First Tower Part 9 – Feedline Conduits And Electrical Power Complete

Conduits & Electrical at Tower

Conduits & Electrical at Tower

We made some more progress on our tower project today. Brian Veillette (Nashyei@aol.com), our excavation contractor, completed the conduits for our feedlines today and Brian Fessenden (fessendenbrian@yahoo.com), our Electrician, added an electrical outlet at the tower to provide power for our rotating ring and for general use at the base of the tower. We installed one 6″, one 4″ and two 2″ conduits to accommodate all of our hardline feed lines and control cables. These will allow us to run all of the cabling underground from the tower to our shack entry.

Conduits at Shack Entry

Conduits at Shack Entry

It will take a little time for our lawn to “heal” but it’s nice to have these steps completed. It looks like some of our four yagis may arrive as early as late next week and the next major step will be to assemble them.

You can read more about our tower project via the articles which follow:

– Fred, AB1OC

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6 thoughts on “First Tower Part 9 – Feedline Conduits And Electrical Power Complete

  1. I am curious how you managed to get the cabling through the ends and reseal so that rain water would not creep back into the line. I am trying to do this very thing. K5GLH.

    • Hi Paul,

      You really cannot seal conduits. Even if they are sealed from the outside, condensation will create enough moisture to fill them with water. We built underground drain sumps at low spots on each end to allow any water in the conduits to drain into the soil. We use a combination of conduit adapters and tape to seal the exits enough to keep most of the rain out.

      Fred, AB1OC

      • I wonder if drilling some holes in the bottom of the PVC would help in that job. I have not yet burried mine and I am looking at yours as an example.

      • Yes, that would be a good approach if the holes are at the low points in the conduits. Also, you need to create a pit filled with stone underneath the holes to capture the water and allow the soil to absorb it. Sort of a “french drain” approach.

        Fred, AB1OC

  2. I did something similar with my installation. I installed a 4 inch T at the low point of my conduit. I postholled down at that spot and put pea gravel in the hole. I also glued a piece of screen on the T to try to keep critters out.

    Mike – KI8R

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