You're Grounded

I remember when I was just a kid (not that i'm grounded), my parents would tell me that to shut off the TV and radio whenever there is a series of lightning, 'cause it may attract through our antenna (conventional antenna) and radio and TV would burn. Well, we often do that after we hear a thunder, although we know that light is faster than sound and that you may be strike by lightning even before you hear it (no use turning it off, LOL!). I thought of this because there is one thing that I overlooked on my Satellite TV set up, the satellite dish is also an antenna. There is a very small chance or even zero chance that a satellite dish would be strike by lightning, since it is not installed too high (majority is roof level, mine is not even on a roof level) there are much more higher objects than this. But lets not take that chance, there is still a possibility, it is even a strict provision or there is a regulation on grounding on some areas (yes, we do).

Grounding is a way on protecting our equipment, it re-direct any power surges (lightning or current running from Receiver to LNB) away from our equipment (in this case the receiver and LNB) to the ground. I found some simple procedures (googling!) on how about to do it on a satellite dish set-up. All you need is:

• a copper wire
• a Grounding block, this ensures a good contact to LNB, in addition to copper wire)
• and any metal or conductor type material that directly points to the ground or you can just bury some metal rod (majority of household, already has a grounding you can just attached it to various parts of your home).

The rule is to attached your ground wire to a metal or any conductor type material that will discharge the electricity into the actual ground.

Some researched pointers:

• for copper wire use#6, or higher (it can be insulated or not)
• the wire going to the ground rod should be straight as possible (Important: limit any bending and do not make an arc out of the ground wire- the electric charge may get lost!)
  

As for precaution during thunderstorm, disconnect all power cords to your outlet, since there is a large probability that an electric power line will be hit by the lightning than your Satellite dish/antenna, even from a far location it will still create a power surge or fluctuation that can damage any of your equipment at home. You see, you can't just turn the TV the off.

Note:
There is also a coaxial cable that already has a grounding wire attached to it, consider looking for that type, if you're buying one.