AHL: Boost Your Low-Voltage Career: Advancing Certifications, Project Management Skills, and Cable Testing Essentials

From copper to fiber , standards to innovation , this is the show that keeps you plugged into success . So grab your tools , turn up the volume and let's talk cabling .

Mixie's next Coming up real soon , april 2nd to the 6th . I just got in the new shirts , the new shirts , yes , for the Bixie Conference . They're probably saying , well , check , that looks like your regular shirt , but wait , there's more . When you look at the backside of this shirt , this is cool , that is cool . That's the backside of this shirt .

This is cool , that is cool . That's the backside of the shirt . I have a limited supply that I will be giving away at the Bixie Conference , a very , very limited supply . Okay , very limited supply . I only ordered , I think , 10 shirts , okay .

So if you see me early in the conference , make sure that you say hi to me and and , uh , you come up and ask for the shirt . I am also doing poker chips , poker chips . I'm doing a scavenge hunt . Let me pull up the media screen on my , my browser here , and then click live , I'm doing poker chips .

I've got , I've selected 10 manufacturers and I'm going to put poker chips in their booths . Hide them , and you got to find them . Once you find one , make a video or picture , put it on social media hashtag CBRCDD and the person has the most creative one will get a prize from me . I haven't decided what that prize is going to be yet .

So there you go right Now . Now let's get to the first question . Lord have mercy . Lord have mercy . So the first question came from Big Rude and he says with my Big C1 certification and over a year's worth of experience , why is it that companies act as if it's nothing ? A couple reasons here . Number one a lot of companies are cheap .

They want to go the cheapest way they can and the Installer 1 certification is the old apprentice certification . So a lot of companies , unless they're looking for an apprentice , they're going to want to hire somebody who has experience . So there you go .

Then the next question comes from I want to go for my Bixie 2 certification , but don't know if it's worth it . It is worth it . It is worth it . Also , if I go for my Bixie 2 certification , what field other than data centers should I go ? That might be why you're finding people who don't care about that .

Staller 1 certification if you're going with data centers , any installation company copper fiber , you know structured cable company they're going to care . They are going to care because they have bids that say they have to have a certain number of Bixie certified people on staff . So there you go , right , there you go .

Hopefully next time I can make it in person . Oh yes , only able to do the virtual this year . The cool thing is the cool thing about doing the virtual . The thing Bixie , my eyes bother me if you can tell the thing about going . The thing Bixie , my eyes bother me if you can tell the thing about going to the actual Bixie conferences .

They have these sessions going at the same time and a lot of times I want to attend both of them . You can't do that in person . The virtual one you can . You can cause . You can go back and watch a couple of times . So you can go back and make sure you catch all . That's the benefit of watching the virtual shots . You can actually go back and forth .

So there we go , all righty . Flip over to my question list . Question list First question , and this comes from Instagram . So , chuck , what are some key safety practices that I need to know as a new installer working with optical fiber . It's funny this question just came up because Monday's episode I talked to . I interviewed a fiber optic instructor for the FOA .

Her name was Jane Bailey . Real good episode . We actually talked about fiber safety there , but I'll review it again . Okay , number one make sure you dispose of your fiber sharps correctly . Okay , use an approved scraps container . I think I even did this last live stream right . Use an approved scraps container . There you go Now .

Don't use electrical tape or whatever backwards . Don't use soda bottles , soda cans , beer bottles , beer cans , parmesan cheese cans . Dispose of them correctly . Tape that thing up , put it in a bag , seal the bag Because , as Jane said in that show , if you're lifting a trash can up over your head to put in a dumpster , you don't want glass shards coming down .

Another safety tip is make sure that you check your tools , make sure that they're clean , make sure they're functioning correctly and , like Jane said , she's actually allergic to some of the two-part epoxies , so she's got to make sure that there's none on her tools .

Next question this comes from Instagram says what steps should I take to become a project manager in the ICT industry ? So assuming you're coming from the field . If you're coming from the field , you probably don't have very many project management skills . Immerse yourself , go watch project management videos on YouTube .

Go to you know a lot of people don't realize LinkedIn has training . You got to pay for it , but it does have training . So go to that , you know . Go through those classes . Maybe even get the project management method manual from Big C and read through that . Then there's nothing .

If you're in the field now and you want to become a project manager , there's nothing stopping you from acting like a project manager . Start tracking the hours used on the job , start looking at the schedule , start tracking the material and compare that to the bill of materials . That's just going to make you better when you do that , right .

