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Burying Coax
I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location
consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. I intend to take the LMR-400 coax and push it through a garden hose to add a layer of protection. However, I am worried that condensation will quickly fill the airspace of the hose with water and it will either penetrate the coax outer jacket or interfere with the performance of it in some unknown negative way. I can not flood the garden hose with petroleum oil as it will soon eat through the PVC jacket of the coax or garden hose. Ideally, I would like to flood the hose with the same stuff they put into underground cables. It has a honey consistency and is not easily displaced by water. I was hoping for some type of silicon oil but am unable to find anything similar at the hardware store. Anybody have any suggestions? |
"yea right" wrote in message ... I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. I intend to take the LMR-400 coax and push it through a garden hose to add a layer of protection. However, I am worried that condensation will quickly fill the airspace of the hose with water and it will either penetrate the coax outer jacket or interfere with the performance of it in some unknown negative way. I can not flood the garden hose with petroleum oil as it will soon eat through the PVC jacket of the coax or garden hose. Ideally, I would like to flood the hose with the same stuff they put into underground cables. It has a honey consistency and is not easily displaced by water. I was hoping for some type of silicon oil but am unable to find anything similar at the hardware store. Anybody have any suggestions? Get two rubber / plastic boots - the type used on electrical installations. a large container of petroleum or KY jelly fill both end of the hose once you have the coaxial through it this should stop any air getting in or out and so prevent the condensation problem. Finally put the boots over tube ends again filled with jelly and using come electrical tape , tape over it. Go over the electrical tape with self amalgamating tape them one more layer of electrical tape to keep out the UV and "BOBS your uncle" job should be a good one. TTFN Martin G1GYC |
Use rigid PVC tubing, cement fittings as needed. It will provide more physical
protection than a garden hose. Any condensation that develops should be minimal. However, even if it were severe, if the coax couldn't stand up to it then it couldn't stand up to rain, snow, frost, etc. either. I used coax buried in this way and had no trouble with it for 15 years. |
Don't worry about it. Save the 'worry' for something that's more likely to happen, you may run short... 'Doc |
"helmsman" wrote in message ... yea right wrote: . Don't buy goods made in France or Germany and vacation somewhere else! And you call that a OM, respectfully of the ham spirit, worldwide ? Thierry ON4SKY, LX3SKY |
Yea right, tell that to the 1000's of Americans buried there defending those
countries. Damm straight I don't buy anything made there much less vacation there!! If I had my way, we would disinter all of them and bring them home to hallowed ground here in America! Screw the french and the krauts! de jer "Thierry" see my website wrote in message ... "helmsman" wrote in message ... yea right wrote: . Don't buy goods made in France or Germany and vacation somewhere else! And you call that a OM, respectfully of the ham spirit, worldwide ? Thierry ON4SKY, LX3SKY |
Hi yea right
I would use standard PVC conduit and boxes, it's cheaper than garden hose and more impervious to cuts. I doubt if your going to be able to 'push' a coax through a hose, or even conduit for that matter. You will probably have to 'pull' it through using a fishtape. As the distance increases, so does the friction against the walls of whatever you are pulling it through. One cannot even pull a piece of romex through 15 feet of PVC without a fishtape and some wirelube from your local electrical supply house. TTUL Gary |
Your going to all that trouble to "protect" 20 feet of coax? It is not
worth the time, hassle or money. Put it down and replace it every couple of years if you think there is a problem. -- Radio K4ia Craig "Buck" Fredericksburg, VA USA FISTS 6702 cc 788 Diamond 64 "yea right" wrote in message ... I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. I intend to take the LMR-400 coax and push it through a garden hose to add a layer of protection. However, I am worried that condensation will quickly fill the airspace of the hose with water and it will either penetrate the coax outer jacket or interfere with the performance of it in some unknown negative way. I can not flood the garden hose with petroleum oil as it will soon eat through the PVC jacket of the coax or garden hose. Ideally, I would like to flood the hose with the same stuff they put into underground cables. It has a honey consistency and is not easily displaced by water. I was hoping for some type of silicon oil but am unable to find anything similar at the hardware store. Anybody have any suggestions? |
Gary:
