Can I Bury my Coax Underground? (#735)

Mike, KI5SOK, lives in South West Louisiana, and wants to have his coax somewhere other than atop the ground, due to animals nearby who might chew on it. He wants to bury it but is this an good option with the amount of water it will be exposed to?

Edited by Aidan Jakeman

Twitter: @dcasler

[albisasky]

Well, Dave, like the Old Pillar of All Wisdom & Knowledge once told me, "The only thing that is completely waterproof is a frog's rear envd.

[James_Bowie]

Drilling holes in the underside of the conduit puts this into the realm of French drains. Therefore, you need to lay the coax on a bed of coarse gravel (at least 1 inch of it) so that (a) water can escape, and (b) so that the conduit and holes don't silt up with mud.

[dalekeener]

like some other folks on this thread I have found water finds its way into the PVC . I had to lay a layer of gravel first and drill a couple small holes. worked great.

[donaldsmith]

Use electoral PVC and ues the sweeps, and lube. Glue it all together. Use a vacuum and pull line with something that the vacuum can suck through the PVC. Big PVC will make it easier to pull in. Try to get the PVC well above where water can stand. And if you can get where the ends will not get rain in them. There is a trick I use sometimes, Glue it all together, let it set in the sun. It will get hot and will bend as you put it in the ground, you will not need the sweeps to get the ends to come up and it will be a softer bend and easier to pull! DO NOT PUT THE PVC TOGETHER WITH THE COAX IN IT! YOU WILL GET THE PVC GLUE ON THE COAX AND IT WILL EAT THE OUTSIDE OF THE COAX!

[WHJBill]

I dug a 2 foot ditch and put in 2" PVC pipe and sealed it, then pulled 3 runs of DXE 400MAX coax in (which is direct burial). The coax has no connections and I put 90 degree elbows at the end then ran a 3 foot pipe going straight up and out of the ground and then on that put 2 90 degree elbows back to back (so that the coax come out the bottom above ground). It's been in the ground for 2 years now and no issues.

[TahitiChris]

I built a 1/4 wave inverted L for 160 meters using a 4:1 balun and about 50' of RG-8 for the feedline. The antenna has an SWR of 1:1 on most of the band with an SWR of 1.2:1 at 2 MHz. When I tried to bury the coax, the SWR went above 3:1. Just an example of when burying the feedline may not work.

[freddie]

Thank you for explaining in details. Easy to follow you.

[josephrogers]

In any area I would but an elbow in the pvc and bring it above ground. Seal with silicone but you eventuly will have water in side the pvc with temp changes causing it to sweat. A possible solution to that is some sort of tube inside to suck out any moister with a pump. then seal it back up.

[buzzsah]

They sell direct bury coax. I did the same thing but with data lines, and 75ohm tv cable, they were both direct bury. Now, I was only running 35 ft, so I used 2-inch s40 PVC, 2, 45deg elbows, 2, 2-inch traps without the cleanout plug. At 35 ft, I ran it with a 3 inch slop with a 2ft deep x 1ft round hole filled with 3/4 stone on the low end. I used the 45's on the PVC underground came up then up from the 45 to 1.5 ft above ground using the traps up-side-down, keeping the rain out. It has been 12 years and still good. However, this year I will be redoing it, I think its time. lol Good luck.

[BowWowPewPewCQ]

I'm not sure what kind of conduit you're running but I don't have water in my underground conduits. Of course, I put elbows and short stubs up out of the ground then another elbow and a cap with the correct tight fitting hole sealed with RTV. Maybe I'm missing something.

[daviddurflinger]

I run underground utilities all the time, I would suggest sealing your conduit at both ends with silicone after gluing the sections together with the whole thing assembled and dried place in a trench deep enough not to be disturbed by any thing, if it is sealed properly you should not have any problem.

[larryfields]

i have similar thoughts on this. I have mine running along side my house but thought of sending the coax through my wall but my son advised against it due to 2 things. 1 critters coming inside, Bob Heil mentioned using a shield like those stainless steel pads and 2 rain water coming inside.

[wildbill]

I dug a trench a few inches deep, layed down a bed of pea gravel, then a length of corrugated perforated drain pipe and ran my LMR 400 db in that. Been over a year now and has no issues

[williambarrett]

I'm in Louisiana. In a rural part of Caddo
parish (no counties in LA). My QTH has the blessing of being 280' above sea level. This helps my DX'ing beau coup!
Thanks and 73.WW5MB

[DaveTheBigTomato]

The conduit will NOT leak if you seal all connections and use weather heads on each end.
It wil not fill with water and will not compromise the cable.
I am in Florida. The water table is literally the ground. I use this method all the time.

[ACHT]

Dave, thanks for the good video. I really like the white board explanations/illustrations, as well. 73, AC3HT 📻🗼🎙️

[rgbailey]

check out leach line pipe, big enough for several cables, two rows of holes pre drilled. place several cords through it to pull additional cables, etc.
Richard, KB7SGM

[aaronfultz]

Great video Dave. I'm setting up my first base station and needed this info. I have lmr-400 cable. Isn't lmr-400 direct bury? I bought mine at dxe, and their site says no in the specs, but other places say yes. I'm going to use conduit anyway, but was curious if you could bury the lmr directly. Thank you sir, you inspire and teach me.
Aaron

[slowLFX]

Yes, yes you can. Dish technicians do it daily.

[richardjones]

Dave, I have a Buckmaster DX off center fed dipole antenna with LMR400 Coaxial cable. Once buried, the cable will cross both my house supply electric line and the Comcast line. Will this be a problem? Thanks, KO4PHM