And then also maybe consider about getting certified Again the PMP certification or the RTPM . I did several episodes on the podcast comparing , contrasting the project management professional certification , the PMP versus the RTPM . Just make sure that you go back and watch those , because they're both great certifications .

I'm always probably going to recommend , if you're going to stay in low voltage , go to the RTPM . That's my recommendation . And then also make sure that you network with people in the industry . Right , you know again , get on LinkedIn , go to Bixie conferences and stuff like that . That'll help you , that will certainly help you .

What certifications can I get just for splicing fiber that's recognized in the industry ? Okay , so you're not going to find a certification just for splicing fiber . You're going to find the two big fiber certifications is the Installer F with Bixie or the CFOT Certified Fiber Optic Technician through the FOA .

Both of those are going to give you experience with fiber , some Fiber 101 and some termination and some splicing background , but there is no specific certification . That just does certification just for supplies . You might find a manufacturer that might give you that , but not an industry certification . Great question , big Root .

Next question what tools should I focus on learning to become an ICT project manager ? Okay , I'm actually mentoring a guy and we're getting ready to do an estimate . I'm actually mentoring a guy and we're getting ready to do an estimate . So I sent him the spreadsheet and I sent him a fake RFP and he's going to generate a , an estimate off of that fake RFP .

And I told him how is your Microsoft Excel skills ? How is your your , your word document skills ? He goes I'm okay , you need to practice those up .

Okay , you need to practice those up because most companies we're definitely going to be using Word for scope of works , replying back to bids and stuff like that A lot of companies use Excel spreadsheets for their estimating . Okay , but there is project management software . That's the first step , that's the foundation .

Then you might want to start looking at other project management-specific software like Microsoft Project or Smartsheet . Last time I looked at Microsoft Project they did have some free trials , so you can kind of get to that and kind of play with it and figure out how to work it , learn how to do cost estimation skills . I mentioned I did a .

When did I say that ? Did I say it in a short video ? I don't remember I said it . I do have a , a practice estimating sheet that I will send to anybody . Okay , anybody . All you got to do is sign up for my newsletter and I will send you .

Now , keep in mind it is a practice spreadsheet not to be used for real world estimating , but it runs you through the whole entire thing creating a work breakdown structure , putting in your labor factors , you know , thinking about the other direct costs , putting in your crew size , your crew pay rates kind of get you through that process .

So if you're interested in that , again message me . I will send you the link . But you got to sign up for the newsletter to get a copy of that . Ok , also , make sure that you are really good at communications . If you're trying to become a project manager , all right , that means you got to communicate with people in the field your customers distribution .

That means emails . Can you write a good email ? Do you know how to send an attachment on an email ? Do you know how to organize and save emails ? Do you know how to create a folder in an email package so that way you can put all the emails from the XYZ project in that folder ?

Those are skills you're going to need to learn and a lot of companies have shifted over to either Microsoft Teams or with Slack and some project managers not a lot , but some project managers also have AutoCAD as part of the job description . Autocad and Revit , autocad and Revit .

Your best there is go take a class at a community college , because AutoCAD is not easy . Autocad is like Microsoft , adobe . It truly is right . So do I continue education with Bixby ?

Okay , so my answer to that is based on because big root because of your previous questions , is , if you're going to stay with cable installation , whether it's in a data center or working with a company , then yes , I would say , stay with the Bixie certifications and work your way up through the ranks .

If you're going into data centers to become a sysadmin or an IT person , maybe you might want to look at other certifications . But if you're going to stick with the cable side , absolutely , absolutely , stick with the Bixby certifications for copper and fiber or the CFOT for fiber .

Actually , I think the Fiber Optic Association even has a certification for copper installers too , if I remember right . Question number four what is the correct way to install a batch panel , okay , okay , there's lots of tips here , lots of tips . Let me take a sip of my tea . Number one make sure you mount the badge panel correctly .

A lot of times people are not paying attention and when they put the badge panel in it'll kind of be . They won't line up the holes , it'll be kind of leaning a little bit . Make sure it's straight . Make sure it's all within a rack mount unit . Make sure the if most patch panels have at least four screws .

Put in all four screws , okay , and make sure they're all the way down . A shielded patch panel you may have to follow the manufacturer's recommendations to connect that to the ground .

All right , you may have to follow the manufacturer's recommendations to connect that to the ground and then make sure that you label those patch panels correctly , make sure you follow the industry standards . I need to do a show . I need to do a show on labeling per the standards , because it would literally take 30 minutes to go through that .

