[CS-FSLUG] Buried Coax Cable ID

[Tim Young]

  I'd second the vote for "Cable TV."  I have seen many wires buried 
this way.  Many of the shared coax wires are buried in tubing, but I 
have seen a lot of wires going to houses that are just a single wire 
in the ground.

How to test it?  Well, I would look around your house to see if there 
is an old cable connection.  If there is, see if it came in from the 
ground...  But what you are describing, with an inner and outer wire, 
sounds like a basic form of "coax."  The old 10Base2 network wire was 
similar, though it sounds like what you are describing is a bit 
higher gauge.  Any clues from where it is coming/going?  If it was 
coming from the sidewalk area towards the house, then I would suspect 
an old cable TV connection.  If from the house towards the back-yard, 
then an old satellite system.  If it is going from your living-room 
to the unmarked van parked on the street, then you know it was their 
wire-tap and they are screwing their silencers on their pistols and 
pulling black-masks over their faces as we write this..  ;)

I have never seen electrical wiring done that way, but it is 
conceivable that was something like that.  By your description of the 
insides of the wire, I am assuming that you have already chopped into 
it and did not lose power to your house, your neighbor's house, or 
electrocute yourself...  ;)

On 8/18/2010 7:59 PM, Ed Hurst wrote:
> Digging in the garden, there aren't supposed to be any buried 
> utility lines. Found something not quite 6" deep, a black coax 
> cable of some kind. Roughly half-inch diameter, very thick 
> insulation between the inner and outer wire, and all covered in 
> black plastic casing. As far as I can tell, this is some heavy duty 
> data cable from days of yore. I've seen the local phone lines, and 
> I doubt it one of them. Any ideas? Old satellite dish stuff?
>
>