You guys have been very helpful and I appreciate it. Still haven't gotten a tech out yet to go over my cable ground. Been dealing with family issues and an air conditioning problem. As much as I love my TV watching, I think the air conditioning takes priority :)

Anyway, it will be a few weeks before I can schedule an appointment, and as I wait, I had a few more questions.

I actually dug up around the rod to see just exactly how things were hooked up. The electric ground clamp is extremely loose, and I will get this fixed ASAP. Below is the cable clamp where it is grounded. But it confuses me a bit. It seems the last time I had a guy out he re did the ground. Where there was once, one clamp with the ground wire coming to it (on the rod), there is now what looks like two clamps. A new looking one below the old cruddy looking one. The ground wire is comin from their cable box to this new clamp. Then it looks like a coax cable is coming up from the ground, through this new clamp and then cnnected to the old clamp.

Does the Coax need to be connected like this ? Why would you need to have coax coming from underground, when there is a ground block in the cable box on the side of the house ? I thought the coax is grounded in the box.

They have the orange looking drop line from the tap going underground at the side of the house ( they haven't buried it yet) Except as I say, at the side of the house. But this line is connected in the box at that ground. The coax connecting a new clamp to an older one has a different older looking coax connected between them. What is the need for this connection ?

I hope I've described things well enough. Thanks for any input on this.

The ground rod is your home's main electrical ground point. Every ground in your home eventually gets to that spot. There should be a large bare wire running from it to your service entrance box (the meter) and on to your breaker panel. Of course it is important that the wire be firmly connected at each end.

If the wire is loose at the ground rod you should fix that. The parts to do this are readily available at your local hardware/building supply store and they are cheap. Just get new stuff rather then fight rusty or cruddy hardware.

Once a good solid ground connection has been established it is not necessary to go back to the ground rod to make other ground connections. Your phone company and cable company will both run their grounds directly to that bare wire at the most convenient and accessible point. Special clamps are available for making those connections. I use a part called a split bolt for that propose as they are easy to find and inexpensive. Split bolts are available in a wide range of sizes and can be found in both copper and copper/aluminum versions. Use the latter if your ground wire is aluminum.

Repairing grounds isn't rocket science and any half way handy person should be able to do this. The exception is at the service panel and breaker box end. You should have an electrician work on that.

Thanks for the info. I've wondered if it's something I could do. I called my power company just to see what they'd say, and they advised me to get an electrician and that it wasn't their responsibility. f course this made me weary about trying to repair it myself.

In my discussions with people about the ground, I mentioned some interference like lines in my cable picture. And me thinking the ground might be the culprit. I guess I'm wondering if there is current causing this since the connection is loose, and wouldn't this be cause for concern when trying to fix things yourself. I'm not an electrician, so I don't know the nature of a houses electricity and how the ground effects it. Or a loose ground.

If I do it myself, should I get a new ground rod also ? Can you treat an older looking one with something in order to get a solid connection ?

Thanks again for the info. It's greatly appreciated by such a noob like me.

See the other thread for more info on this.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=876392

At the ground rod you are dealing with voltages at or near 0 volts so unless there is something very strange going on there is no danger working on it. The voltages we are discussing are in the order of 1 volt or less - less than a flashlight battery.

As for the ground rod, you could leave the existing rod alone and drive a new one nearby. Two rods are fine. The rod should be driven several feet into the ground - the more the better. If you live in an area with rocky soil it can be hard to get one in far, but that's not usually a problem. Run a new ground wire to the new rod and connect the other end to the existing wire with a split bolt.

You might find this PDF helpful.

http://www.dxing.com/tnotes/tnote02.pdf

This was written for HAM radio operators who require very good grounds so it will go a bit overboard, but has a lot of good advice.