Burying RG6 cable underground?

[George_F]

I'm getting ready to take my dish off my roof and pole mount it.


1) Can any RG6 cable be buried underground? If not whats a good cable to use?

2) What type connectors do you recommend?
I have some of those weatherproof (o-ring) hex crimp connectors for the RG6 cabling, will these work OK?

Could someone supply me a url with a good place to buy RG6 cable? Connectors to? :) I'm technically challenged so a link needs to be right to the cable, I doubt I can sort out a site that sells many different types of cables.

Thanks. :)

[Martyva]

Look for burial type cable its gaskets are weatherproofed and the cable holds up under elements well. i've used this cable for 8 years with no problems (i also seal the connectors at the groundblocks)

[Mike500]

How many cables are you running? For direct burial, you need a "flooded" cable with an anti-corrosive sealant impregnated into the body of the shielding. The preferred jacket for direct burial is HDPE or high density black polyethylene. This cable is seldom sold by anyone in less than 1000 ft. However, if you cannot find it locally, you can e-mail me at mhz500@aol.com, if you need a small quantity of 100 ft or so. I am a professional installer, and have a spool of this stuff in dual with messenger ground.

The best weather proof connectors are Snap-N-Seal environmentally sealed connectors. A good kit, with an inexpensive tool is like, for example, this one on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=32848&item=3019629871&rd=1


Hope this helps.

[John Corn]

Mike, a couple questions.

I have regular Home Depot RG6 cable buryed. Maybe I should consider changing my buryed cable before next winter. I have 4 runs buryed but it's only like 30 ft long.

I am a professional installer, and have a spool of this stuff in dual with messenger ground.

Is this 2 cables together? So if I needed this for 4 leads I would need 2 cables?
What is messenger ground?

Can the Thomas and Betts snap N seal connectors be bolted to a normal grounding block or does it take a Thomas and Betts grounding block? :confused:

[apc1]

If you have standard cable, make sure to put it in flex conduit or pvc if you bury it. Flooded cable is more expensive but is better suited for direct burial. If you are not an installer and don't do this everyday, conduit is a good solution. If you are going to use flooded cable, make sure not to position your connections vertically. In the summertime, the compound will heat up and drip onto the inside of the fitting causing all kinds of headaches.

[Mike500]

Originally posted by John Corn
Mike, a couple questions.

I have regular Home Depot RG6 cable buryed. Maybe I should consider changing my buryed cable before next winter. I have 4 runs buryed but it's only like 30 ft long.



Is this 2 cables together? So if I needed this for 4 leads I would need 2 cables?
What is messenger ground?

Can the Thomas and Betts snap N seal connectors be bolted to a normal grounding block or does it take a Thomas and Betts grounding block? :confused:

John,

Home Depot cable will last several years, but for long term use, I'd go with direct burial cable. Since, all you need is about 80 ft., it's cost wouldn't be that much.

Yes, that's two cables together, so you'd need two runs. The messenger ground is a third cable, like zip cord that's attached parallel. It strips off easy, if you don't need it.

Snap-N-Seal connectors will work perfectly with regular grounding blocks.

As for someone else's recommendations,

I do not recommend running non-flooded cable in conduit. I've had conduit filled with water, especially if the conduit runs down a slope. The ends of conduit should be open for drainage of moisture. Condensation, inside the conduit, over time, will fill low spots with water, even if both ends are above ground and have drip caps.

The floodant does not melt in hot weather and migrate as easily as it is indicated. Migration into the connectors, if any, would ad to corrosion resistance, anyway. The loodant is a di-electric and will not short out the cable.

As a matter of practice, I'd always mount connections horizontally, when exposed to the weather, anyway.

Hope this helps.

[AntAltMike]

I service a .500 hardline underground distribution system that uses flooded cable. At one point, the hardline goes over the top of a wall and down about 6 feet to a .500-to-"F" adaptor. You will not believe how much goo has oozed out of that cable! It must be somehow sucking it out of the total length like a siphon.

Because that F connection is often opened during system balancing and diagnosis, the goo made it into the connector and it became a reliability problem, so I cut back about ten feet on the hardline so that the adaptor is on the "top" of the end of the hardline, and now the problem is gone.

You should use solvent to dissolve the flooding compound before putting on the connectors. Just about any solvent will do.

My experience with conduit getting water in it is similar to Mike500's. I service a system where the satellite signal travels through aboiut 400 feet of RG-11 in conduit, and I can see water in there even weeks after it last rained. Conduit will protect cable from gnawing by animals and from acid leeching in from the soil if the outer jacket is broached, but flooding compound is essential for waterproofing, even within conduit.

[Mike500]

Times Fiber makes a cable called "LifeTime." which is lightly filled. This would be the best cable for conduit.

Hardline is a little different than RG6. A long distance cable with a high physical slope gradient would cause such problems. It is, however, quite different with a simple satellite installation. Since there is probably no more than 6-8" of cable looped over from direct burial cable coming up from the ground, and that there is much less floodant, there is very little possibility that there would be a high pressure "head" on a small RG6 connector.

[apc1]

[/B]

As for someone else's recommendations,

I do not recommend running non-flooded cable in conduit. I've had conduit filled with water, especially if the conduit runs down a slope. The ends of conduit should be open for drainage of moisture. Condensation, inside the conduit, over time, will fill low spots with water, even if both ends are above ground and have drip caps.

The floodant does not melt in hot weather and migrate as easily as it is indicated. Migration into the connectors, if any, would ad to corrosion resistance, anyway. The loodant is a di-electric and will not short out the cable.

As a matter of practice, I'd always mount connections horizontally, when exposed to the weather, anyway.

Hope this helps. [/B]

True, conduit will take on water even if sealed properly. Condensation over time will be the source of the moisture. I recommended the conduit to protect from any digging and more or less protection. Placing the cable in conduit is a common practice with alot of companies and has shown to prolong the life of the cable if installed properly.

And YES, the floodant WILL melt and migrate into the fitting in hot weather. I have been on many service calls on MDU Headends where the dish leads were run with flooded cable. The cables were installed on multiswitches where the fittings faced downwards. Fro some reason, they were having signal dropouts. Removing the fitting and examining the inside, we noticed the leakage. We changed the fittings and repositioned the switch which ultimately solved the problem. So your statements may not 100% correct.
Just my observations.

[Mike500]

From years of conduit use, I now recommend using it only as physical protection and not waterproofing. Unless it is to buried below the top of the water table, I just wad a piece of fiberglass screening into the low end and fill the hole with pea gravel. The high end still has the inverted "U' and sealing. This way, any condensation drains out. Conduit is a convenience material for future addition of cables. I use it only when required by code or deep burial cables for high voltage service. In this case, where conduit runs continuosly the code does not alllow water drainage.

[John Corn]

Thanks for your replies, Mike500, I might get with you regarding the cable, I need to get a measurement.

[Mike500]

John,

You should make and bury about a 9" diameter loop of cable on eack end for future use, if you need to replace the connector have future need for cable slack.

[George_F]

Thanks alot everyone, what would I do without ya. :)

[doug]

If you have a Menards home-improvment store near you they sell 75' lengths of flooded burial grade cable (Magnavox branded). It has a messenger wire and has weather booted connections pre-installed on each end. $13.99

[demil]

bury the cable in white pvc pipe. it will keep any rodents away and also provide a dry place for your cable to be encased

[oljim]

I have plane old RG-6 going to my big dish for 21 yrs in PVC, still works