



    2) lightning - from where you are in the country, we can look at the lightning map, an see the chance of a strike per square km in any one  year, (see map on page 5 of this article (based on NI but the map is whole of UK )) and then work out the odds of your mast being struck by converting the vertical height to a capture area.


    Thanks for the article, I did go through a similar discussion about Open PEN and PME earth risks for EV charging as I have the charger for my Tesla outdoors. We went for an Open PEN detection device in addition to a Schnider Type B EV RCBO with an isolator to provide the multiple points of safety before using PME Earth on that. I believe we used this device from a quick google search - https://library.e.abb.com/public/08cefc79cc241acec125713f0033df9f/1SDC210015D0201.pdf?x-sign=ZFxYXI8m02t6tkgZa8IUsSY5LN3RqThEat97kcLHH61nrn71lr676pH9hdRxN08Q


    The antenna is mounted just below the first floor roof so there is zero touch risk, only the coax comes down from it.


    Very concerned about safety considering I have 0 DIY skills....


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