Actually , I take it back to go through that . Actually , I take it back . Brother Solutions has a two-hour a free two-hour class with CECs on how to do labeling . Okay , now you start talking about the patch panel . You can't talk about patch panels , obviously , without talking about cable dressing . Cable dressing , okay .

And that's the next question from the same person how do you ensure proper cable dressing during the install ? I have done two shows on this . The first one I interviewed Sean Rep back in 2024 , february 2024 . Right and uh . And then I did another one where I had a panel with Sean Repp , all Green Lights and Lou Varvey .

If you're on TikTok , instagram and you like looking at this , I guarantee you've looked at their work . I guarantee you've looked at their work right . So the key is preparation , preparation , preparation . You need to think about how the cables are going to land before you bring the cables into the telecom room .

So , when it comes to patch panels , there's a couple of different trains of thought . There's one train of thought , because nothing in this data tells you how to terminate on a patch panel . But there are some train of thought because nothing in this standard tells you how to terminate on a patch panel . But there are some trains of thoughts .

One train of thought is when you look at the back side of the patch panel , anything that's going to land on the right hand side should come down the right side of the rack . Anything that's going to land on the left hand side of the patch panel should come down the left side of the rack . That way there's nothing . No cable crosses the center .

If you're doing that kind of a scenario , when you're addressing your bundles by the way , your bundle sizes should not be larger than 24 cables . You need to think about those numbers . You need to think about those numbers because the bundle that's going to be on the right-hand side will be cables 1 through 6 , 13 through 18 .

See , it's not 1 through 24 , like you would think , because the other ones are going to be coming down the other side of the rack , so you've got to think about that ahead of time . Another train of thought on how to terminate patch panels is to , if you've got multiple patch panels , bring the top one in .

There's cables in from the right the cables are going to the second patch panel . Bring them down and go to the left . Now the key with patch panels is don't exceed your band radius right and exceed your bend radius right , and again , that's four times outside the arm of the bend of the cable .

Real easy to figure that out Just grab a piece of the cable like this , do it in a loop , slowly pull it apart . It kicks out by itself . Don't exceed that bend radius . Okay , that's how you do that . You don't want to kink that cable going to the back of the patch panel . Make sure when you strip the jacket you only strip enough .

After you get done terminating that , as little of the pairs are shown , the general rule of thumb is for Cat 5E , cat 6 , a half inch or less of stripped untwist and then for Cat 6A the standards say same thing , half of an inch . But some manufacturers require even less . When you strip the jacket off the cable , I got a sneeze coming .

When you strip the jacket off the cable , you could have as much of the pairs showing out as you want , but when you get done with the termination , then you want to make sure that there's no more than a half inch from the edge of that jacket to the end of the pairs , and that's going to guarantee you performance .

And when you're terminating a lot of people don't realize this when you're terminating on the backside of a patch panel , instead of landing them , you know , instead of terminating the blue first and then the orange and then the green and then the brown . Well , the problem is now the blue is short and the brown is long .

That could give you some delay , skew errors . Land the orange and the green first , then do the blue and the brown . That way , when the pairs come out of the jacket , they're all about the same length , right , all about the same link .

So make sure you watch the other two videos I'm on with Sean Rep and the one with Sean Rep and all green lights and low volt Warby . Ok , there you go . So he says I just had to do over 100 patch panels in a day . My fingers still hurt from the screwdriver . Oh , you mean installing them ? Why didn't you use a battery operated drill ?

I would have , I would have . Somebody says here I take pride in dressing cable . It's my favorite part of pulling copper fiber . That's actually a huge , huge , controversial thing in our industry .

There are some people like Big Root and Sean Repp and Lovart Warby and All Green Lights that they love dressing cable and they well , I don't know if they love dressing cable , but they take pride in it . And then there's other thoughts too where people will say , well , why spend that extra time ?

There's advantages and disadvantages to both of those actually to both of them , right ? Question number six what's the best way to pull cables through conduit ? Number one inspect the conduit .

Make sure it's not filled with water , make sure it's not obstructed , make sure it doesn't have too many 90-degree bends , find out how long it is , find out where the pull boxes are . If you go by the standards , you're supposed to have a pull box every 100 feet . You're not supposed to have more than two 90-degree bends between those pull boxes .

