Topband: [Bulk] Why do rodents eat coax?

[Grant Saviers]

I rented the smallest walk behind trencher from the local Home Depot, it 
cuts about a 2" wide trench and will go down at least 12".  By not 
getting close to tree trunks to avoid any large roots and to minimize 
any tree damage, I cut a 300' run through a forest for 1 1/4" conduit.  
The cable guys here do that with a flat blade shovel like widget and 
drop in flooded RG6, but for me, the trencher was the way to go.  About 
$100/day, and I think that included the trailer.  Of course it depends 
on soil, roots, and rocks but 100' an hour was no sweat.

Another way, if a tractor is big enough and there is enough space 
between trees is to pull a cable or conduit/pipe with a Kellems grip 
attached to the back of a single point ripper.  Did that to replace 
6000' of 1" pvc to a spring, but some rocky areas did need a ride on 
trencher.  We could pull/bury 200' to 400' at a time of 1" pvc glued 
pipe about 12" down in CA adobe.  Messenger RG6 might pull a long way.

Grant KZ1W


On 11/9/2015 11:38 AM, Dave Olean wrote:
> I was transmitting on 160 last week, and after calling a CQ I noted that the background noise from one of my beverages dropped to almost nothing. Something obviously broke right then. All checks pointed to something external to the shack. I finally got out in the woods and checked the antenna system. All looked great. I used my new SARK-110 vector network analyzer and saw very believable results when connected to my 1100 ft long Europe beverage: about 75 ohms impedance and a VSWR that fluctuated between 1.5 and maybe 1.8:1 across the freq range. I double checked the entire beverage run for shorts or anomalies, and even took apart the termination box to make sure all was OK. The last thing left was the 1000 ft run of flooded RG-6 coax. I had run the cable on the ground back to the house about 2 years ago. It was mostly invisible now, being covered with leaves and moss etc etc. A TDR check showed gross "bad" things and a VOM test across the center pin to ground showed a resista
>   nce of 35 ohms while the far end was terminated in a 75 ohm load. Obviously the cable was compromised. I made a quick inspection and found a few spots where small animals had chewed on the coax enough to break through the outer plastic covering and into the braid and aluminum foil shield. Water and gunk have caused a low resistance between center pin and the shield.
>      What are my options now? I don't want to spend another $150 for another roll of coax just so a squirrel can feast on the PVC. Should I route the coax in the air and away from small mouths? That is one option.  It seems that digging a 1000 ft trench thru the woods and burying it would work, but it would be an awful big chore for a 70 year old doofus. I doubt that I could manage that. If I run the coax above ground, I run the risk of picking up noise etc. I also worry about falling limbs and old dead trees falling on it. With a few beverages in the woods, I can't afford to spend $150 each time an animal feasts on it. I need to do something different!
>      Incidentally, the beverage still has great directivity, but signals are very weak with the bad cable. It is barely useable now as a result.
> 73
> Dave K1WHS
>   
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