[TowerTalk] network cable outdoors

[Roger (K8RI)]

This is a little late, but I discovered the message sitting in the spam 
filter at my ISP.


>I just saw an item in the ARRL Contest Rate Sheet recommending a couple of
> URLs on this subject.  Both say that ordinary indoor network cable will
> deteriorate quickly outdoors.
>
> That's probably true for fast data, but I have been using both 4-conductor

I have several types of CAT5e cable I use. The pink stuff is used indoors or 
in conduit, but I have a run of the white that is much more flexible tht 
just lays on the ground between the garage and shop.  It's been there for 
over 2 years with no problems so far and that is a gigabit network, not 100 
baseT. OTOH my primary network cable to the shop runs through PVC conduit 
underground and the older white cable is going to be relegated to serving as 
a telephone line with lots of extra wires.

> indoor telephone cable and 8-conductor indoor CAT3 networking cable for
> connections between my shack and my tower some 200 feet away for the last
> 7-8 years.  I control two TopTen 6-way relay boxes, an array of A/B
> selectors, and a homebrew 80m array switchbox through these cables.  I had
> to boost the shack-end voltage to about 14 volts to get reliable relay
> switching at the tower end, but in terms of reliability I'm quite

I use rotator cable for these jobs. It's certainly overkill and something I 
had to pay money for while the CAT5e cable was free. I find the network 
cable is just too fragile with the small wires. Either that or I'm too heavy 
handed with the stuff.

BTW I purchased a 1000 foot spool of rotator cable when I put up the tower 
which was well before the price went up. <:-))

73

Roger (K8RI)


<snip>>
> 73, Pete N4ZR