Does my antenna mast need to be touching the ground??

[BigC]

I am wondering if my antenna mast needs to be touching the ground. I have a ground rod for it, but there is to much snow and frost at this time to put it in the ground. I assume the ground rod is more for if lighting hits the antenna, it will hopefully ground out to the ground rod. Any other hints that i should know about be for i fire up the base tomorrow? Thanks. I read just about every thread in the base set up forum, i got some good info out of there.

[KI4MSJ]

No your antenna doesn't need to touch the ground. You need to drive the grounding rod in and run a 1" grounding strap or 10 guage copper solid strand wire as straight from the base of the mast to the ground rod. Check out my pictures here.

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[BigC]

Thanks for the pics. Does the antenna mast need to be grounded for the radio to work properly??

[BobOstro61]

So, you really need that thick of a wire to ground? I have 6 gauge stranded running to my gound rod. That's the biggest wire I could find.

[Ind Bellybutton]

I used to have an A99 that I never grounded and it worked perfectly! Of course, it was attached to a 10ft piece of RadShak pole, and THAT was bolted 80ft up a Sycamore tree! I guess all the water that those trees have in them helped with the ground!

A point of note: From what I can remember from some tidbit I learned somewhere:: Commercial broadcast towers are only connected to the ground by a ground wire and MAYBE their guy wires... An AM radio station guy said he used his whole tower as his antenna, for it was isolated by a glass ball that it rested on. And the guy wires were isolated about halfway down, and they acted as a ground plane as far as I can figure...

[KI4MSJ]

No you don't need your antenna to be grounded for it to work. The reason for grounding is two fold.
1) Lightning protection
2)to control RF and to help running over your neighbors electronics

The thicker the ground the easier the RF or lightning will pass through it. You would also want to ground your station equipment by using a grounding bar. Ground all your equipment individually to the grounding bar and then run one thick ground wire or strap the a grounding rod outside your shack. Make it as short and straight as possible. Do not ground it to the same grounding rod as the antenna. There are many sites on the Internet that will help you with your grounding needs, and remember grounding is a very important step in a properly set up station. Don't underestimate it. Hope this help.

[Circuit Breaker]

Thanks for the pics. Does the antenna mast need to be grounded for the radio to work properly??

No. Grounding the antenna and mast is more for safety in regards to lightning. It also allows for static bleed off and will also help reduce RFI issues, although it won't eliminate them completely if you have them. Keep in mind, that no matter what you do...it will not protect you if your antenna takes a direct lightning strike. During a thunderstorm, the best thing you can do is to always disconnect the coax from your radio.

[BigC]

Thanks for the extra info, i will put the ground rod in when the frost and snow goes away and ground my antenna mast. Can i cut the grounding in half and have two 4ft sections and use one to ground the mast and the other to ground the radio equipment? Thanks

[231]

No. Grounding the antenna and mast is more for safety in regards to lightning. It also allows for static bleed off and will also help reduce RFI issues, although it won't eliminate them completely if you have them. Keep in mind, that no matter what you do...it will not protect you if your antenna takes a direct lightning strike. During a thunderstorm, the best thing you can do is to always disconnect the coax from your radio.

I agree.

[Ind Bellybutton]

Ever seen an Antron 99 after it's been hit by lightning? The ground around it get very fuzzy!