Saw a bad cable burn in Omaha and changed my whole approach to grounding

Last spring I was helping out on a commercial job near the stockyards in Omaha and watched a whole bundle of RG6 go up in smoke because the ground block wasn't bonded right. After that I started checking every bond point with a meter before I even terminate anything. Has anyone else had to redo their grounding habits after a close call?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_palmer441mo ago

Man that torque wrench tip is something else, but I gotta ask - what brand are you using for ground blocks now? I've been burned by a couple cheap ones that looked fine but had that thin brass that just heats up too fast. Seems like nobody talks about the actual metallurgy of the parts, just the basic specs.

nancyn691mo ago

Read a technical bulletin from Belden a few years back that said something like 80% of signal issues trace back to bad grounding. That stuck with me, but seeing that burn in person really drove it home... you can read all the theory you want but watching copper melt changes your perspective fast. Now I always use a torque wrench on ground clamps too, not just guessing tight enough. There's a lot of cheap grounding hardware out there that just can't handle a surge, so I'm real picky about what goes in the ground path these days.

amy_anderson1mo ago

@nancyn69 nailed it with that Belden stat, scary stuff. Had a similar moment fixing a lightning hit in a warehouse last year, the ground block was just loose enough to arc across and melt the jacket off three splitters in a row. Now I check with a meter every time too, peace of mind is worth the extra few minutes. That torque wrench idea is gold, gonna have to grab one for myself.