Maybe I've been lucky, but I've had no difficulty in pushing RG-8 through a 20 foot section of 1" PVC, and on a good day, have even got RG6 (tv cable) through one that didn't have any other wires in it. Pushing 12-2 w/ground or 14-2 w/ground romex through a similar distance isn't a big deal unless you've got corners to deal with... Sigh... Your mileage may vary, depending upon your patience and luck. By the way, it is much more difficult to push wire uphill than down, or even on the level... Of course, with a really long run, I'd build it up 20 feet at a time, or push a pull-tape through it (or blow a nylon through using air pressure) before pulling a bundle through the PVC. Another possibility is the seamless black flexible pipe. I've been quite successful in pushing a single coax through a 1 1/4" diameter 25' long section of black flexible pipe.... There are lots of possibilities, but for something that is a single coax run of only 20 feet, I might tend towards just direct burial of a good grade of coax and worry about it in a few years. Otherwise, it's probably good to use conduit, even if you have to periodically go out and blow out the "condensation" the original poster was worried about. --Rick AH7H "Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr." wrote: Hi yea right I would use standard PVC conduit and boxes, it's cheaper than garden hose and more impervious to cuts. I doubt if your going to be able to 'push' a coax through a hose, or even conduit for that matter. You will probably have to 'pull' it through using a fishtape. As the distance increases, so does the friction against the walls of whatever you are pulling it through. One cannot even pull a piece of romex through 15 feet of PVC without a fishtape and some wirelube from your local electrical supply house. TTUL Gary |
Isn't the LMR400 rated for direct burial? Certainly there are varieties of
RG8 that are. If you don't use a conduit type thing, you do not have to worry about water accumulation, because the cable and ground will eventually dry out between rain storms, unless you bury it deep. Tam/WB2TT "yea right" wrote in message ... I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. I intend to take the LMR-400 coax and push it through a garden hose to add a layer of protection. However, I am worried that condensation will quickly fill the airspace of the hose with water and it will either penetrate the coax outer jacket or interfere with the performance of it in some unknown negative way. I can not flood the garden hose with petroleum oil as it will soon eat through the PVC jacket of the coax or garden hose. Ideally, I would like to flood the hose with the same stuff they put into underground cables. It has a honey consistency and is not easily displaced by water. I was hoping for some type of silicon oil but am unable to find anything similar at the hardware store. Anybody have any suggestions? |
On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 21:18:02 GMT, helmsman
wrote: yea right wrote: I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. SNIP Anybody have any suggestions? I can't find the original post, and going to Google to get it would be starting another thread, soooo,,,, I'm just going to insert here. The answer is one of those , "It all depends" on what you want for reliability. It also depends on whether you will have any connections underground. OTOH, connections underground are little different than connections above ground. They should be treated the same. Crushed rock and very rocky soil are about the worst location for burying coax. PVC conduit is *cheap*, or at least relatively inexpensive, particularly if you are only going to have one run of coax. I have 7 coax cables 3 TV RG-6 cables, two rotor cables, a power cable tot he 2-meter preamp and some other assorted *stuff* run through mine. I use a 75 foot run of 4 inch PVC to a junction box on the tower.. http://www.rogerhalstead.com/cablebox.htm Go to the hardware and get a tube of silicon sealant and seal the ends, if you don't think that's enough seal one end and shoot nitrogen gas in the hose to displace the air and then seal it quickly. A point or two here...If you want to force N2 through the coax you need *both* ends open. However it *will* breathe as pressure changes with temperature. Do NOT seal both ends of a coax run. Do the best possible job up on top and leave the end in the house unsealed. IF you seal both ends the pressure will eventually equalize. Then with each temperature change it will either pressurize, or draw a vacuum. This will eventually draw in moisture. I use heat shrink tubing on top of the tower and fill the connectors with DC-4 silicon grease. This works at least up through 440 and for all legal amateur power levels. SPLICES: The easiest and surest way to seal a splice from the weather is to go to your local electrical supply house and purchase a length of 3M (TM) 0800 IMCSN .80/.22 20/5/6mm flooded heat shrink tube for RG-8 size cables. The stuff is *about* $10 for a 40 inch length. It is coated inside with something akin to hot melt glue. It not only does a tremendous job of weatherproofing, but adds mechanical strength as well. Don't be cheap and expect to reuse the connectors although you might get lucky and be able to do so. "Unshrunk" the tubing will easily fit *over* a PL250, or N connector. That .8 indicates the inside diameter prior to shrinking. It will shrink all the way to 0.22 inches. Make your splice using either a male to female connection, or two males with a barrel connector in between. Slip a length of the heat shrink tubing long enough cover the entire splice and extend at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches beyond the connectors onto the coax jacket. When applying heat to shrink the tube onto the splice be sure and start in the middle and work outward. IF you start on the ends it will look like a snake that just swallowed a very big frog by the time you get any where near the center:-)) This method does a far neater and better job than coax seal and tape. Less mess, adds strength, and is as waterproof as you are going to get. It has the drawback of requiring a heat gun to shrink the tubing (which sometimes means a very long extension cord, but I use them on top of a 97 foot tower), nor will it fill a hole where coax passes through like coax seal. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Have a good day:') . Don't buy goods made in France or Germany and vacation somewhere else! |
Hello....
