You should not have water in conduit, although it is widely accepted.
Sooner or later it will freeze and break the conduit or route water into a
place that you don't want it - like your shack. You can blow it out with
compressed air or suck it out with a shop vac.
Open ends should be sheltered with a weather hood at minimum with a
waterproof box, such as a NEMA 3 or 4 enclosure. I use a gland-type cable
at the bottom only of these boxes to route loose cables out the box if not
using conduit.
An upside down U, with the cables exiting down and a drip loop in the
routing would be the bare minimum for me. In this case, you could use a
foam sealant (in a can or pieces of closed cell foam) stuffed around the
cable of the weather exposed cable.
I use a service entry weather head to route cable into the run from my
tower sealed with spray foam. No critters, no water.
73,
Mickey N4MB
On Tuesday, February 26, 2013, Bill Ogden wrote:
> You will have water in the conduit. I had my sections well glued, the exit
> points turned downward, etc, etc. A year later I pulled a rag through and
> it was soaking wet. (Didn't seem to hurt the coax or control cables.) My
> initial conduit was too small (and too wet). I replaced it with 4"
> sections and drilled bottom 1/4" holes somewhat randomly and especially at
> low spots. Set the conduit on a little gravel/stone/etc. Mine seems
> reasonably dry now, with just a hint of moisture on a rag.
>
> Be certain to critter proof the conduit openings. I simply stuffed a few
> rags in the first time. Chipmunks removed the rags and built a nest way
> inside. They then removed the insulation from control wires, shorting
> them, and even removed a little buryflex insulation and braid -- enough to
> ruin that part of the cable.
>
> Bill
> W2WO
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
|