[TowerTalk] Water in Conduit... the fix

Sat Mar 7 18:03:49 EST 2015

Thanks for clearing that up, Jim.

FFS. just HOW cold does it get there? In degrees, F?
You measure holes down to 1/10,000th of an inch?

73
Randy
KZ4RV

On 3/7/2015 12:31 PM, Jim Thomson wrote:
> Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2015 14:26:36 -0500
> From: "Roger (K8RI) on TT" <K8RI-on-TowerTalk at tm.net>
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Water in Conduit...  the fix
>
> ### ...
> If u use a weep hole,
>> use the bare min.. like one...maybe two at most...and no bigger than  .15625 dia,
>> ( five sixteenths).   .125 inch or less is usually not big enough..and can become plugged with debris.
> ######  oops.... I meant to say  5 / 32  of an inch  =  .15625 inch diam.
>
> Jim   VE7RF
>
>
>
>
>
>
> If you must use weep holes, I'd keep them very small.  In many areas
> 5/16ths is far too large! The reason is bugs, Wasps,  and spiders.  We
> seem to have gained a massive increase of paper wasps, Mud Dobbers, and
> those tiny nasty tempered Yellow Jackets over the past few years.
> Yellow jackets seem to prefer cooler locations as in the ground and
> under garage floors.   Mud Dobbers and Paper Wasps like enclosed spaces
> like the tuning unit for my Hy-Gain AV640 (
> http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/AV-640/AV640.htm ) 6th photo
> down. Text gives explanation.  The little, stock drain hole was still
> large enough for them to get in.  RF killed a few, causing others to
> gang up on the threat, causing a massive mess.
>
> Last summer I removed nearly a dozen Paper Wasp nests from our 200 X
> 200' lot.  Some were larger than a football.
> I opened the small 8' garage door on the West end of the South side of
> the shop to find a new nest of unhappy wasps. Only got stung twice
> before I got the door closed.
>
> Several years ago, the whole neighborhood had more than that per 100' X
> 200' yard.
>
> 73
>
> Roger (K8RI)
>
>
>
> On 3/6/2015 1:00 AM, Jim Thomson wrote:
>> Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2015 08:22:58 -0600
>> From: Patrick Greenlee <patrick_g at windstream.net>
>> To: towertalk at contesting.com
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Water in Conduit...
>>
>> Those of you unable to keep water out of your conduit have my sympathy.
>> I know how irritating it could be. If your conduit is assembled properly
>> and doesn't leak leaving the airborne moisture as your target then put
>> desiccant bags in the conduit and plug the ends of the conduit where the
>> cables enter/exit.  Various ways to plug include duct tape, spray foam,
>> wadded up paper coated with silicon caulk or...
>>
>> Patrick   NJ5G
>>
>> ####  .....or  use  DUCT SEAL.  Available at any home depot...in the electrical dept.
>> Comes in 1lb packages.    It?s the Standard to use to seal conduit ends. At the telco
>> I worked at, they had it in 10 lb bags.   Duct seal works  great..since its like kids plastercine.
>> Pliable, and easily stuffed in there, and molded to fill all the air gaps.    Easily removed when
>> it comes time to add one more cable... or remove a cable.
>>
>> ##  leaving conduit open is just asking for trbl.   Even if the conduit terminates  inside your
>> basement, or terminates inside a metal or plastic nema  box,  you still use duct seal.
>>
>> ##  In nema boxes out doors, or stuff like remote ant switch boxes, etc,  put a lot of
>> desicant inside..aka.. silica gel.   Silica gel absorbs up to 40% of its weight in water.
>> Seal the boxes up air tight..then with silica gel inside, they will be bone dry.  Change
>> the silica gel out once every year.   If a box has power to it, a pair of those metal
>> finned resistors and some voltage through em 24-7 also works very well.   Just a bit
>> of constant heat will ensure the box remains  dry..and the silica gel absorbs the rest.
>> 2nd resistor is for redundancy.
>>
>> ##  Im not a fan of metal nema boxes, since they are more prone to condensation forming
>> on the inside.  Some will use weep holes on the low point to let water out.  If u use a weep hole,
>> use the bare min.. like one...maybe two at most...and no bigger than  .15625 dia,
>> ( five sixteenths).   .125 inch or less is usually not big enough..and can become plugged with debris.
>>
>> ##  If the weep hole is made too big, the silica gel inside will begin to try and absorb moisture
>> from the outside, high humidity ari..like rain and fog, high humidity condx, etc.
>>
>> ##  Install large diam conduit ..like the 4 inch stuff....and forget putting holes on the bottom side of it,
>> Utilities don?t.   Make sure its all bone dry b4 gluing the sections together.
>>
>> Jim  VE7RF
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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