Yikes what a big production. 15 years ago I had had two antennas roughly 100ft away from the rig and I buried both coax cables with no issues. One was Radio Shack/Tandy 8U the other was made by Carol Cable Co (Again 8U). The coax was average to low quality and it lasted with no change in SWR or performance until the day I moved out 10 years later. It probably is still there and would likely work! If you are still worried go to Revy or Totem and purchase some platic PVC conduit and run the cable through that. Stay away from goose greese or whatever else they are suggesting you spread on your coax, what a mess it would be...... Yuk... Homac Roger Halstead wrote in message . .. On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 21:18:02 GMT, helmsman wrote: yea right wrote: I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. SNIP Anybody have any suggestions? I can't find the original post, and going to Google to get it would be starting another thread, soooo,,,, I'm just going to insert here. The answer is one of those , "It all depends" on what you want for reliability. It also depends on whether you will have any connections underground. OTOH, connections underground are little different than connections above ground. They should be treated the same. Crushed rock and very rocky soil are about the worst location for burying coax. PVC conduit is *cheap*, or at least relatively inexpensive, particularly if you are only going to have one run of coax. I have 7 coax cables 3 TV RG-6 cables, two rotor cables, a power cable tot he 2-meter preamp and some other assorted *stuff* run through mine. I use a 75 foot run of 4 inch PVC to a junction box on the tower.. http://www.rogerhalstead.com/cablebox.htm Go to the hardware and get a tube of silicon sealant and seal the ends, if you don't think that's enough seal one end and shoot nitrogen gas in the hose to displace the air and then seal it quickly. A point or two here...If you want to force N2 through the coax you need *both* ends open. However it *will* breathe as pressure changes with temperature. Do NOT seal both ends of a coax run. Do the best possible job up on top and leave the end in the house unsealed. IF you seal both ends the pressure will eventually equalize. Then with each temperature change it will either pressurize, or draw a vacuum. This will eventually draw in moisture. I use heat shrink tubing on top of the tower and fill the connectors with DC-4 silicon grease. This works at least up through 440 and for all legal amateur power levels. SPLICES: The easiest and surest way to seal a splice from the weather is to go to your local electrical supply house and purchase a length of 3M (TM) 0800 IMCSN .80/.22 20/5/6mm flooded heat shrink tube for RG-8 size cables. The stuff is *about* $10 for a 40 inch length. It is coated inside with something akin to hot melt glue. It not only does a tremendous job of weatherproofing, but adds mechanical strength as well. Don't be cheap and expect to reuse the connectors although you might get lucky and be able to do so. "Unshrunk" the tubing will easily fit *over* a PL250, or N connector. That .8 indicates the inside diameter prior to shrinking. It will shrink all the way to 0.22 inches. Make your splice using either a male to female connection, or two males with a barrel connector in between. Slip a length of the heat shrink tubing long enough cover the entire splice and extend at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches beyond the connectors onto the coax jacket. When applying heat to shrink the tube onto the splice be sure and start in the middle and work outward. IF you start on the ends it will look like a snake that just swallowed a very big frog by the time you get any where near the center:-)) This method does a far neater and better job than coax seal and tape. Less mess, adds strength, and is as waterproof as you are going to get. It has the drawback of requiring a heat gun to shrink the tubing (which sometimes means a very long extension cord, but I use them on top of a 97 foot tower), nor will it fill a hole where coax passes through like coax seal. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Have a good day:') . Don't buy goods made in France or Germany and vacation somewhere else! |
Thierry, Please remove me from your 'art' list. 'Doc |
On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 19:01:38 GMT, Roger Halstead
wrote: On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 21:18:02 GMT, helmsman wrote: yea right wrote: I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. BTW, in the case of sand, or clay with out stones, I just bury plain old coax directly and have never had a problem doing that. Here that just doesn't work. Particularly when the tower system usually gets hit by lightening about 3 times a Summer. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) |
On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:39:15 GMT, yea right wrote:
