[TowerTalk] New House: Best Way To Route Feedlines

[Dave Kaiser]

I built a new house in Florida, where of course
we do not usually have a basement. I designed the
house with two slabs, one on the east and one on
the west for two towers.

A ham friend who is a professional electrician
recommended having an electrician route one
2-inch pvc pipe from the base of each tower to
the ham shack, which is about 40 feet away and in
the middle of the two towers.

We have been in the house for five years and I
have encountered a number of problems -- too late
to do much now.

I have two or three antennas on each tower, the
Force beam requires two coaxes, plus an 80-meter
dipole, several receiving antennas and a
144/440/6m stick. 

First, and most important, the 2-inch pvc is NOT
large enough in diameter to accomodate my coax,
rotor cables, etc. If I had it to do over, I
would go with at least 4-inch and perhaps two
4-inch to/from EACH tower.

The contractor/electrician routed the pvc from
about three feet off the ground by the tower into
the slab, down to underneath the slab and into
the ham shack. Problem to watch out for is the
bends in the pvc, where the coax hangs up when
you are trying to pull it through the channel.
Also, you have to be very careful to keep the
exterior ends of the pvc sealed well around the
coax, otherwise the pipe fills UP with water.

In the shack, I had the pvc run to a junction box
into a closet at the side corner of a large shelf
on which the radio equipment sits -- bad idea,
because when you are trying to pull the coax
through to the shelf, it tears up the wallboard.

If I had it to do over I would run the pvc to the
bottom of the shelf, putting a box right on the
slab on the floor (I have a tile floor) and that
would avoid a bend in the pvc and at the same
time make the coax easier to pull.

Another problem you are going to watch for, being
in the basement, is to avoid the pvc providing a
conduit to flood the basement! I'm still trying
to figure out a way to remove the water from the
pvc. My pvc passes through the slab and then
turns UP to where it comes out of the wall at the
a desk and once you get water in there, it is
trapped.

Good luck, anyone wanting to see my qth can look
on qrz.com under al7hg and get an idea what I am
talking about, the ham shack is the room right in
the center of the house to the left of the front
porch.

Dave Kaiser, AL7HG

Another thing to make sure of is that you have
A/C outlets at the base of the tower, they come
in very handy for soldering or using a drill.

=====
Dave Kaiser
Kaiserdr@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 574
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
(9663) 873-5423, home 878-6323, 878-6324

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