We haven’t had much rain in the second half of the summer, but after two downpours, the radio fence transmitter started chirping, indicating a break. It stopped chirping after the first rain before I could check for the break. It didn’t stop the second time, so I went digging, so to speak.

Wet ground has usually meant one of the previous mends is getting wet or corroded and losing contact, so it is a challenge to figure out which mend is having the problem. Using some extra wire, I was able to isolate the break to the back corner where Fort Charlie is, but testing past mends found them all in good shape.

I decided the wire must have broken underground in a place that gets a lot of water and dirt gets pushed around, so I replaced half of the back line. I also replaced three mends with two in the process, using wire caps, contact cement, and electrical tape. The photos will give clues the next time I have to worry about this.

Having a straight line helps when locating the wire. I tied a rope between a sweetgum tree and the base of a privet bush to provide a guide. The yellow line indicates where the wire runs between the sweetgum, privet, and then up to the corner of the property, turning along the neighbors fence. The shovel in the photo shows the wire runs under the handle just at where the metal shovel begins. The green line shows the wire being one shovel length from the dwarf magnolia. The two small orange lines indicate the location of the two new mends with orange wire caps. I left plenty of spare wire in these locations to allow for future testing and re-mending.

See also: Radio Fence Repair 2009-11