[mythtv-users] OT: DIY Antennas in the attic, is a ground necessary?

[William]

Tom Flair wrote:
> I've had a few issues recently with my OTA recordings from my HD 
> Homerun showing some distortion and breaking up entirely on a few 
> stations.  Since I've recently moved from an apartment to a house, I 
> thought it might be a good idea to upgrade my cheap, powered antenna 
> with a DIY antenna.  
> (http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/maker_workshop_dtv_antenna_steadyca.html 
> is the guide I followed)    I'm hoping this will cure the signal issues.
>
> My current antenna is sitting above a joist in my basement, about 1' 
> above ground level sitting horizontally.  Since I need to venture into 
> my attic for other nefarious purposes anyway, I'd like to mount the 
> new antenna in the attic and run an RG6 line from the antenna back 
> down to my demarcation and HDHR.  My concern is whether or not I 
> should be concerned with grounding out the antenna since it will be in 
> the attic and what I would connect the ground to on the antenna itself. 
>
> Has anyone run into a similar situation?
The reason for grounding is lightning protection which should not be an 
issue for an attic mounted antenna. Moving your antenna from 1' above 
ground to attic level should make a big difference.