[TowerTalk] Chipmunks

[K8RI]

On 1/16/2012 12:53 AM, Eugene Jensen wrote:
> Buy Duct Seal at your Home Depot in the Elect. Dept. It like clay and you
> can dig it out of your conduct when you need add wire ect.  It comes in 1LBS
> bricks. 73 Gene K2QWD
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of K8RI
> Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 11:25 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Chipmunks
>
> On 1/13/2012 3:54 PM, Art Trampler wrote:
>> ALVIN!!!!
>>
>> --- On Fri, 1/13/12, Bill Ogden<ogden at us.ibm.com>   wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: Bill Ogden<ogden at us.ibm.com>
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Chipmunks
>> To: towertalk at contesting.com
>> Date: Friday, January 13, 2012, 9:52 AM
>>
>>
>> Chipmunks got into my conduit (3" PVC) between my shack and my tower
>> and did a job on cable insulation. They shorted several wires in the
>> SteppIR control cable (blowing driver chips in the controller) and
>> even ate bits of the SHIELD from several places in several coax
>> cables.  (There were different types of coax, and the chipmunks worked
>> on all of them. No one type, such as the direct burial cables, was
>> immune.)
>>
>> I am replacing the controller cable and the main coax to my beam. I
>> cut out the bad parts of other coax and spliced them (using proper
>> plugs and the short barrel connectors) -- these are for 80/40 antennas
>> and now check OK when measured going to a dummy load.
> Here the conduit ends in a large NEMA enclosure.  Photo 7 from the top and
> the bottom 4 on the page
> http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/cablebox.htm.  There are no "open"
> openings in the enclosure. They are either conduit, compression fittings, or
> coax bulkhead connectors.  The old NEMA enclosure had a conduit stub, but
> critters were getting in that and particularly in the winter when the snow
> would reach or cover the opening of the stub. Of course in summer it was a
> prime target for paper wasps.
>
>> I'll do a better job of blocking the ends of the conduit.
>>
>> QUESTION: Will moth balls in the conduit help? Will they harm the coax
>> outer cover?  (Unfortunately, the neighborhood cats are too well fed
>> --- they usually just watch the chipmunks.)
> My big ol' "used to be Tomcat" is way over fed on chipmunk steaks.  If they
> move he's on 'em, but he ignores the results of mechanical disposal.  Those
> critters are really destructive.  I had to start leaving the cat out longer
> than I like, to get rid of them.  They actually dug down in front of the
> egress window and into the weep tile.
> They must have built an apartment complex down there.  It took over 1
> 1/2 of those large cans of expandable foam (the stuff that gets rigid) to
> fill the burrow.  We've had no problems with them since then. At least if
> they made it to the sump in the basement they couldn't climb out of it.
> Unfortunately they'll probably be back next spring.

I prefer the rigid expandable foam. I think one brand is called "stuff". 
Never use this "stuff" around doors and windows. When it expands it has 
force behind it and can spring door and window frames causing them to 
stick shut or preventing them from closing.

It works great for plugging off the ends of conduit, just don't over do 
it as you have to dig the stuff out to install or work on cables.

73

Roger (K8RI)