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
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:
- First Tower Part 1 – Ground Broken For New Tower!
- First Tower Part 2 – Tower/Antenna System Design Details And Equipment Ordering
- First Tower Part 3 – More Excavation For Feedline Conduits
- First Tower Part 4 – Tower/Antenna System Analysis And Design (Planning And EZNEC)
- First Tower Part 5 – Tower/Antenna System Analysis And Design (HFTA Analysis)
- First Tower Part 6 – We Have A Tower!
- First Tower Part 7 – 100 ft Tower Completed!
- First Tower Part 8 – VHF/UHF Antenna System Design
- First Tower Part 10 – Building Yagis (70 cm)
- First Tower Part 11 – Building Yagis (2m)
- First Tower Part 12 – Building Yagis (SteppIR DB36)
- First Tower Part 13 – Building Yagis (SteppIR DB36 Continued)
- First Tower Part 14 – Building Yagis (SteppIR DB36 Continued II)
- First Tower Part 15 – Building Yagis (SteppIR DB36 Completed)
- First Tower Part 16 – Building Yagis (Second SteppIR DB36 Completed)
- First Tower Part 17 – Feedline Breakout System
- First Tower Part 18 – Antennas On The Tower (Preparation and Upper Yagis)
- First Tower Part 19 – Antennas On The Tower (System Integration)
- First Tower Part 20 – Antennas On The Tower (System Complete)
- First Tower Part 21 – Antennas On The Tower (Final Odds and Ends)
- Complete Presentation on Amateur Radio Station Design And Construction
– Fred, AB1OC
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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
Thank you for the quick reply.
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
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