[TowerTalk] Can I bury rotator cable?

[N1BUG]

Comments interlaced below...

On 06/25/2016 03:06 PM, Roger (K8RI) on TT wrote:
> It depends, but it sounds as if what you have will work just fine if
> it's buried in a stone free environment.

If I ever find a stone here that wasn't placed by man, I may die of 
shock. I live on pure sand with a naturally accumulated thin layer 
of what passes for topsoil over it. Unfortunately I can't say the 
same for buried bits of glass or metal. Hopefully I got all that out 
of the route this cable takes!

> I would have slipped simple heat shrink tube over each wire splice, but
> it sounds as if you did a good job of waterproofing it. Probably more
> than necessary and will likely last longer than the rest of the cable.
> I'd just forget about it until you need to replace it, if ever.

I would have used adhesive lined heat shrink, if it had occurred to me
sooner that I didn't have any of suitable diameter for such a task. 
Nothing of the sort can be found locally, and it was so late in the 
season delays were to be avoided wherever possible. The only reason 
I was going for waterproofing each individual wire splice is that I 
learned if any water enters the rotator end of a cable, it comes all 
the way down and runs out in the shack - thus getting to any splices 
along the way no matter how the composite cable may be waterproofed. 
Let's not delve too deeply into how I learned that. ;-)

I had almost forgotten it until the OP asked about burying rotator 
cable. Then I had to stop and think about how I did it. I suspect it 
will be fine for the life of the cable, whatever that turns out to 
be. At 10 years, exposed portions show very little sign of aging. 
The buried section was dug/pulled up last summer to add another run 
of heliax to the bundle. Once any dirt was wiped off it appeared as new.

73,
Paul, N1BUG


> On 6/25/2016 Saturday 9:55 AM, N1BUG wrote:
>> My rotator cable to the southwest tower is buried (250 feet) since
>> 2006. It has some splices, but no problems yet. Each wire at a splice
>> is twisted and soldered, then wrapped with butyl rubber, then Scotch
>> Super 88. (I trimmed the length of each wire differently so no two
>> actual splices overlap) Entire cable in the splice area is wrapped
>> with butyl rubber, then glue lined heat shrink, then Super 88. The
>> splices are "ugly" but underground no one can see them.
>>
>> Paul N1BUG