Copper theft has been rampant at wireless sites, often causing thousands in damages for a few dollars gain to the thief.

Here’s a low tech solution to protecting copper grounding conductors. I noticed this unique approach at one North Carolina cell site.

crimp used to secure copper wire in conduit

Lawrence Behr points to a crimp used to secure copper wire in conduit

Apparently frustrated at losing copper, the cell tech replaced the all the #2 grounding conductors with new ones. They were slid first into ½” EMT conduit, and a crimping tool was applied every foot or so. This made the copper virtually impossible to pull out, even if the protected conductor was cut away. Silicone caulk was squeezed into the open conduit end to keep out water. It doesn’t look pretty, but sure will discourage the bad guys! Who says innovation is dead?

Copper Resource: https://lbagroup.com/products/copper-wire-and-copper-grounding

What’s your experience with preventing copper theft? [Add a comment below]

About The Author

Lawrence Behr

Lawrence Behr is CEO of LBA Group and is an accomplished writer and public speaker on radio frequency matters. His experience with RF and electromagnetic compatibility matters spans over 60 years. He is an RCA Fellow and an SBE Fellow. Lawrence is a long-time amateur operation (K4JRZ) and enjoys hiking and canoeing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Close