Bullet2 Surge

[CanadianWISP]

Hello Everyone

Having Surge problems with bullet2 .........dish is a 24DBI Andrew antenna mounted on a old windmill about 40 ft up or so the windmill is grounded with a rod at the bottom using regular outdoor Ethernet cable. about 30-40 ft of the cable is ran overhead to clients house then inside a 15V AC adapter with a grounded POE............every time there's a Storm or the wind blows it take a surge there is nothing else on the windmill that is being used.........just last week in a big Snow storm it took one out just the eth port, we could ping it and access it from the wireless side.............. ANY IDEAS?

[panamasteve]

Might Google for the effects of "precipitation static." You may have a static electricity buildup that needs to be dissipated before it jumps into the gear. Nevtxjustin probably can help with that....

[Dave-D]

You should be using shielded (FTP) CAT5
cable--not ordinary Ethernet cable. And
if you have specific cable surge issues,
I would use a separate high-quality
transient protector on the CAT5 cable
at the bottom end.

Note a ground rod may or may not be
evidence of good grounding. And you
should also bond the cable ground not
only to the ground rod but also the
mains power grounding structure. Dave

[WHT]

I can see part of your problem with having a ground rod at the windmill. While the windmill is likely already somewhat grounded, adding a true ground only makes it worse.

You now have two ground points that are not at equal voltage potential because of the ohmic resistance through the earth between the two grounded points.

Your solution would be to dig up the windmill and use glass insulators or....

Or run a separate ground wire of #10 gauge copper wire and connect the ground rod to the house's electrical utility ground rod.

Replacing the CAT5 cable with shielded CAT5 would likely solve the problem; but if lightning hits the windmill, you are going to have a very, very serious problem. And I don't think home owner insurance will pay for a burned down house if there was an improperly installed grounding system not recognized by the National Electrical Code and National Fire Protection Code.

-=Just "NevTxJustin" Justin=-

Edited to add...
You also need a UL recognized station protector before the CAT5 enters the building, and that protector needs to go to utility ground with at least #6 gauge copper wire.

[WHT]

http://www.commscope.com/andrew/eng/support_document/tech_info/antennas/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2008/04/11/BN_TP_101613_EN.pdf

4.2 Low Impedance, Single Point System Ground
The purpose of having a low impedance, single point system ground is to equalize all
potentials. By having a single point ground, all electronics in the system are kept at the
same potential. Combined with a low impedance path, ground is close to zero potential
and not at a damaging level. The National Electric Code specifies impedance of less than
25 ohms, while the IEEE recommends less than 5 ohms for sensitive electronic
equipment [2].