[TowerTalk] Wire lubricant for cable pull thru conduit

[Charles Lind]

I had the problem of getting rotor and control cables 400 feet to the
tower.  Rather than use cables at all, I use Green Heron Everywhere to
control all rotor and switching functions from the house to the base of the
tower.  Only the hardline needs to be buried, and no provision for extra
cables is needed in a conduit run.  This requires putting a waterproof box
with 120 volts and a small 12 volt supply on a post by the tower: the 120 V
comes 75 feet from a barn.  I know it sounds odd to put a rotor controller
out in a box subject to the heat and cold, but it has been there three
years without a hitch.  The GHE remote unit controls the Array Solutions
switches as well as the GH RT-21.  The only time i saw the signal strength
fall was when the hay in the pasture grew up over the grey box!!  Nothing
that a mower couldn't cure......and the gophers can't chew what isn't there
in the ground!
Chuck, N8CL

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 8:07 PM, Dick Dievendorff <dieven at comcast.net>wrote:

> I’ve never run anything through conduit before.
>
>
>
> I have a 100 foot long 3” conduit between house and tower, and in that
> conduit I hope to run two ½” coax cables, three 3-wire ROMEX cables
> carrying
> 24V for three different rotators, two 8-conductor (CAT-5 like) cables for
> an
> antenna switch, and three two-wire cables for the rotator position
> indicators.  It’s a good-sized bundle.  There are no 110 AC power lines in
> the bundle.
>
>
> I think I need to pull all this at once, with lubricant, and include a
> length of pulling rope or tape in the bundle for “next time”.   I believe
> that I want to pull these through all at once  in order to avoid risk of
> damage to cables already installed.
>
>
>
> What’s the right sort of lubricant for this?   What quantity should I buy?
>
>
>
> I have some light nylon “fish” cord that I think I can pull through with a
> small wadded up plastic bag and a shop-vac.  After I have that pulled
> through, I assume I attach it to a hefty pull cord. What sort of pull cord
> should I be shopping for?
>
>
>
> Any tips on tying the “bundle” to the cord so that I have a smooth thing to
> pull?  I have Kellums Grips suitable for ½” coax, but not for anything
> else.
> Is this a “pulling eye”?
>
>
>
> I presume I want one person on each end that can communicate, one to feed a
> smoothed bundle in one end while the other pulls.
>
>
>
> Should I tape the whole bundle together every few feet?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Dick, K6KR
>
>
>
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