Topband: Outdoor cable trunking - opinions pse

[Shoppa, Tim]

I think the British word "trunking" is what we in the US would call "cable tray", metal trays with removable metal lids.

Cable tray is very nice for cable management. Solid bottom galvanized cable tray, the kind specified by standards where I work, is hard to justify in cost until dozens of cables are laid in it and total cost of wire management over decades starts becoming important.

While cable tray lids offer some shielding to 60Hz and audio frequencies, it is markedly inferior to well fitted metallic conduit for RF shielding.

I've seen cable tray used inside the shack for cable management in some nicer ham station pictures. It would be very hard to justify the substantial cost for a long cable tray run between shack and antennas.

Tim N3QE

----- Original Message -----
From: Dave G4GED [mailto:radiodave.g4ged at tiscali.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 03:17 AM
To: topband at contesting.com <topband at contesting.com>
Subject: Topband: Outdoor cable trunking - opinions pse

Hi all,

I want to re-run all my TX and RX antenna feeders through trunking 
(detachable lid type), fixed along the bottom of a new 200ft timber fence.
This will give protection and future flexibility that burying or closed 
conduit methods wont.

The question is...to use galvanised steel or PVC?

I'm favouring steel because when earthed, I believe it will give extra 
noise screening for the RX feeders but are there any down sides such as 
"oven effects" in hot summer sun or "diode effects" between lids and 
sections, or any other problems?

PVC is a bit cheaper but wont offer the extra screening.

Does anyone have any relative experience please?

Thanks in advance.
Dave G4GED

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