[TowerTalk] buried conduit

[Bill Ogden]

I noticed the standing water in my previous conduit by pulling a rag
through it.  I then hooked up a shop vac (running in reverse) and actually
blew water out the far end.

The problem may have been due to expansion, but I suspect it was mostly
from condensation over a period of years. I "seal" the ends by simply
stuffing rags into them.   Mine is clearly an "amateur" do-it-yourself
conduit installation.  Larger, professionally done jobs should not have
these problems.

If I keep the messenger line free during the initial multi-cable
installation, I find that a later pull of a single cable does not seem to
entangle it.  Again, I am dealing with a simple 40-foot run.

If I had a more "big gun" installation I would run extra conduit cables and
terminate everything in boxes at each end. With this I would clearly
separate my up-the-tower cables from my conduit cables.  However, in my
small-time installation I simply exit from the conduit and the same cable
goes up the tower.  If there is excess cable I make a coil at the base of
the tower, in the hope it might act as a small choke.

Bill - W2WO