Dick,
I've had this problem also. Our property is very rural, and is loaded
with deer, dogs, ground hogs etc. Some time ago I lay a piece of coax on
the ground only to have it chewed to shreads by something. Someone
suggested that the salt in our hands is tasty to certain wild animals. In
fact I had just laid the coax, and handled it quite a lot. I had to bury
the coax to protect it. Also I had to place a barrier around the base of my
160 Meter inverted L To keep the deer at bay. For some reason they like to
gather around the base of my antenna, and tromp the radials into oblivion.
The other day I counted over a dozen deer just grazing and generally
tromping around the antenna barrier. I guess a person could buy a salt lick
block and place it somewhere else on your property. Good luck with your
coax problems.
73, Mick W4YV
----------
> From: Dick Green <dick.green@valley.net>
> To: Tower <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Yum, yum! That LMR400UF sure is tasty!
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Date: Monday, March 30, 1998 11:27 PM
>
> Well, that's what the critters on my property seem to think...
>
> After five months (yes *five* months) of continuous snow cover, El Nino
has
> graced the Upper Connecticut River Valley of New Hampshire with record
warm
> temperatures. In 27 years of living here, I've never seen it get up to 80
> degrees in March! A week ago we had more than a foot of snow on the
ground;
> today it's almost all gone.
>
> A casual trip down to the antenna farm during CQ WPX on Saturday revealed
> that the animals went to town as soon as the snow pulled back from the
three
> 100' lengths of Times Microwave LMR400UF coax running along the ground
> between the antenna switch and the 40M vertical, 80M inverted vee, and
old
> GAP Titan. I found tiny teeth marks wherever the snow had melted, and in
> several spots the coax jacket had been either flattened or bitten through
to
> expose the shield braid. Hard to say what kind of animals did it -- the
> tooth marks were small enough to be from mice, but the flattened sections
> must have been done by something bigger (maybe deer, which are plentiful
> around here.) They even managed to gnaw on the coax and connector bootie
at
> the base of the GAP vertical, which is almost three feet off the ground.
>
> It's kind of odd because they didn't touch the 20-50 feet of RG/213 that
was
> often coiled up on the ground at the base of the crankup tower and fully
> exposed all winter long. I did see tooth marks on a small section of the
#16
> three-wire outdoor AC (!) line running between the pedestal and the tower
> motor. It's almost four feet off the ground.
>
> I got to wondering about the composition of the cable jackets and how
much
> that may be contributing to the problem. For several years, the GAP Titan
> had a section of yellow-jacketed mini coax laying on the ground. Once or
> twice a year, the amp protection circuits would trip (always during a
> contest) and I would go down to the antenna and find that the critters
had
> chewed through the mini coax again. I got so sick of fixing it (usually
in
> the rain or snow), that I finally added a flush-mounted SO-239 jack to
the
> antenna. What's strange is that there was at least six feet of exposed
> Belden 9913 connected to the mini-coax and they never touched it. In
fact,
> last year when I installed a 250' conduit run between the house and
antenna
> farm, I pulled up 250 feet of 9913 from where I'd buried it six inches
under
> the grass three years earlier and found absolutely no external damage
> whatsoever.
>
> The jacket of the 9913 is hard and shiny. The jacket of the RG/213 is
> softer, but it's kinda shiny too. Both the LMR400UF and the #16 AC wire
have
> soft, matte-finish jackets. I've also noticed that a fine white powder
has
> formed on the LMR400UF jacket (UV damage?) Does anybody know the
composition
> of these cable jackets? Any idea why the animals seem to prefer one over
the
> other? Are there any substances I can put on the coax to keep the
critters
> off? (Yes, I'm willing to relieve myself on the cables, but I'm afraid it
> will take quite a few beers to cover 300'...) Conduit is not an option
(not
> after installing three expensive 250' runs last year). Direct burial is
> possible but very difficult (all three runs pass through thick woods with
> lots of exposed or shallow tree roots, and one run passes over a radial
> field.)
>
> 73, Dick, WC1M
>
>
>
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