Rain water in my aerial socket.

[Panjandrum]

This is more a report than a question.

I noticed some weeks ago that there was a rusty mark just below my aerial socket. This is on the wall some 30 feet below a chimney-mounted aerial.
The cable from the aerial loops well below the socket and comes up the cavity wall to the socket.

It's pouring outside just now.
I heard a little oozy squeak from time to time from the general direction of the aerial socket.

At last I thought to take the socket off the wall to have a look.

The water is trickling gently down the INSIDE of the aerial cable and dripping into the cavity.

Tonight it is dripping into a tub placed below the removed socket.
Tomorrow I will remove the wire from the outside (we've gone cable long ago and the aerial is no longer in use).

As I've never come across this before, I thought I might as well mention it here to see if this is a first - and possibly to help someone else who may be puzzling over a mysterious damp spot near their aerial socket.

 

[GaryMo]

It's always better to use foam filled cable outdoors and not air spaced for the very reason you've experienced. Also air spaced is much more prone to damage from kinking.

 

[Panjandrum]

A bit of additional information.
This cable/socket was installed more than 20 years ago (before I arrived here) and has only started this kind of behaviour in the past few weeks.
It must be either global warming or the credit crunch

 

[aptsys]

It's always better to use foam filled cable outdoors and not air spaced for the very reason you've experienced. Also air spaced is much more prone to damage from kinking.

However it is still possible to get water dripping through the inside of foam filled cable. To prevent this happening again it is imperative to make sure you properly terminate the coax at the aerial such that water cannot get into the end of the cable.

A bit of additional information.
This cable/socket was installed more than 20 years ago (before I arrived here) and has only started this kind of behaviour in the past few weeks.
It must be either global warming or the credit crunch

You may find somewhere along the length of the cable the sheath has become damaged or the coax has pulled out of the balun on the aerial. Cables left dangling over or laying on a roof are particularly prone to this.