[Public-List] Drilling holes in fiberglass and coax runs.

[Rod Symmes]

In my opinion,  there are two issues here.  First you didn't address sealing the deck fiberglass so that any water getting between the feedthrough and the raw edge of the drilled fiberglass won't get absorbed.  Second,  water on the radials will have very little effect and they will dry off.  If water gets into your feedthrough fitting it can then migrate down into either the braid of your coax below or even the center conductor.  This will not dry out quickly and will both seriously effect your SWR and lead to corrosion even in fresh water.   I would  "goop" generously with an non-conductive grease before screwing the coax onto the top end of the feedthrough and then wrap with electrical tape [or even better - the self annealing tape]  overlapping each turn 50%  and start down at the deck and end on the outer jacket of the coax [ so that the tape will always shed the water outwards as it runs down the cable ]

Cheers,   Rod  (VE3RS)   sometimes maritime mobile on Georgian Bay

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I'm a little concerned that a wet deck,  
> especially with salt water, is going to degrade my SWR. On the other  
> hand, how different is it from soaked radials? Any fellow Hams out  
> there with experience on this one? I've borrowed an SWR meter and will  
> post the answer when I get everything working.
> 
> Greg
> 
> 
 		 	   		  
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