[TowerTalk] A dumb question

[Bob Shohet, KQ2M]

Some of that is just luck – sometimes it is GOOD luck and sometimes is it BAD luck.  I gave up on my beverages deep, deep in the woods many years ago.  The foxes, squirrels, mice, coyotes, skunks and squirrels LOVED RG-6 - both in the quad-shield and regular flavors.  OTOH, between my towers and  my house, out in the clear with all the brush chopped away, the cables were left alone.  But that was not true when there was brush close-by in which to nest and hide.  In that brush, the cables were regularly chewed on, especially in the Winter.  Once I cut all the brush away, the critters decided that being continuous hawk and eagle prey was not a good idea and they retreated deeper into the woods where they could once again nest in the brush and chew on whatever was handy.

I also put out about a dozen bait boxes around my house and at the edges of the woods – this helped to slowly eliminate some of the chewing critters nearby and no doubt as a result helps to reduce critter cable attrition.

In the snowier winters the critter problem is worse.  Nothing is really safe – all you can really do is become a student of your native environment and prepare as best as possible and continually adapt.  The more inhospitable to critters you can make the local cable environment, the happier and safer they will be.  :-)  And the happier you will be.  :-)

73

Bob KQ2M

From: john at kk9a.com 
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 12:12 PM
To: TowerTalk at contesting.com 
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] A dumb question

It is surprising that some people have no issues with cables laying on the
ground. When I moved to NC and had just started to build my station. I
temporary laid hundreds of feet of control cables and coax on the ground a
week before for an upcoming contest. By the time the contest started I
noticed that my rotator and remote coax switch were inoperative. I walked
outside and discovered that the control cables were chewed up in multiple
locations.

John KK9A



To: "TowerTalk" <TowerTalk at contesting.com>, "N4ZR" <n4zr at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] A dumb question
From: "Bob Shohet, KQ2M" <kq2m at kq2m.com>



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.


73 & GL!

Bob  KQ2M

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