On Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:16:45 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:32:46 -0600, Char Jackson
wrote:

Hopefully, someone who's done it will weigh in before it's officially
declared a good idea. I suppose you'd cap the top of the conduit to
keep most of the water and some of the critters out, or use two 90
degree fittings so that the Ethernet cable enters the conduit going
up, over, and then down the length of the pole. Or something like
that.

Argh. I've never seen it done by running the cables through the mast,

snip We were talking about a vertical conduit, not the mast.

The problems with running wires down the center of a mast are not very
obvious:
1. The top of the mast looked like a coax "fountain" with all the
cables dripping out of the top in all directions. It was truely ugly.

Single Ethernet cable in this case. When taken in context with the
looks of the concrete base and the overall appearance of a water pipe
mast, the level of beauty is not out of line.

2. There is no way to secure the cables except at the top of the
mast. The entire weight of the coax is supported only at the top. I
would have expected the cables to stretch slightly. Instead, the
sharp turn made by the coax cables going out the top caused the center
conductor to cold flow through the dielectric, eventually shorting the
cable.

Yes, there are ways to secure the cable but they haven't been
discussed.

3. If the mast is tilt over, as is quite common, the cable out the
bottom has to include a rather lenthy service loop. If you're going
to secure it short pipe stub, you run the risk of cutting the cable if
you lower the mast to the ground.

I haven't heard of any plans to tilt this mast.

Bottom line: Lousy idea.

You're probably right, even though each of your objections doesn't
actually apply in this case.