[TowerTalk] Cable entrance

[Art]

For the insulation, you can buy extruded foam that is soft and easy to cut 
in 3 to 5 inch diameter. 6 feet of the stuff costs 3 or 4 bucks. Drill 
holes slightly smaller than the coax you are running through it, then slice 
it so that it creates an open side.

Lay your cable into it through the slice along the length of it, and slide 
it all into the entrance pipe. It makes a weatherproof seal and is cheap. 
Smaller cables such as rg58 and rotor cable doesn't need a hole drilled at 
all, just lay it in a slit made lengthways and the foam conforms to the 
cables diameter and seals perfectly.

I suggest using the 3 or 4 inch diameter stuff as it's easier to work with 
when you have 8 or 10 coax runs passing through it.

Put just a few drops of vegetable oil on the coax where it slides into the 
foam and it will be very easy to slide the coax in and out when you want to 
add additional runs.

I used a dryer entrance hose bracket which has a nice rain shield and is 
cheap and available.

The extruded foam is a Wal Mart type item, sold in the toy section. Look 
near the pool supplies, they are called 'noodles' and are sold as floats 
for kids (and adults) to keep them floating in the pool. Some have holes in 
them already, others are solid (without holes).

Good Luck to all.

Art



At 10:58 PM 5/17/04, you wrote:
>Any suggestions on routing Heliax through an outside wall?  I'm
>putting up a building that will be the new home for my radio station
>and will need to bring about 10 runs of Heliax (7/8" to 1-5/8") and
>a few runs of regular coax through the wall.  In the past I've put a
>few runs of Heliax through a section of large diameter PVC that passed
>through the wall, but I'd like something better this time around.
>
>If I run the cables through a metal bulkhead, how do I make the
>installation waterproof?  (I've heard of "boots" made for weather-
>proofing commercial installations but I've never seen them available
>surplus).
>
>Thanks & 73,
>
>Arliss  W7XU
>_______________________________________________
>
>See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless 
>Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with 
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>
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