Thanks for all of the suggestions. They catalyzed a design I built.
I bought a DIP14 1MHz crystal osc on Amazon, so I built an RF source for
3x AA battery power. It includes a 5th order Butterworth LP filter
(ELSIE cad) to be nice to others.
Hooked it to a spare 110' LDF4 in a 3" PVC conduit down 18" (2 other
LDF4 grounded both ends are in the same conduit). Using a Tecson PL660
receiver I could find the conduit within a couple of inches over its
full length by holding the receiver vertically at shoulder height. A
deep null was directly over the conduit. With the SSB BFO on, a same
frequency local 50kw BCB audio was reduced to garbled.
Less than $20 for everything except Tecson (owned for RFI chasing).
Grant KZ1W
On 10/28/2020 12:19, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
On 2020-10-28 11:11 AM, Grant Saviers wrote:
> Trying to find a design for a empty conduit tracer.
Plastic or metal conduit? Empty or in use?
I've used my old "tone and trace" device to find buried wires
(irrigation controls and valves) where I had some general idea
where they were. Something along the order of this:
<https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=DChcSEwiPhN62_tfsAhXFnLMKHUqjCDMYABANGgJxbg&sig=AOD64_0Pp00PBuNdaGEXNM7c-CFrDS0vOQ&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwj1qta2_tfsAhWmpFkKHSq1BxEQ9aACegQIDhB6&adurl=>
Google "Wire tracer"
The alternative, if you have plastic/empty conduit is to push
a single wire through it, ground it at the far end and feed
the wire with an Elecraft XG3 at 0 dBm on 160 meters (tune it
down to your AM radio range if you can). I suggest 160 tuned
down to AM so you can use the "null" of the AM loopstick to
better locate the signal.
73,
... Joe, W4TV
On 2020-10-28 11:11 AM, Grant Saviers wrote:
Trying to find a design for a empty conduit tracer. We've dug at a
couple of places at the 501c3 where it was "supposed to go", NG.
Seems to me this is a simple widget for energizing a test wire in the
conduit or some sort of mouse - LF or magnetic placed on the end of a
snake.
Some googling hasn't found a design so hoping a towertalkian has a
design or link to one that works. This 2" conduit was installed some
time ago at 24" depth but where it routes is now lost.
The commercial tracers are $3000. My budget is more like $20. The
usual AM radio and dongle SDR's are available.
Also interested for when I need it to exactly locate my coax conduits
before digging.
Grant KZ1W
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