In these parts, any cable laying on the ground is likely to get chewed
sooner or later. Some cables must be tastier than others. The critters on my
property like LMR-400UF a lot more than Belden 9913. Habitat seems to play a
part as well. The 100' run of coax and control cable to my 40m 4-square has
been chewed at least a half dozen times in the past 10 years, maybe more.
I've had to replace the coax each time, but have been able to splice the
control cable (good to leave a little slack for that.) But the 250' of coax
running through some nearby woods to my 80m delta has never been touched. It
used to run about three feet off the ground, through coax standoffs nailed
to trees, but a lot of it has come down and has been laying on the ground
for years. No problem so far (yeah, I'll raise it back up when I get a
chance... after the dozens of other high priority projects on my list!)
My sense is that the more exposed the cable, the more likely it will be
chewed. The run to the 4-square has almost been covered by grass and foliage
over the years. The chewing always occurs in sections that are still bare to
the air. Funny, because you'd think the mice would bump into the cables as
they weave through the grass. Perhaps this is an indication that it's larger
creatures. I saw a porcupine down there once, and we have plenty of
chipmunks and squirrels.
For some reason, critters have not attacked the cables running from my
towers to nearby NEMA boxes. Those cables are only a couple of feet off the
ground. They also haven't attacked buried cables as they exit the ground and
run into the NEMA boxes. I've been thinking about simple ways to protect
these cables -- perhaps cutting a short length of PVC in half, then clamping
it over the cables, or wrapping them with screen or hardware cloth.
For those who cannot do conduit or deep direct bury (my longest cable runs
are underground), shallow bury works very well. Just make a slit with a
vertical hoe, rock it back and forth to spead the slit, then tuck the cable
into the dirt. If you run into a big rock, just tuck the cable under the sod
away from the rock. This has worked well for me for years.
73, Dick WC1M
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jeremy-ca [mailto:km1h@jeremy.mv.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 6:53 PM
> To: Dan Hearn; Craig Clark; towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] CRITTERS AND CABLES
>
> I havent had them chew on my well pipes yet (I have 2 wells) but they
> get
> into everything else. Mostly squirrels and chipmunks (ground squirrels
> to
> y'all country)
>
> The ONLY thing that works is lead poisoning as in a 22 or air rifle.
> You
> cant poison chipmunks with anything over the counter and as soon as you
> kill
> a pack off others move in so its a constant battle. I kill 25-35 a year
> and
> a neighbor does about the same. We both get about 10 squirrels.
>
> All cables from the towers are elevated 12' above ground and supported
> from
> 1/4" EHS; RF cables are all CATV hardline and a few Andrew ones. It
> looks
> like Radio Pelham according to a neighbor.
>
> I had to go to 1/2" hardline for the Beverages since those all run on
> the
> ground to a relay box. One run back to the house that joins the bundle
> from
> one of the towers. I lost several runs of flooded RG-6 and RG-11 before
> the
> switch.
>
> The critter damage is now limited to the garages and other outbuildings
> in
> the warm months; if I thin the population way down there is no winter
> problem. Lots of mouse poison has also eliminated a lot of problems.
>
> Carl
> KM1H
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Hearn" <dhearn@air-pipe.com>
> To: "Craig Clark" <jcclark@wildblue.net>; <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 6:00 PM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] CRITTERS AND CABLES
>
>
> > My water comes from a deep drilled well. The sprinkler system is
> supplied
> > through a black plastic tubing about an inch in diameter tapped into
> the
> > well casing at about 3 feet depth. Recently a large pool of water
> appeared
> > about 6 ft from the well casing. Sure enough, a gopher had chewed
> through
> > the tubing. This has happened only once in 8 years.
> > I temporarily laid a piece of RG213 on the ground to try out a 6
> meter
> > yagi. It was chewed by gophers in less than a month.
> > They are tough little critters and very smart. Trapping or poisoning
> them
> > is
> > very difficult.
> > 73, Dan, N5AR
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
> > [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Craig Clark
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 12:57 PM
> > To: towertalk@contesting.com
> > Subject: [TowerTalk] CRITTERS AND CABLES
> >
> >
> > For those of us living in areas with chewing critters, I'm not sure
> > there is much you can do. It has been opined that it could be due to
> > salts from manufacture or handling that the animals are attracted to
> > the cable but that is not the issue. In speaking to one of the
> > plastic engineers, he made an analogy why would a horse chew a wood
> > railing when there is lush grass near by? Becuz they are stupid
> > animals I asked. Bingo he said.
> >
> > The best way to protect your cable run is to put it in to conduit.
> > One customer bought hundreds of feet of gray plastic conduit to run
> > his 213 as the critters in his neighborhood had already eaten several
> > runs of cable.
> >
> > Application of moth balls might help as possibly would a pepper
> solution.
> >
> > Over my 30 years in the woods of NH, I have lost several runs of coax
> > and control lines and have chalked it up to the cost of doing
> > business. I do have runs of flooded LMR600 and RG6 and they have done
> > well for me.
> >
> > I also had a break from my son and his chain saw when he was cutting
> > cord wood. Not much I could do about him.
> >
> > Largest direct burial rotor cable we sell is 14/18 which should work
> > on pretty long runs.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 73, Craig Clark, K1QX
> >
> >
> > RADIOWARE AND RADIO BOOKSTORE
> > PO BOX 209
> > RINDGE NH 03461
> > 603 899 6957
> > WWW.RADIO-WARE.COM
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TowerTalk mailing list
> > TowerTalk@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TowerTalk mailing list
> > TowerTalk@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> >
>
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