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Water Proofing Antennas

S

silvereagle1

Active Member
May 4, 2012
174
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OK Folks is there any thing i should do to this Big Daddy Antenna to seal the joints the cable. I am all ear's if you know let me know. There are two pics on the Big Daddy Antenna post you can look at. Any help and i will be Gratefull. Thanks.
 
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Coax seal should be applied between a bottom layer and top layer of UV resistant self amalgamating tape.

http://k7nv.com/notebook/id5.htm

Scotch 33 tape works great.

Stay away from silicon that contains acetic acid (smell like vinegar)

There are many ways. Its best to seal well. Water intrusion would suck down the road.
 
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for around the house stuff i use 3m 2155 splice tape (4$ for a 25' roll) and finish it off with scotch 33.

for commercial & cellular i use 1 wrap of 3/4" scotch 33 put on sticky side out, then cover that with butyl then 3 wraps of 1.5" tape.
first wrap doesnt get stretched much, second wrap gets stretched good and then make everything pretty with the third wrap.

Why do i so my first layer with the sticky side out you ask?
just in case anyone ever has to open that connection up they wont be digging at the butyl for an hour :D

just remember to lay your wraps so they shed water
like this:
ANT
/c\
/o\
/a\
/x\

not like this:
ANT
\c/
\o/
\a/
\x/
 
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m42duster said:
Coax seal should be applied between a bottom layer and top layer of UV resistant self amalgamating tape.

Coax Connector Sealing

Scotch 33 tape works great.

Stay away from silicon that contains acetic acid (smell like vinegar)

There are many ways. Its best to seal well. Water intrusion would suck down the road.
Click to expand...


You know, I have heard many people say this but I have been using it for 35 years ( literally since I was 14 years old) and I have NEVER had a problem. There may possibly be an issue using it directly on connectors but you should never do that anyway. It makes it impossible to get them apart again. I use a good electrical tape like Scotch 33 or Scotch 88 over the connector and cable first and then smother it with silicone sealant, yes even the vinegar smelling stuff. Years later you can just take a sharp knife and cut through the silicone and tape and peel the entire mass back and expose the clean and shiny connectors. I have had connectors and splices that were 20 years old and looked as shiny as the day they were made using this method. Just don't use the silicone directly on the connectors without a layer of tape first.
 
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Captain Kilowatt said:
You know, I have heard many people say this but I have been using it for 35 years ( literally since I was 14 years old) and I have NEVER had a problem. There may possibly be an issue using it directly on connectors but you should never do that anyway. It makes it impossible to get them apart again. I use a good electrical tape like Scotch 33 or Scotch 88 over the connector and cable first and then smother it with silicone sealant, yes even the vinegar smelling stuff. Years later you can just take a sharp knife and cut through the silicone and tape and peel the entire mass back and expose the clean and shiny connectors. I have had connectors and splices that were 20 years old and looked as shiny as the day they were made using this method. Just don't use the silicone directly on the connectors without a layer of tape first.
Click to expand...

I've used the same silicone as well without any noticeable issue. I have just heard so many respectable old timers say to stay away from it, so I figured there must be some merit to that advice.

They probably used it on exposed wires and such and saw a corrosive problem. Covering a PL should do no harm.

Here's a spirited discussion, lol.

http://www.radiobanter.com/archive/index.php/t-90513.html
 
I've had good luck with heat shrink on gammas and element connections.

When it's time to rebuild or perform maintenance, slice the heat shrink and peal it off.

2 cents
 
Try NO-OX-ID is the same stuff that Mosley Antennas been using for many years,you can apply a coat like varnish on your antenna and you can use the NO OX ID Paste to seal the connectors or tubing joins also works better than Noalox.

no-ox-id%20special.jpg


NO-OX-ID_1.jpg


Check Mosley Antennas just for kicks :)
http://www.mosley-electronics.com/pages/parts.htm
 
QROdx said:
for around the house stuff i use 3m 2155 splice tape (4$ for a 25' roll) and finish it off with scotch 33.

for commercial & cellular i use 1 wrap of 3/4" scotch 33 put on sticky side out, then cover that with butyl then 3 wraps of 1.5" tape.
first wrap doesnt get stretched much, second wrap gets stretched good and then make everything pretty with the third wrap.

Why do i so my first layer with the sticky side out you ask?
just in case anyone ever has to open that connection up they wont be digging at the butyl for an hour :D

just remember to lay your wraps so they shed water
like this:
ANT
/c\
/o\
/a\
/x\

not like this:
ANT
\c/
\o/
\a/
\x/
Click to expand...

We actually do a dual layer of both vulcanizing tape and 33 over that. First wrap is from the top down and second layer back up like your first correct pic. Done lots of connections on towers like this and 2 years later still no water intrusion.
 
I bought 3 rolls of this stuff to use as a final layer on my dipoles. It went on on well and I was thinking it was gonna be some good stuff. It comes in red, white and black rolls, not very expensive either.

After about 6 months I decided to swap a 40 meter dipole for a new fan dipole I made. When I was swapping the feedline on the old wire, I noticed this stuff was starting to loosen and become brittle. It may have been a bad batch, but I'll never use it again.

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/antsup/0488.html
 

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