[TowerTalk] Schedule 40 or 80 PVC Conduit Underground

[Bill Ogden]

I forgot this: Be certain the ends of the conduit are well blocked 
somehow, and inspect the blocking now and then. Critters can be clever and 
get into the conduit. I had chipmonks in mine. They ate the insulation 
from buryflex (!!) and then ate the insulation from the SteppIR control 
lines, which then shorted somehow and wrecked the control head and one of 
the steppers.  Don't know how they did it, but they did it. (This was in 
the 4" conduit.)

When I dug up the 2" version, I spent some time sloping the 4" replacement 
and drilled  1/4" holes in the bottom in a few places at the low end of 
the slopes. Perhaps water in the conduit could be ignored, but only if 
every line is unspliced and with water-proof insulation --- I did want to 
depend on this perfection, so I arranged for the conduit to drain itself. 
You WILL have water in the conduit unless it is perfectly sealed from the 
atmosphere.

Bill - W2WO