Did the FCC really change the ground block rule in 2022?

I was pulling a house in Austin last week and my foreman told me the FCC quietly stopped requiring the 6-foot ground rod for cable drops if you bond to the meter. I checked the code book and he was right, the 810.21 section got updated. That's a big deal for us because we've been burying rods for years on homes where the meter is right there. Anyone else had a inspector fail them for not doing the rod anyway, even with the new rule?

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violatorres17d ago

Man, inspectors are like old dogs that way. They've got that one trick memorized and they're gonna do it till they're six feet under, pun totally intended. Bonding to the meter makes total sense though, why dig a whole extra hole in the Texas heat when the equipment is already sitting right there grounded to hell. Had a guy in San Antonio try to fail me on this exact thing last fall, I just showed him the updated code and he stared at it like I handed him a math test written in Greek. He finally grumbled something about "kids these days" and signed off, but you could tell he wanted to make me dig the rod just out of spite. The code's the code, but the old heads are gonna be mad about change till the day they retire.