Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TowerTalk] Can I bury rotator cable?

To: towertalk reflector <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Can I bury rotator cable?
From: N1BUG <paul@n1bug.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2016 13:02:59 -0400
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Comments interlaced below...

On 06/25/2016 03:06 PM, Roger (K8RI) on TT wrote:
It depends, but it sounds as if what you have will work just fine if
it's buried in a stone free environment.

If I ever find a stone here that wasn't placed by man, I may die of shock. I live on pure sand with a naturally accumulated thin layer of what passes for topsoil over it. Unfortunately I can't say the same for buried bits of glass or metal. Hopefully I got all that out of the route this cable takes!

I would have slipped simple heat shrink tube over each wire splice, but
it sounds as if you did a good job of waterproofing it. Probably more
than necessary and will likely last longer than the rest of the cable.
I'd just forget about it until you need to replace it, if ever.

I would have used adhesive lined heat shrink, if it had occurred to me
sooner that I didn't have any of suitable diameter for such a task. Nothing of the sort can be found locally, and it was so late in the season delays were to be avoided wherever possible. The only reason I was going for waterproofing each individual wire splice is that I learned if any water enters the rotator end of a cable, it comes all the way down and runs out in the shack - thus getting to any splices along the way no matter how the composite cable may be waterproofed. Let's not delve too deeply into how I learned that. ;-)

I had almost forgotten it until the OP asked about burying rotator cable. Then I had to stop and think about how I did it. I suspect it will be fine for the life of the cable, whatever that turns out to be. At 10 years, exposed portions show very little sign of aging. The buried section was dug/pulled up last summer to add another run of heliax to the bundle. Once any dirt was wiped off it appeared as new.

73,
Paul, N1BUG


On 6/25/2016 Saturday 9:55 AM, N1BUG wrote:
My rotator cable to the southwest tower is buried (250 feet) since
2006. It has some splices, but no problems yet. Each wire at a splice
is twisted and soldered, then wrapped with butyl rubber, then Scotch
Super 88. (I trimmed the length of each wire differently so no two
actual splices overlap) Entire cable in the splice area is wrapped
with butyl rubber, then glue lined heat shrink, then Super 88. The
splices are "ugly" but underground no one can see them.

Paul N1BUG
_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>