On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 21:03:40 +0100, "Daniel Clarke"
wrote:

This coming weekend I've got to re-lay a patio which was taken up when we
did the conservatory install. But I need to run the TV Ariel into the
conservatory. The only problem I have is that the Ariel needs to go under
the patio. What can I put the cable into to stop it being damaged. At the
moment I'm favouring some copper water pipe. It doesn't really need to be
that large just thick enough to fit a Ariel cable in.

Copper pipe might not be a good idea for a couple of reasons:

1) The TV aerial lead is designed to work at a given capacitance,
reactance, and resistance. Shoving it into a copper tube is very
likely to change its operational characteristics. Whether or not this
affects the TV signal I can't say, but it would be worth trying it out
before you bury the cable in the conduit.

2) I would have thought it increased the likelihood of lightning
damage. If a lightning strike came to earth anywhere in the vicinity
of the property (it doesn't have to hit directly) then intuition tells
me that the copper pipework might pick up a lot of power. That power
would transfer to the aerial lead, and the aerial lead is connected to
the TV set. The TV set goes boom!

(why am I sat here singing to myself "the thigh bone is connected to
the, neck bone. The neck bone is connected to the, ankle bone...", ?)

You might be better using a plastic conduit.

PoP