Code is a little different . If an electrician installed the conduit , you might have a different thing going on . So what happens is you might need to use cable-pulling lubricant to reduce the friction to pull the cable through . Make sure that you use cable-pulling lubricant that's designed for high-performance data cabling polywater , clear glide .

Do not use soap in the bathroom , bury it Okay . You also may need or have to use a pull string or a fish tape . If you're paying the electrician to put in the conduit for you , put it in their scope of work to leave a pull string . If you put cable in a conduit , make sure you leave pull string Okay .

And also make sure you know how to operate a fish tape . There's metal fish tapes . They're available typically in an eighth inch , a quarter of an inch . There's fiberglass fish tapes . There's different ends . You can put on them to get around bends .

If you've got a really long bend , you can actually put a loop on a fish tape and send it in one way and a hook on the other side and then when they come together you can spin the fish tape . It'll grab that hook and then you can pull through . There's lots of things you can do . Just the key is pull gently and pull consistently .

Avoid jerking and forcing that cable . Avoid that because that will damage the cable . I told my company not about filling conduit over 50% . They looked at me like I'm crazy . Well , here's the problem , big Root , it's not even 50% , it's 40% . And that's code , not standards .

So the code says if you have three , 9.1 in the code book , if you have three or more cables , the maximum fill ratio is 40% , not 50% . 40% when you look in the TDMM they've got several charts but they really recommend 40% is the maximum . You always want to leave room to grow , right ? So 40% is in new buildings , right ?

Well , yeah , because anytime you put cable in a conduit , well , if you have an existing conduit in a building that's not being used , you don't want to exceed 40% in that conduit , even though the conduit was installed before . So the 40% is a code number . It doesn't matter . Just for see a lot of people get this confused .

They think the code only applies during new construction . Code applies 100% of the time . 100% of the time An electrical inspector can go any building they want , inspect anything they want , and if it doesn't follow the code they can cause problems for the owners . So the code is the code , not just during new construction but for the entire life of the building .

So 40% . So next time they say that route life of the billing . So 40% . So the next time they say that root , tell them hey , code says 9.1 . With three or more cables , maximum fill ratio is 40% . Tell them that they can go look it up themselves and that's been in the code for a long time , long time . Okay , hope that helped you , mr Big Root

. Next question how do you avoid crosstalk in twisted pair cables ? This came from Instagram . Okay , so crosstalk . Number one choosing the right kind of cable , a good quality cable . See what reduces crosstalk is the pair twists and how the pairs lay within that cable . Choose a good quality cable .

Don't buy cable from Amazon , I'm sorry , unless it's one of the big manufacturers , there's a lot of people putting cable on there that just is not making good cable . Another thing you can do to help avoid crosstalk is avoid having your cables near power lines . Okay , stay away from electrical cabling . Stay at least six inches away from conduit .

Stay at least five to six inches away from fluorescent light fixtures and mercury vapor lights and stuff like that . That all causes EMI and those are all found in the TI standard , by the way .

Another thing watch out , terminate your cables correctly and make sure that you again don't exceed those , untwisting those cables , and make sure that you again don't exceed those , untwisting those cables and don't use even though you can use tie wraps .

Well , specifically , the standard doesn't say you can use tie wraps , but it says cinching products or something like that . You can use tie wraps , just don't cinch them so hard that it deforms the jacket . You want to be able to spin the tie wrap on the bundle so that way it doesn't deform the jacket . Okay , question from TikTok , from Mike .

Code exists when the inspector wants to inspect . So if you're over or out of code specs , true , I mean . Well , number one , let me one thing here . Mike the electrical inspector is not the only AHJ , there's more than one AHJ . The other AHJ is the fire investigator , fire investigator Fire stops have to be installed per the UL drawing .

If they're not , that's considered a code violation . If a building catches on fire after the fire department puts out the fire , the next thing that's going to happen is the fire investigator is going to go in the building .

They're going to determine what caused the fire , where did the fire start , and if people got hurt , they're going to figure out why did they get hurt . And if you didn't install the fire stop system correctly , the fire investigator , who is an AHJ can hold you responsible .

So electrical inspectors are not the only AHJs and an electrical inspector can go in any building they want , anytime they want , but the vast majority of them are lazy and they're not going to . So that begs the question .

That begs the question If you know that an electrical inspector is not going to come in because the building is already occupied , even though it's not legal to do things a certain way , I'm not going to come in because the building is already occupied , even though it's not legal to do things certain way . I'm not going to get caught .