First, after all this thread, this, the original post, turned up on my server today Oct 21st, but dated the 18th. I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. I intend to take the LMR-400 coax and push it through a garden hose to add a layer of protection. However, I am worried that condensation will Don't worry about it...LMR-400 hangs out in the rain, it'll survive inside a garden hose full of water. quickly fill the airspace of the hose with water and it will either penetrate the coax outer jacket or interfere with the performance of it in some unknown negative way. Just don't have any unprotected connectors inside the hose. Probably the best would be to drill a number of holes at 90 degrees to each other along the length of the hose so it can drain. (before ins talling the coax G)The hose only serves as a mechanical protector. I can not flood the garden hose with petroleum oil as it will soon eat through the PVC jacket of the coax or garden hose. Ideally, I would like Don't worry about it. It's not worth the effort and eventually the work to clean it up. to flood the hose with the same stuff they put into underground cables. It has a honey consistency and is not easily displaced by water. I was hoping for some type of silicon oil but am unable to find anything similar at the hardware store. We used to use silicon oil, but you really shouldn't be worried about it. You might need to use some wire pulling soap (the gooey yellow stuff) to push the LMR-400 through, but the stuff is stiff enough I would expect it to go through fine. It t takes a good can to two cans to get a cable through my 4 inch conduit now that it has so many cables in it. The yellow stuff is easy to clean up Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Anybody have any suggestions? |
"Roger Halstead" wrote in message ... On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:39:15 GMT, yea right wrote: You might need to use some wire pulling soap (the gooey yellow stuff) to push the LMR-400 through, but the stuff is stiff enough I would expect it to go through fine. It t takes a good can to two cans to get a cable through my 4 inch conduit now that it has so many cables in it. The yellow stuff is easy to clean up Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Roger, If you are going to the trouble of using some kind of conduit, and assuming it comes in 10 foot lengths, why not just push it through one piece at a time? That is, push the coax through the pieces of pipe before you join the pipes together. Besides, LMR400 is pretty stiff. Tam/WB2TT |
On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 21:14:06 -0400, "Tarmo Tammaru"
wrote: "Roger Halstead" wrote in message .. . On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:39:15 GMT, yea right wrote: You might need to use some wire pulling soap (the gooey yellow stuff) to push the LMR-400 through, but the stuff is stiff enough I would expect it to go through fine. It t takes a good can to two cans to get a cable through my 4 inch conduit now that it has so many cables in it. The yellow stuff is easy to clean up Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Roger, If you are going to the trouble of using some kind of conduit, and assuming it comes in 10 foot lengths, why not just push it through one piece at a time? That is, push the coax through the pieces of pipe before you join the pipes together. Besides, LMR400 is pretty stiff. In my case I have 75 feet horizontal with two 45 bends at each end and a 3 foot rise at the tower and 86 feet horizontal into the basement. Getting more into that takes lots of soap and one hefty snake and it still gets hung up at times. http://www.rogerhalstead.com/cablebox.htm There are (I'd have to go count to be sure now), 7 runs of LMR 400, 2 runs of RG-6 for the UHF TV antennas, One does everything cable to the C/Ku band dish with rotor and polarization, two 3/8ths inch rotor cable with one used for the rotor and the other for the remote antenna switch. With a single run of LMR 400 in 3/4 inch, I think pushing it through one at a time would work fine. Although for no more than 20 or 30 feet...probably twice that you could easily push one run through the full length. I'd guess you could push it through far longer runs than that. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Tam/WB2TT |
Roger, just what is that white loamy stuff around the base of your tower
aside from ALL the coax? You need to show us a photo of the tower and what you have hanging on it. It that sand that has blown up, opps, that not sand. Your call tells me your in the northeast. So it must be snnnnnow. I got COLD just looking at it. Have a nice warm day. Marylou, N"5"XXX. Roger Halstead wrote: On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 21:14:06 -0400, "Tarmo Tammaru" wrote: "Roger Halstead" wrote in message .. . On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:39:15 GMT, yea right wrote: You might need to use some wire pulling soap (the gooey yellow stuff) to push the LMR-400 through, but the stuff is stiff enough I would expect it to go through fine. It t takes a good can to two cans to get a cable through my 4 inch conduit now that it has so many cables in it. The yellow stuff is easy to clean up Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Roger, If you are going to the trouble of using some kind of conduit, and assuming it comes in 10 foot lengths, why not just push it through one piece at a time? That is, push the coax through the pieces of pipe before you join the pipes together. Besides, LMR400 is pretty stiff. In my case I have 75 feet horizontal with two 45 bends at each end and a 3 foot rise at the tower and 86 feet horizontal into the basement. Getting more into that takes lots of soap and one hefty snake and it still gets hung up at times. http://www.rogerhalstead.com/cablebox.htm There are (I'd have to go count to be sure now), 7 runs of LMR 400, 2 runs of RG-6 for the UHF TV antennas, One does everything cable to the C/Ku band dish with rotor and polarization, two 3/8ths inch rotor cable with one used for the rotor and the other for the remote antenna switch. With a single run of LMR 400 in 3/4 inch, I think pushing it through one at a time would work fine. Although for no more than 20 or 30 feet...probably twice that you could easily push one run through the full length. I'd guess you could push it through far longer runs than that. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Tam/WB2TT |
