Rain and snow is going to enter the antenna mast and settle right onto the rotator where the mast resides.

Is this a legitimate concern? What has been your experience?
("Paranoia strikes me. Into your life it will creep.")

It's too late for me now that the whole shebang is up, but I sure wish I had set a golf ball with some roof tar in that mast top.

That's a good question - the top of the rotor is watertight so there's no issue with that, but for the sake of the pole itself its probably not a bad idea to block off the top opening. Even so, I've never heard of an open pole being a problem or a show-stopper.

On my own mast without a rotor I've inserted a ball of scrunched up plastic that I wrapped in duct-tape into the top opening so that its invisible. Its not elegant but I've never had so much as a drop of moisture come out the lower end of the pipe, and this is in the Vancouver area... ;) I didn't need to block it off, but I felt that the least moisture the better.

Rain and snow is going to enter the antenna mast and settle right onto the rotator where the mast resides.

Rain should run out of the bottom of the mast and around the rotor (and as Stampeder said the rotor itself should be water tight) so that shouldn't be a problem. A small amount of snow might find its way into the mast and accumulate, but it is light and shouldn't cause any problems and when it warms up it will melt and run out. It certainly wouldn't hurt to block the hole at the top of the mast, but I wouldn't lose any sleep about not having done so.

stimpsonjcat, there's a post earlier in this thread by Rop about sealant tape, and my friend the former BC Hydro lineman gave me some too. Is that the same stuff you mean?

This stuff sounds like what your friend gave you.
It's just like rubber tape, you wrap it around the cable like tape and scrunch it so that it's all molded tight against the cable and connector. Since it's really soft it can be molded how you want it to seal it up.
I never saw it until I found it on a Ham operators website.

Stampeder, have you ever considered RTV type silicone for your outdoor connections... you can even use dielectric tune-up grease which is especially made for protecting electrical connections from humidity and corrosion; it is also flexible and will not crack and also maintain metal to metal contact.

you can even use dielectric tune-up grease which is especially made for protecting electrical connections from humidity and corrosionI use Burndy Penetrox (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=burndy+penetrox&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) for that - its a liquid that hydro crews use on their connections and its in a handy squeeze bottle. I use it to free up old and/or dirty connections and for securing ground clamps to antennas or ground rods. The reason I rarely use it with coax cable connections is that in my experience a coax connector is best kept dry when being crimped, then when a connection is made a coating of waterproofing seals it up completely. :)

I need to clarify what I said: I highly recommend silicone for most coax connection waterproofing uses but the problem is that it balls up under certain situations, unlike roofing tar.

Silicone is ideal for waterproofing bushings and connectors.Do you mean silicone grease or RTV Silicone?

Thanks,


Intravino

Do you mean silicone grease or RTV Silicone?Standard home caulking silicone available at Rona and most other hardware stores. It comes in white or clear.

Silicone is ideal for waterproofing bushings and connectors.
Err.. not really. PVC electrical tape is fantastic over F-connectors and fittings -- stuff I taped up years before was all still pristine looking when I took it apart again this summer.

For places that the tape just won't work, clear silicone is a reasonable substitute. But there is better stuff available -- a black sticky compound whose name I've forgotten. That stuff is tenaciously sticky, and far less likely to let water in than silicone.

I got a lifetime supply of it cheap from Active Surplus on Queen St.W in Toronto. It's about 3/16" thick, and has a foil backing.

Cheers

Silicone is ideal for waterproofing bushings and connectors.Err.. not really.He only quoted one of my comments, and out of context at that because I recommend roofing tar in an earlier post about the wonders of electrical tape. ;)

My standard fastening and waterproofing materials and my posts about them:

Electrical tape & roofing tar (Post #27) (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=222663&postcount=27)
Roofing tar (Post #30) (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=222684&postcount=30)
Burndy Penetrox (Post #431) (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=655858&postcount=431)
Occasionally some silicone (Post #30) (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=222684&postcount=30) except that it can ball-up under certain moisture or cold conditions while roofing tar stays the same
You'll never go wrong with these. :)

Has anyone tried using heat shrink tubing to seal their coax connections? I was thinking it would be good for sealing the connection between a coax pig tail and a balun (for connecting the antenna to the pre-amp) as it could be used to completely cover the entire F-connector and balun providing what I think would be an excellent seal. You could assemble the whole thing on the ground so that you don't need to carry a heat gun up the ladder.

I've never tried it Roger but I'd bet it would work. That stuff seals really tight! I wonder how easy it would be to remove heat shrink tubing and if there would be any residual material to clean up?

The thing about roofing tar is that you can scrape it off and clean everything up with varsol or paint thinner, and with silicone it is even easier to peel off with no cleanup afterwards.

a black sticky compound whose name I've forgotten. That stuff is tenaciously sticky, and far less likely to let water in than silicone.

I got a lifetime supply of it cheap from Active Surplus on Queen St.W in Toronto. It's about 3/16" thick, and has a foil backing.I'm very curious what that stuff is called! :)

That black sticky stuff I have is called Coax-Seal. It's a self-vulcanizing rubber material that you wrap on like tape and work with your fingers like window glazing compound.

It seals things up real good but if you ever have to disconnect something it's a royal pain to scrape off.

There is another product called "Aqua Seal" is made for water proofing electrical connections it is self amalgamating.

It’s one of the best water proofing sealers, but if you ever have to disconnect something it's also royal pain to scrape off.:(

Biggy

Roofing tar is a bit messy to clean up but it does come off. If a person has tested their connections and gear up on the mast before raising it, using the Coax-Seal and Aqua Seal stuff sounds great.

mlord, are one of those products the one that you bought?

What should I do to my new Channel Master 4228 to make it more weather proof?

hokie93, some things you'll want to do:


make sure that where the coax goes into the balun you apply some roofing tar to completely coat that connection. Some people use silicone caulk for that, but I recommend roofing tar.
if you're using a preamp do the same with all coax connections
put roofing tar on the balun input ends and on their connection points on the antenna
form a drip loop in the coax coming out of the balun so that it goes downwards about a foot and curves back upwards to where you attach it to the pole with electrical tape or else where it goes into a preamp, at which point it exits going straight downwards

Other than that, there's nothing else that you need to do. :)

hokie93,
One other thing. Do not use white zip-ties for holding cables to poles etc. They degrade with UV light (the sun), and will eventually need to be replaced.

hokie93, some things you'll want to do:


make sure that where the coax goes into the balun you apply some roofing tar to completely coat that connection. Some people use silicone caulk for that, but I recommend roofing tar.
if you're using a preamp do the same with all coax connections
put roofing tar on the balun input ends and on their connection points on the antenna
form a drip loop in the coax coming out of the balun so that it goes downwards about a foot and curves back upwards to where you attach it to the pole with electrical tape or else where it goes into a preamp, at which point it exits going straight downwards

Other than that, there's nothing else that you need to do. :)
Us professionals us self-sealing rubber splicing tape to weathproof coax connections. Available at any/every hardware store for 2 bucks.
Much better than roofing tar. We use roofing tar for sealing roof penetrations.