[TowerTalk] New Conduits

[john at kk9a.com]

You can direct bury your Heliax, which makes the project much easier and 
less costly.   You can use 4" PVC DRAIN pipe for the cable conduit.  It has 
a thinner wall and a belled end so no fittings are needed.  It is 
inexpensive and vrey easy to work with.

John  KK9A




To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] New Conduits
From: "Steve Jones" <n6sj at earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:14:36 -0700
List-post: <towertalk at contesting.com">mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>

I need to install underground conduits to my new HDX-589 crank-up tower.
The distence between my garage wall and the tower foundation is about 125'.
I plan to put in straight conduits with a 90 degree sweep at each end where
they come up out of the ground.  I plan 4 #10 copper conductors in a 1" PVC
conduit for 220VAC power to the raising winch.  For the coax I'm hoping to
score some local surplus 7/8" LDF5-50 heliax.  I have been thinking of using
one 4" conduit for three runs of the 7/8" heliax, and a second 4" conduit
for various control cables (RF switches, rotor cables, SteppIR control,
etc.).  So I'd have two 4" conduits and one 1" conduit in the trench.
Those of you who have experience with such installations, please tell me:

1.  Are these conduit diameters adequate for my proposed loading?  I have
put in 4" PVC water pipe and it's unwieldy stuff to work with, so if I can
get by with smaller conduit pipes I'd prefer to.

2.  What is a good source for electrical boxes to terminate these cables
above ground at each end?

3.  Is there a better way to control the rotor, switches, SteppIR etc. by
using Ethernet in the conduit and local AC power at the tower?

4.  Is there something better than Ivory liquid for a cable lubricant?

5.  What have I not mentioned that I need to address?

I appreciate any and all advice!

73,

Steve Jones
N6SJ