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Re: Topband: Why do rodents eat coax?

To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Why do rodents eat coax?
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 12:21:22 -0800
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
I installed a pair of Beverages in 2007. They use DXE hardware and DXE window line. The coax was from a 1,000 ft spool of Commscope 5781 that I bought before leaving Chicago. The coax lays on the ground; one run is about 150 ft, the other about twice that. I just looked at the data sheet -- the outer jacket is PVC.

Both Beverages are still working just fine, but I haven't looked with TDR. I should do that. Critters around here are mostly squirrels and deer, but there are also skunks, raccoons, and bigger ones.

I originally supported the window line with cable ties and electric fence post insulators. Over the years, branches and even limbs have fallen on the Beverages, and many of those attachments have come loose. I've had NO breaks in the window line, but the ends have broken or come loose 2-3 times. Now, these Beverages mostly lie on top of low (4-6 ft) foliage.

I did one CQWW from PJ4, where the ground is quite hard and there's lots of low scrub vegetation. There, our Beverages mostly lay over the low scrub, and were terminated by 25-50 ft of wire laying on the ground. They worked.

73, Jim K9YC

On Mon,11/9/2015 2:32 PM, Michael Clarson wrote:
Mike: I did say critter resistant, not critter proof, but so far, so good.
Polyethylene (PE) is harder, stiffer (but bends almost as much) and more
slippery than PVC. I'd bet that is what you have. If you can get a number
off the jacket, Google it for specs. Most direct burial cable is PE or
something similar, NOT PVC.--Mike, WV2ZOW

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