I wonder what you all do to weatherproof an external ATU, both
to keep the weather out, and also to prevent condensation within?

A small brick-built cabinet, perhaps?

"gareth" wrote:
I wonder what you all do to weatherproof an external ATU, both
to keep the weather out, and also to prevent condensation within?

A small brick-built cabinet, perhaps?

Buy a half dozen tubes of bathroom silicone from Wickes on your next meths
run and then cocoon your ATU with it, jizz the whole lot on it. That'll
keep the weather out.

Make sure to take pictures of the process, so you can do a write up to send
in to RadCom.

--
STC // M0TEY // twitter.com/ukradioamateur

On 16/10/15 16:41, gareth wrote:
I wonder what you all do to weatherproof an external ATU, both
to keep the weather out, and also to prevent condensation within?

A small brick-built cabinet, perhaps?


Suggest you consider a small heater,depending on free space in enclosure
Perhaps you can get an old coffee maker with a small (keep the coffee
warm) 230-110 V heater feeding it with 12V or about volts AC or DC.
resulting in a ¨warm¨ surface , keeping the inside dry.
Alternatively a suitable resistor will do for example one in a ribbed
metal housing with 2 mounting holes.........possibilities galore.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH in IO87AT

"highlandham" wrote in message
...
On 16/10/15 16:41, gareth wrote:
I wonder what you all do to weatherproof an external ATU, both
to keep the weather out, and also to prevent condensation within?

A small brick-built cabinet, perhaps?


Suggest you consider a small heater,depending on free space in enclosure
Perhaps you can get an old coffee maker with a small (keep the coffee
warm) 230-110 V heater feeding it with 12V or about volts AC or DC.
resulting in a ¨warm¨ surface , keeping the inside dry.
Alternatively a suitable resistor will do for example one in a ribbed
metal housing with 2 mounting holes.........possibilities galore.

Perhaps a 40W incandescent bulb, if one can still get them despite the
European directive that we mist all now use mercury-filled flourescent
bulbs.

Which reminds me of an interesting snippet from 37 years ago. I was involved
in
the software design for a SCADA system that interworked with the on-site
Strowger
PABX at a National Grid substation. Some of the uniselectors had been
replaced by Dekatrons,
which were still mounted in those battleship-grey enclosures. Inside each
enclosure was a 40W light bilb
permanently switched on because apparently the Dekatrons triggered more
reliably when a source of light
(or even heat?) was present

"gareth" wrote:
"highlandham" wrote in message
...
On 16/10/15 16:41, gareth wrote:
I wonder what you all do to weatherproof an external ATU, both
to keep the weather out, and also to prevent condensation within?

A small brick-built cabinet, perhaps?


Suggest you consider a small heater,depending on free space in enclosure
Perhaps you can get an old coffee maker with a small (keep the coffee
warm) 230-110 V heater feeding it with 12V or about volts AC or DC.
resulting in a ¨warm¨ surface , keeping the inside dry.
Alternatively a suitable resistor will do for example one in a ribbed
metal housing with 2 mounting holes.........possibilities galore.

Perhaps a 40W incandescent bulb, if one can still get them despite the
European directive that we mist all now use mercury-filled flourescent
bulbs.

Which reminds me of an interesting snippet from 37 years ago. I was involved
in
the software design for a SCADA system that interworked with the on-site
Strowger
PABX at a National Grid substation. Some of the uniselectors had been
replaced by Dekatrons,
which were still mounted in those battleship-grey enclosures. Inside each
enclosure was a 40W light bilb
permanently switched on because apparently the Dekatrons triggered more
reliably when a source of light
(or even heat?) was present

Clearly, you've been on a meths run this afternoon. Did you grab those tube
of silicone?

--
STC // M0TEY // twitter.com/ukradioamateur

On Fri, 16 Oct 2015, gareth wrote:

I wonder what you all do to weatherproof an external ATU, both
to keep the weather out, and also to prevent condensation within?

A small brick-built cabinet, perhaps?



Find something plastic that's in one piece, invert it, and put the tuner
inside. So the water just drips off it. A lot of those plastic bins have
covers, though upside down they likely might help water get in. I think
you're supposed to drill a hole in the bottom to cover condensation, just
a small one fixes the problem.

I once found a bunch of cable amplifiers in a garbage bin on the sidewalk,
those were well built for outside use. But too small for an antenna
tuner.

Michael

gareth wrote:
I wonder what you all do to weatherproof an external ATU, both
to keep the weather out, and also to prevent condensation within?

All the ATU's I have owned came weatherproof from the factory.

In areas of extreme weather, an inverted plastic trash can can be usefull.

--
Jim Pennino

wrote:
gareth wrote:
I wonder what you all do to weatherproof an external ATU, both
to keep the weather out, and also to prevent condensation within?

All the ATU's I have owned came weatherproof from the factory.

In areas of extreme weather, an inverted plastic trash can can be usefull.

Sadly, all of Gareth's trash cans are already in use as the last resting
places of various botched homebrew projects, ****ed iron castings and blown
up FT101s.

--
STC // M0TEY // twitter.com/ukradioamateur