Guidance on Installing coaxial cable underground

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eHam.net Forum : Elmers : Guidance on Installing coaxial cable underground

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RE: Guidance on Installing coaxial cable undergrou	Reply
by K0ZN on March 14, 2004	Mail this to a friend!
WOW! looks like I hit the jackpot on this one. Thanks for everyone taking their time to give some detailed pointers and comments. BIG HELP. I will take all this info into consideration when this project get underway very shortly. I DO appreciate all the input. Thanks and 73. K0ZN

RE: Guidance on Installing coaxial cable undergrou	Reply
by W8JI on March 15, 2004	Mail this to a friend!
Hi Bill, Water sometimes (not always) gets into PVC pipe or conduit because seals are imperfect and because of condensation. That's why even very well-sealed coaxial lines are operated with dehydrators. 73 Tom

RE: Guidance on Installing coaxial cable undergrou	Reply
by KB9CRY on March 15, 2004	Mail this to a friend!
My two cents. Water will get into everything, even sealed PVC, due to the ingress of moisture laden air, unless you maintain a positive purge with dry gas, like nitrogen. The moisture from the surrounding air will enter and condense. If the condensed water has not place to go, then it will accumulate and stagnate. Very smelly indeed. Pitch the PVC to a low spot and drill holes at the bottom there. I'd back fill with a bit of gravel under that spot so the water can percolate into the ground. Personally, I use 4 inch plastic drainage pipe from Home Depot which is less expensive, can be formed into long radius elbows, and is perforated. Use direct burial coax, which is also noncontaminating but not all noncontaminating coax is direct burial. Personally I like the 9913 type from CableXperts. Phil KB9CRY

RE: Guidance on Installing coaxial cable undergrou	Reply
by KB9CRY on March 15, 2004	Mail this to a friend!
Oh, another comment. I rented a DitchWitch and trenched my trench for the route from the shack to two of my towers. I then laid landscaping weed fabric into the trench and let it come up the sides of the trench onto the grass. I then installed the PVC drainage pipe, which had had a pull rope installed, into the trench. I then wrapped the fabric over the top. Now the fabric is surrounding the pipe. I did this to prevent dirt from entering the pipe through it's slots. For the tower way out back, I ran the coax along the fence, about a foot off the ground, attaching with wire ties (black only for UV protection) and then for the 100 foot run from the fence to the tower, I merely laid the direct burial coax on the ground and "stapled" it into the ground with homemade large bobbi pins. In a couple of months the grass has grown over the coax and it has also sunk into the ground and is no longer seen. Phil KB9CRY

RE: Guidance on Installing coaxial cable undergrou	Reply
by WB4QNG on March 15, 2004	Mail this to a friend!
Dumb question? If water is getting in the pipe and your coax is laying in water what is the advantage of putting coax in conduit. For that matter what is the advantage of putting electrical wire in conduit. Except to keep the critters from chewing through it. Terry.

RE: Guidance on Installing coaxial cable undergrou	Reply
by K9KJM on March 20, 2004	Mail this to a friend!
I have done this several ways over the years, And now would never consider any way other than INSIDE conduit of some type. For only a single RG-8 size coax, A 100 foot long roll of flexible black plastic water pipe works great, Available from any home supply store for about 5 bucks. If only a few RG 8 size cables, About 2 inch ID black plastic water pipe is still cost effective. For more cables, The 4" glue together thin wall "sewer" pipe is cheapest at about 3 bucks per 10 foot length. As others mentioned, with the glue together types, use only long "sweep" type elbows. While the trench is open, Be SURE to also lay in a bare copper wire Outside the conduit to attach to your ground system. (And install ground rods along the way, twice the distance apart as the depth of the rods) Belden 9913 coax by the way has had many problems. LMR 400 is much better for VHF/UHF, Belden RG 213 is great for HF use.

RE: Guidance on Installing coaxial cable undergrou	Reply
by NU7J on March 23, 2004	Mail this to a friend!
The Wireman sells "BuryFlex", which is an RG213 cable designed for direct burial, low loss. I use it, and highly recommend it. Follow W8JI's advice re: the PVC/drain pipe. Definitely drill holes in low spots to allow drainage. You can't keep the water out no matter what you do so you need to allow it to drain.

RE: Guidance on Installing coaxial cable undergrou	Reply
by MONARCHIST on April 7, 2004	Mail this to a friend!
We use flex metal conduit, typically 1" for 1/2" coax. T'aint cheap, but stops rodents, drains well, and probably helps ground everything.

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