[TowerTalk] Me vs Squirrels - conclusion

[Grant Saviers]

Gene,

Your latest waterproofing idea is a close clone of the Andrew splicing 
process.

one layer of 3/4" 33 or 88

two layers of amalgamating sealant tape (more like butyl than silicone)

one layer of 2" 33 equivalent,, the 2" is important to not squeeze out 
the sealant tape

another 3 layers of 3/4" 33  (actually the kits contain 3M Temflex 
brand, a cheaper version of 33)

(my tower guy then adds a heavy coat of acrylic clear spray)

The Andrew kits are cheap (<$16 last bought) and have enough for 
materials for a dozen UHF splices.

All comes off clean and is proven in commercial service.

Happy New Year to all!

Grant KZ1W

instructions at 
http://www.commscope.com/catalog/doc/pdf/6568/Weatherproofing_Kit_for_Connectors_and_Antennas.pdf



On 12/31/2016 17:26 PM, Gene Smar wrote:
> TT:
>
>       A couple of years ago a squirrel (and I know which one he is) chewed
> through the outer jacket of all three of my tower's coax runs near ground
> level.  I taped them up as well as I could at dusk one day, but later found
> that I had missed a few open jacket spots.  The SWR on the antennas would
> bounce all over the place when I ran near 100 W; I'd have to back down the
> power to get a stable SWR reading.  The braid I could see through the jacket
> was darkened by corrosion.
>
>       I plan to replace all three coax runs to do the repair correctly
> WIGATI.  In the meantime (today), I  cut off the bottom five feet of each
> coax run and replaced it with a short jumper, a new crimp-on (I'm a big fan
> now) PL-259 on the old cable end and a PL-258 barrel connector.  Before I
> cleaned up at the tower, I decided to take apart the homebrew shield
> grounding connection to see how it stood up to time (I installed the tower
> and cables in 2001.)  I posted about the HB copper flashing connector at the
> time and subsequently:
> http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/Towertalk/2011-03/msg00337.html
> .
>
>       I found that the outer layers of self-amalgamating tape and 3M 33 tape
> (one layer and 3 layers, respectively) were tough to cut through with a box
> cutter (I cut my finger only once, though) but I was able to peel them off
> once they were opened.  The mastic was another story.  It had flowed into
> the open edge of the copper flashing and into the copper coax braid above
> and below the edges of the flashing.  Fortunately about 80 -90 % of the
> inside of the flashing was untouched by the mastic and, presumably, made
> good contact with the shield braid all this time.  The mastic was impossible
> to get off the SS hardware and the flashing, though, so I'll have to discard
> those materials.
>
>       In the future I will not use the mastic as a first layer.  I'll
> probably use a layer or two of 33 or 88 tape and THEN use the mastic pad to
> cover the connection and the bulges around the nuts and bolts and to seal
> the gap between the coax jacket and the ground wire.  I would then finish
> with three wraps (up/down/up) of 88 tape then a single layer of
> self-amalgamating tape.
>
>       I have concluded that:
>
> O   The mastic tape does a good job in its intended purpose - permanently
> protecting electrical power connections and other energized materials.  It
> is NOT intended to be re-entered.
>
> O   I would not recommend trying to undo this type of connection up on a
> tower while being held in place by a climbing belt or harness.  I was
> pushing back from the connection too much while I was opening the connection
> with a knife on the ground; that's too much risk for me aloft.
>
> O   I'm getting old.  My hands are sore from taping over the 3 new
> PL-259/258 splices.  Each splice was three wraps and each wrap was about 27
> turns of tape while keeping tension on the tape roll.
>
>       I have photos but haven't put them up on my Photobucket account yet.
> That'll have to wait until 2017.  Happy New Year to all.
>
>
> 73 de
> Gene Smar  AD3F
>
>
>
>
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