Remember that a right-angle bend is best served by 2, 45 degree bends
with a short straight section between them. This will make pulling cable much easier. A "pull-box" at corners is a good idea as well but environment-resistant (not "proof", that's not possible!) pull-boxes aren't cheap or easy to find. Russ, who is responsible for a lot of cable-pulling through conduit On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 06:19:43 -0400, wrote: Roger, just what is that white loamy stuff around the base of your tower aside from ALL the coax? You need to show us a photo of the tower and what you have hanging on it. It that sand that has blown up, opps, that not sand. Your call tells me your in the northeast. So it must be snnnnnow. I got COLD just looking at it. Have a nice warm day. Marylou, N"5"XXX. Roger Halstead wrote: On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 21:14:06 -0400, "Tarmo Tammaru" wrote: "Roger Halstead" wrote in message .. . On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:39:15 GMT, yea right wrote: You might need to use some wire pulling soap (the gooey yellow stuff) to push the LMR-400 through, but the stuff is stiff enough I would expect it to go through fine. It t takes a good can to two cans to get a cable through my 4 inch conduit now that it has so many cables in it. The yellow stuff is easy to clean up Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Roger, If you are going to the trouble of using some kind of conduit, and assuming it comes in 10 foot lengths, why not just push it through one piece at a time? That is, push the coax through the pieces of pipe before you join the pipes together. Besides, LMR400 is pretty stiff. In my case I have 75 feet horizontal with two 45 bends at each end and a 3 foot rise at the tower and 86 feet horizontal into the basement. Getting more into that takes lots of soap and one hefty snake and it still gets hung up at times. http://www.rogerhalstead.com/cablebox.htm There are (I'd have to go count to be sure now), 7 runs of LMR 400, 2 runs of RG-6 for the UHF TV antennas, One does everything cable to the C/Ku band dish with rotor and polarization, two 3/8ths inch rotor cable with one used for the rotor and the other for the remote antenna switch. With a single run of LMR 400 in 3/4 inch, I think pushing it through one at a time would work fine. Although for no more than 20 or 30 feet...probably twice that you could easily push one run through the full length. I'd guess you could push it through far longer runs than that. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Tam/WB2TT |
This may be very un-Ham-like but mine has been buried in
Texas dirt and rocks for 20 years and keeps on trucking. Works as good today as the day it was buried. |
On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 06:19:43 -0400, wrote:
Roger, just what is that white loamy stuff around the base of your tower aside from ALL the coax? You need to show us a photo of the tower and That's Michigan rain! :-)) in December. Although...it's usually a lot deeper, but nothing like my daughter gets out in the mountains of Colorado. They had 9 feet in two days last winter. The snow was drifting up against the sliding door to their deck...On the second story. Actually it was about 3 feet up on the windows in the door. The snow was above the tops of the first story windows all the way around. Here's the link to the whole tower story...it's been posted a few times before. All put up by me...with the help of a few friends who pulled on the rope(s) http://www.rogerhalstead.com/tower.htm what you have hanging on it. It that sand that has blown up, opps, that not sand. Your call tells me your in the northeast. So it must be Great Lakes actually and Midland Michigan to be a bit more precise. snnnnnow. I got COLD just looking at it. Have a nice warm day. Hey! It made it all the way to the 50s today. OTOH it's the 20s for tonight with more of that "Michigan Rain". The day that photo was shot *might* have made a high of 20 F. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Marylou, N"5"XXX. Roger Halstead wrote: |
On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 11:43:03 GMT, Russ wrote:
