VHF/UHF Scanner antenna cable

[ra7850]

I have a question for those in this group that are in the "know" about cable interference caused by direct burial CAt 6 ethernet cable. I have just bought and had placed a shed, about 75 -85 feet from my house. I have a 1 inch conduit from the house to the sehd aboute 3 feet in the ground. My concern is how much interference will exist on the coax, PPC perfect flex, what I believe is RG6 if i also run the ehternet cable, (2) in the same conduit. Only 1 of the ethernet cables will be used, the 2nd one will be a spare. They will all fit so that won't be an issue. From what I've been told the cable can be buried directly without conduit, but I know that will inveitably have isseus for a number of reasons. Not the best solution to run both in the same conduit or is it no big deal.

Robert

 

[chief21]

I haven't had any practical experience regarding this, but I've always heard that antenna cables should cross other cables perpendicularly, rather than running alongside, in order to avoid possible interference.

 

[jeepsandradios]

I have 4 runs of CAT6 as well as 2 RG6 in a 1 1/4" conduit between my house and garage. Never had any issues with any of it. I ran shieled CAT6 and decent RG6.

RG6 Cable 1 - Security Camera
RG6 Cable 2 - All band scanner antenna
CAT6 Cable 1 - Ethernet
CAT6 Cable 2 - Internet
Cat 6 Cable 3/4 - 4 Wire Audio to 4 TRA units.

 

[bharvey2]

You're wise to avoid the permanent direct burial of cable. It often results in failure. With regard to placing them all in the same conduit, you probably won't experience any problems. (Coax for a transmitter could be a different matter). Bear in mind that it is good practice to run shielded CAT cables when they are run between buildings or whenever they're run to outside access points or exposed to the elements.

Don't expect the conduit to provide a clean, moisture free environment. Typical underground conduit installations always leak. Stick with the direct burial cable and go for the shielded if you can. Ensure that the fittings for all cables, coax and CAT, are well terminated and that the shields are properly grounded. Doing so should ensure that any interference is eliminated.

 

[mmckenna]

From what I've been told the cable can be buried directly without conduit, but I know that will inveitably have isseus for a number of reasons. Not the best solution to run both in the same conduit or is it no big deal.

I wouldn't direct bury, even with direct bury rated cable. That cable is designed so an electrician can dump it in the ground and walk away, leaving it for the homeowner to deal with a few years down the road, long after the tail light guarantee has run out. Direct bury will fail eventually.

You've got to dig a trench for the cable, and your shovel is probably a few inches wide, so plenty of space for a conduit.

You -absolutely- will end up replacing direct bury cable at some point. It will get damaged, and you'll be digging that trench again. Might not be for a few years, but it'll happen.

Conduit is cheap compared to all the labor of digging an 85' long trench.

Put in larger conduit than you think you need. Larger conduit is much easier to pull cable through. It's also much easier to pull cable out of if you need to replace it. Based off price, I would not put in anything less than 2". Think long and hard about your future plans, and maybe include an extra conduit, just in case you want to run power out to the shed. Again, conduit is cheap, trenching is hard.

I'd have no issues putting CAT6 and coax in the same pipe. Coax is shielded. The data over the CAT6 is really low power, and not going to radiate far. If you are really concerned, use shielded CAT6, but I don't think you need it.

 

[Ubbe]

CAT network cables are balanced, using a transformer at both ends. It uses twinned cables and when the current flow in one direction in one of the two twinned cables it will flow in the other direction in the other cable, cancelling out each others magnetic and RF fields. There are also screened cables and individually twisted pair screened cables to use.

/Ubbe

 

[ra7850]

OK, ill feed them all together in 1 pipe. Thanks everyone.