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Earthing of VSAT dishes

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
I am trying to apply the principles of BS 7671 to VSAT installations in Africa. My chief concern is the connection of the VSAT dish to the electrical supply provided by the customer. The standard practice I've adopted is shown in the attached sketch. The metallic parts of the dish are connected with copper conductors and then to an earth spike (or spikes) near the dish foundations. The earth cable is then run (either in a conduit of buried) to the equipment building. At the entry to the building, the earth cable is used by surge arrestors fitted to the RF cables. The earth cable then runs to an earth bar fitted into the equipment cabinet.  The mains supply to the equipment is supplied by the customer, the earth of which is also connected to the cabinet's earth bar. The power supplied by the customer may be from a generator 100% of the time, or more like comes from the town's municipal supply, These supplies are often erratic so a back-up generator is often in use, and as a matter of course we always fit an on-line UPS. Is this approach sensible?  Thanks for any assistance.59494298b3459314364a34dca9abf95a-huge-vsat-earthing.jpg
Parents
  • Maybe slightly off the point, although i noticed emphasis on the 16mm2 green wire.  I had a chat sometime ago about the problems associated with earthing African telephone switching stations. Lightning strikes,very common there, would damage the telecomms equipment until he designed an earthing grid that encompassed the perimiter of the various buildings he was supervising.

    Legh
Reply
  • Maybe slightly off the point, although i noticed emphasis on the 16mm2 green wire.  I had a chat sometime ago about the problems associated with earthing African telephone switching stations. Lightning strikes,very common there, would damage the telecomms equipment until he designed an earthing grid that encompassed the perimiter of the various buildings he was supervising.

    Legh
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