[TowerTalk] Outdoor Coax Issue

[jimlux]

Ri

> Can I just bury this about six inches down without worry?

Are you subject to electrical codes? Or, more to the point, do you want 
to be code compliant?  If so, you'll have to bury it substantially 
deeper. You'll have to check your local rules, but in general, there's 
one depth for unprotected cables, another for cables in conduit, and yet 
another when there's concrete over the top of it.



> If so, Do I need to pull it up and replace it in X years... and
> if so, can you solve for X?   What is the useful life of this
> type of coax?

If you DO have to pull it up, that's when having some conduit makes life 
a LOT easier.  A run of 3" conduit with nice sweep bends at the end is 
easy to pull coax through. Easy to pull the coax out part way to check 
the condition too. Plastic electrical conduit isn't all that expensive, 
and since you have to dig the ditch anyway...

I wouldn't obsess about the water in the conduit thing.  Your conduit 
will be water tight where it's underground, so the way water gets in is 
through "breathing" and atmospheric moisture condensing.  If air can get 
it for condensation, air can get in to evaporate it too.


By the way.. whatever you wind up doing, take an antenna analyzer or 
similar, and make a bunch of measurements of the loss of the coax at 
various frequencies.  That way, when your receiver seems deaf or the Tx 
isn't getting out, you can recheck the coax without having to dig it up 
or pull it out.




> 
> Do I have the right stuff for this application?  If not... why not and
> what should I use?
> 
> Thank you .    ==========  James - K8JHR  ==========
> 
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