Remember that a right-angle bend is best served by 2, 45 degree bends with a short straight section between them. This will make pulling cable much easier. A "pull-box" at corners is a good idea as well but environment-resistant (not "proof", that's not possible!) pull-boxes aren't cheap or easy to find. If you are using PVC it's fairly easy to make a pull box. Use a ' Y' and a 45 to make each 90 degree bend. (They also make a straight through with a 45 off one side.) Then use a cap and short piece of pipe for the "blind side, or pull side". As you are pulling right out of the 'Y' it is darn near a straight pull. Pull up into the 'Y' .. Then feed the "fish tape" in from the next pulling point and pull on. Once past a pull point you can have an assistant either pushing the cables toward the inside radius of the bend, squirting in wire soap, or both. If the bundle is pulling hard just a light tap with a rubber mallet handle can work like magic. When finished, take a pipe/conduit cap and glue it to a short length of conduit of the proper size. Liberally grease the end that goes into the 'Y' and push it in as far as it will easily go. It may not be water proof, but it can be close to it. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Russ, who is responsible for a lot of cable-pulling through conduit On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 06:19:43 -0400, wrote: Roger, just what is that white loamy stuff around the base of your tower aside from ALL the coax? You need to show us a photo of the tower and what you have hanging on it. It that sand that has blown up, opps, that not sand. Your call tells me your in the northeast. So it must be snnnnnow. I got COLD just looking at it. Have a nice warm day. Marylou, N"5"XXX. Roger Halstead wrote: On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 21:14:06 -0400, "Tarmo Tammaru" wrote: "Roger Halstead" wrote in message .. . On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:39:15 GMT, yea right wrote: You might need to use some wire pulling soap (the gooey yellow stuff) to push the LMR-400 through, but the stuff is stiff enough I would expect it to go through fine. It t takes a good can to two cans to get a cable through my 4 inch conduit now that it has so many cables in it. The yellow stuff is easy to clean up Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Roger, If you are going to the trouble of using some kind of conduit, and assuming it comes in 10 foot lengths, why not just push it through one piece at a time? That is, push the coax through the pieces of pipe before you join the pipes together. Besides, LMR400 is pretty stiff. In my case I have 75 feet horizontal with two 45 bends at each end and a 3 foot rise at the tower and 86 feet horizontal into the basement. Getting more into that takes lots of soap and one hefty snake and it still gets hung up at times. http://www.rogerhalstead.com/cablebox.htm There are (I'd have to go count to be sure now), 7 runs of LMR 400, 2 runs of RG-6 for the UHF TV antennas, One does everything cable to the C/Ku band dish with rotor and polarization, two 3/8ths inch rotor cable with one used for the rotor and the other for the remote antenna switch. With a single run of LMR 400 in 3/4 inch, I think pushing it through one at a time would work fine. Although for no more than 20 or 30 feet...probably twice that you could easily push one run through the full length. I'd guess you could push it through far longer runs than that. Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) Tam/WB2TT |
On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:39:15 GMT, yea right wrote:
I would like to bury my coax for a distance of about 20ft. The location consist of 6" of crushed decorative rocks over the top of very rocky soil. I intend to take the LMR-400 coax and push it through a garden hose to add a layer of protection. However, I am worried that condensation will quickly fill the airspace of the hose with water and it will either penetrate the coax outer jacket or interfere with the performance of it in some unknown negative way. Just an added note. As you are going through crushed rock and rocky soil I'd use some form of protection for the coax simply because it only takes someone stepping on the crushed rock in the right place to cut the jacket. Now the stuff will probably work for years even with the jacked holed. The strange thing is: I just picked up a new 144/440 antenna to use for the rig in the shop. I picked up a roof tripod, but got to thinking the tower is only about 25 feet from the shop. So...I have about a 25 foot buried run. I happened to have a bunch of 1/2 inch PVC conduit. LMR-400 fits with lots of room to spare. Loose enough that you could probably push it through 50 feet of the conduit. Just be sure to bevel the inside of the ends so the coax doesn't catch on them. You don't even have to use sealant on the conduit. It's sole purpose is mechanical protection and it only costs a few dollars per section. And you can push the coax around the sweeping 90s. I now speak from experience using the 1/2 inch conduit on a slightly longer run than you were talking about. I've also added another 100 feet of bare #2 ground wire and 4 8' ground rods CadWelded together. I use a hydraulic drill I made which drills a hole deep enough to just drop in the ground rod in about a minute (in clay). Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member) www.rogerhalstead.com N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2) I can not flood the garden hose with petroleum oil as it will soon eat through the PVC jacket of the coax or garden hose. Ideally, I would like to flood the hose with the same stuff they put into underground cables. It has a honey consistency and is not easily displaced by water. I was hoping for some type of silicon oil but am unable to find anything similar at the hardware store. Anybody have any suggestions? |
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