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I was digging in my garden and I found a wire coming through my garden underground. It looks old and dead, and I would like to take it off the ground, but the problem is that both ends lead somewhere outside my garden, so I don't really know where it ends or starts.

I called the TV providers and no one seems to know anything about it. Ex owner of my property is dead. As I found out by asking neighbors, some time ago (~50 years ago) this property (now mine) was bigger and included a shack and a well on it. This cable was used to provide electricity to both. Now there's a new house in that place and I don't know what's happened to the cable part which is under this house's property. They said, the cable comes from our house, so I'll try to get to the basement and check if I see it there.

It looks dead to me because I used a cable locator to check if it sees anything - and it doesn't. I'm not sure if it's a valid test in this case, though

It's plain black, no writing at all. I's about 1 cm thick (0.4 in), I live in Europe, Czech Republic.

It seems that I actually cut it a bit accidentally while digging. I found the cuts and I see the copper wires inside, as can be seen on the last photo. It looks 100% like the electric cable.

I believe it's not very safe to just cut it at both ends? I called the local electric provider, but they told me they didn't have anything in there. Any ideas on how to handle it?

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ivanko
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4 Answers4

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The images show a cable similar to a spool I have of "cable-in-conduit" which is used for cable television service. Typical cable television cable drops, from the service point (tap) to the house can be 6 mm diameter, but the c-in-c will be slightly larger. It's hard to tell from the image, but even if it's direct-bury drop cable, it's not dangerous.

Are you able to view a service point for local cable tv service in either direction?

Cable television drops are buried less than 30 cm deep in many cases and are easily cut by accident. Cable in conduit ostensibly protects the cable, but a sharp shovel and a determined gardener can certainly cause damage.

Consider to contact your local cable television provider with the same query you've posed to the power company.

Allowing for your edit, determining that it is a power cable of some sort, you can check for active current with an ordinary compass, the magnetic type, not the circle drawing type. According to one web site, for alternating current, the needle will vibrate at the frequency of the electricity, likely 50 Hz in your country. If it is direct current, the needle will point in one direction as you move it about the wire.

A more expensive method is to use a clamp-on ammeter, if one is available. That is sometimes inconclusive as it often requires to separate the conductors to ensure an accurate reading.

fred_dot_u
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    +1 We had cable TV cables running about 2" below the surface in two places in our yard in our previous house. This looks like the same thing. – Nathan S. Aug 23 '20 at 20:41
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    +1 If OP doesn't have Cable TV or Cable internet, then no problem! If its someone else's service, then it shouldn't be running through OP's land, – Criggie Aug 23 '20 at 23:29
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    The really thick CATV stuff often has foam in it. It feels lighter than one might expect, and if you bend it it will keep shape a whole lot better than the RG-6 cable used inside typical homes. – smitelli Aug 24 '20 at 01:06
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    @Criggie that is an unknown without searching the deed for easements. If there is an easement (or right of way) for it, then it has every right to be there. – Ecnerwal Aug 24 '20 at 11:47
  • @Ecnerwal Normally an easement would be up a shared driveway, or perhaps up a fence line. Going straight across a yard seems unlikely for a cable, though somewhat more possible for drainage pipes. You're right, it would be neighbourly to follow the cable, and try to ascertain the destination before going all backhoe on it. – Criggie Aug 24 '20 at 12:42
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    @Criggie that is not true at all, an easement can be anywhere. Sometimes, property lines are changed after easements are drawn up, or other factors change. They often run along the edges of a property. I've seen them run through backyard on the line between adjoining properties very frequently. – PhilippNagel Aug 24 '20 at 17:24
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    FWIW - Most cable providers worldwide (I used to run a NOC/TAC for one) allow DHCP connectivity if you plug this into a cable modem. In laymen's terms if this is still live, you plug it into a cable modem, connect cat5 to pc, you should have internet. Albeit most default to around 5kb (google will come up in 10 seconds) or some providers only allow you to their own website... But anyways if it is cable provider and it looks like it, easy way to tell if it works. – DMoore Aug 25 '20 at 05:21
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    Also @Ecnerwal is correct. The old hub spoke cable systems that were set up are a good examples. 10 neighbors may share a hub in someone's back yard. There is a chance that some cables may go right through a yard to reach the box. They certainly didn't dig these up around fence line (on purpose - as that is the most common part of a yard to be dug up by person or animal). A lot of this stuff was done in the late 70s and 80s in the US. – DMoore Aug 25 '20 at 05:25
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    @DMoore Well, given that neither end of the cable is on OP's property, the only way to plug it into anything would require cutting it first. – TooTea Aug 25 '20 at 10:14
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It looks like a direct-burial RG6 coax cable. Call your local utility locating service and have them mark your property to see if the line is in use.

Cut it without calling and you risk knocking out cable television and internet service to your neighborhood, your own home included, and you may face fines digging without having your property marked.

Chuck
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    +1 for "Call your local utility locating service". That should be the first thing you do! In the USA, that's 8-1-1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-1-1 – Ogre Psalm33 Aug 24 '20 at 19:01
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In addition to the great answers already given, another possibility is that it is a "locator wire" buried above a plastic pipe.

This is often done when burying plastic pipes for an irrigation system - a wire is buried right above the pipe so that a metal detector will show that there is something in the ground below. There are usually a few inches of dirt between the locator wire and the pipe so that accidental discovery of the locator wire during digging saves the pipe from being broken.

Last summer I worked with a crew digging on a property where some of the sprinkler pipes had such wires and other pipes did not. The crew ended up breaking one pipe that didn't have a wire above it, but managed to avoid a pipe that did have a wire.

Moshe Katz
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Is it possible you have an automatic irrigation system? It also looks like standard irrigation/sprinkler wire that goes from the controller to a valve.

rrauenza
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