Does that make it morally right ? Morally right ? That's the showstopper , right there , right , the showstopper . Let me see , I got to run Fire one lab . If I used to run Fire , marshal carries guns . Yes , they do carry guns and they can arrest you , absolutely they can . If I used to run Fire , marshal carries guns .

Yes , they do carry guns and they can arrest you , absolutely they can . I used to be in the fire department . You've seen them . I've seen them many times . Good , next question the most common issue found during cable testing and how do you solve it ? Probably the biggest , probably the most common insertion loss .

Insertion loss is a measurement of how much the signal dissipates when it goes from one end of the cable to the other end of the cable . That's attenuation . We used to call it well , it's called attenuation , but now we call it insertion loss . So what do you look at ? There's a couple things you want to look at . First , go into the tester .

See where the cable length is . Okay If the cable length is not over the 90 meters or 295 feet . That's the first one , clear . The next thing is look at the connectors . Look at the connectors . Now , if it's fiber optic connectors , make sure they're clean . That causes insertion loss For copper cabling . Make sure it's terminated correctly .

The best thing I would say is cut the terminations off if it's not too long . If you've already verified it's terminated correctly , the best thing I would say is cut the terminations off If it's not too long . You already verified it's not too long . Copper , just cut both ends off , re-terminate it and then re-test it and that'll solve most of your problems .

Question number nine from YouTube what tools are essential for fiber optic testing ? A , a VFL , a visual fault locator I need to get me a VFL . Hey , if anybody's watching this show who works for a tool company and wants to donate a VFL to the podcast , I would be more than happy to use it and put it on camera .

Just saying VFL , visual fault locator it's a laser pointer that shoots light down the fiber in the spectrum the human eye can see . Vfls not that expensive . They run from like $25 to $200 . Just be careful which one you buy , because you're buying them off of Amazon . There are some on Amazon that are way overpowered . They can damage your eye .

Then you might want to look at your company , might want to look at an optical loss test set . An optical loss test set does three things it verifies polarity , measures the length and measures the attenuation . Optical loss test sets range $1,000 to about $4,000 . They're really good for certification . They're not so good at troubleshooting .

And then also an OTDR optical time domain reflectometer Pretty expensive piece of equipment . It's going to run $4,000 to $30,000 , $50,000 , depending on who you get , what bells and whistles you get to that . They're really good for figuring out where the problems are . See , an optical loss test set is just going to tell you you have too much loss .

It's not going to tell you where that loss is . And OTDR will , otdr will . And hey , I'm taking a class this year with the FOA and I'm taking their fiber optic class . Question number 10 . Question number 10 . How can I find the perfect job in the ICT industry ? Great question Number one . Some people will try to tell you resumes are dead .

No , they're not , they're not dead . Some people will try to tell you resumes are dead . No , they're not , they're not dead . But they have changed the way they looked over the last five years , 10 years , 20 years . So make sure that pay the money , pay the $100 , the $200 to have somebody create a resume for you .

Okay , and some people will tell you one-page resume , two-page resumes . It just kind of depends on your experience and your certifications . But get somebody who does resumes all the time to help you make your resume , because you want to show up when that HR person is going through that stack of resumes that thick , you want to make sure that yours sticks out .

That doesn't mean use orange font color or other things like that , right . Also , make sure that build your network , network , network , network . Go to the conferences , go to the . You know the local meetups , gray bar , annexure , they have , they do events all the time . They do counter days .

Go to the counter days , meet the people talk to , the get to know people . You never know what contact is going to be a benefit to you down the road .

And then make sure that you research the company , the companies that you're going to be looking to apply for , and get on LinkedIn and then ask the people , find the people who work for them and say , hey , I'm thinking about applying for a job at that company . Is it a good company to work for ?

It doesn't hurt to ask , it doesn't hurt to ask , it doesn't hurt to ask . And then also make sure that you keep learning . Keep learning . That's critical , critical . All right , she moves at the speed of light and if you don't , if you're not a constant learner , you will get left behind . Okay , you will get left behind . Why is it asking me to do this ?

So move that . I don't know why it's doing that . Oh , there we go . Bink , there we go . I don't know why it asked me to do that . That's weird . Let me see what questions do we have in here that I might have missed ? So , dr pepper , I fixed the muting issue . Uh , there it is . You can me now . I was only able to do it virtual this year .

So with that I'm going to sign off and remember knowledge is power .

Until next time , keep those cables clean , your standards high and your future bright . Let's Talk Cabling empowering the industry , one connection at a time .