Bloody rabbits ate the RF cables
My father worked as a radio astronomer, and his regular place of work was an observatory built on an old airfield in rural Worcestershire. It had a couple of steerable dishes, on railway tracks. You have to get the RF signals back to the lab, so the data can be analysed, and this meant long cables. In the early days, cables used to insulated with rubber, and this is apparently quite attractive to rabbits. I can't think why, but then I am not a rabbit, even though I admit to being vegetarian.
Dad's radio observations often had to take place at unsocial hours. One of the things I learned about astronomy is that it does not work according to office hours, synchronised to GMT. Anyway, the data would come streaming in, duly recorded, and then the signal would falter, and drop altogether, so ruining hours of work. Bloody rabbits.
I suppose it would be possible to coat the cable in poison, to deter the rabbits. From my knowledge of lethal chemistry, I would recommend cyanide, because it is very quick acting. You have kill the nibblers before they cut through the insulation. Slow acting poisons like arsenic or warfarin are no good, because what is the point of killing the rabbits days or weeks after the damage is done? I think chilli powder might have worked.