[TowerTalk] A dumb question

[Bob Shohet, KQ2M]

Hi Pete,

It depends on many things depending on your situation:

1) What are you attempting to protect your cable from?  Lawn mowers?  Lightning?  Someone digging into them?  etc.

2) Type of cable and type of jacket  (and how hot/cold/snowy/icy does it get at your qth?)

I use buryflex coax and CQ304 and CQ302 rotator cable.  I have had them laying on the ground for almost 20 years with no discernable physical deterioration.  If I put them below ground I would have to deal with the acidic soil, critters, pools of groundwater, etc.  Of course these issues would be mitigated by using gravel, sand, conduit, etc.  I like keeping it simple.  I have fewer critter problems and no water/soil issues with laying the cables on the ground.  Nothing likes to nest directly on top of the cables where they are exposed to the elements.  Put them in a protected environment below soil however and then I am sure the critters would be more interested.

But for anything aboveground, the cable jackets better be physically tough and uv resistant or else they won’t last more than a few years at best.

3) Convenience and aesthetics...

It is a real PITA to have to move cables around every time that I mow, and even more of a PITA when I hit one of them with a mower.  BUT, where I have dug a 4” trench only a few inches wide and laid the cables in the uncovered trench, I don’t have to move them anymore, I don’t have to worry about the mower blades cutting them or hitting the sides of the narrow trench, and, if I need to move or replace them, I just pick them up and they are moved in a few seconds.

I have had no trouble with the elements or even snow/ice or standing water which is rapidly absorbed by the ground.

This also solves the issues of trenching and how deep is deep enough?

Decide on your answers to 1, 2 and 3 and then you may not even need to think about your questions.  If you still want to bury your cables, then 1, 2 and 3 will determine the answer to your questions.

73 & GL!

Bob  KQ2M

From: N4ZR 
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2017 9:28 PM
To: TowerTalk 
Subject: [TowerTalk] A dumb question

After all this time I'm contemplating my first direct buried run of 
coax.  Hence this qwuestion - how deep is deep enough?  DoI need to get 
below the frost line?

-- 

73, Pete N4ZR
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