Exploring the Intricacies of the Cable Installation Industry

I start off every single lash ring with what are you drinking ? What are you drinking ? I know it looks like I'm drinking muddy water , doesn't it ? But I'm actually drinking pear juice . I'm drinking pear juice .

My wife and I can a bunch of pears , I don't know , like 20 quarts , 24 quarts , something like that , and we don't put sugar in it , so it's just pure . It's actually pineapple pear . So it's a Florida thing , because you can't grow pears in Florida because it doesn't get cold enough . So it's actually pretty good .

I put a tiny bit of honey in there , not the whiskey , the actual honey , because , remember , it's after hours . You can be drinking a lot . You can be drinking alcoholic beverages . That is allowed . Saskatchewan is in the house . Hello Saskatchewan . How you doing , my friend ? You gotta tell me where is Saskatchewan . I had no idea .

I have no idea where that is . So before we get too much further along , let's get to the recap , because I haven't been on . I haven't been on live stream the last couple weeks . Traveling , had computer issues , oh my gosh , just anything and everything went wrong did go wrong over the last two weeks . But let's talk about the videos that we pushed out .

So we did a video on text giving . Mission 5 is the recipient this year . Hello Michael , can we catch up tomorrow ? Michael , I really want to get that thing done that you and I are working on . I really do . And , eric , you wrote my mind yesterday . Dude , I need to talk to you because I haven't talked to my mentee . I did talk to you .

See what happens when you get old . I did talk to you . I remember it now . So there you go . So the cool thing , ed , is it the old tech guy who's in the house ? Hey Ed , can you meet up or can you ? You said you got the conference , didn't you know how to get in touch with Colonel Dump , the bearded IT guy ? I want to do a Gigi3 on the show .

Let's set up a show and have you guys be interviewed on the show . Talking about the last show , so we did a show about text giving , where tech knowledge worldwide is giving voice and data security access control system . Away to mission 5 in Baltimore , maryland .

And again , people are kind of People are dead to donate labor , people to donate equipment , all that fun stuff . So really should think about doing that . Then the show after that I did an industry icon with Penny Downey really good good friend of mine . She's one of those people who likes to operate in the background .

Next week's show Next week's show is gonna I've got Brady on talking about a labeler , so you might want to make sure you catch next week's show . And I got a bunch of them in the hopper . I just would travel and everything else . I've just been going kind of crazy lately so I need to get all of them kind of scheduled . And so Tom is in the house .

Hello , tom , how are you doing , my friend ? Oh , one thing I do want to point out . One thing I do want to point out Next week , nika in Philadelphia , nika in Philadelphia I will be there . I will be at Nika in Philly . So if you're in the Philadelphia area , go to the Nika show . If you're going to the Nika show , let me know , come by and visit me .

Right , tom ? Are you gonna go to the Nika show ? If you are , you better come by and say hi to me . That's all I'm just saying , right , that's all I'm just saying . So , as I said , citations from San Antonio oh , love San Antonio , by the way .

With so many different technologies and specialties , how do you become proficient in them , or do you need to pick one and specialize them ? That is a great question , jordan , absolutely great question . So I refer to myself as a generalist , an RCDD generalist . It's like a doctor , right ?

So when you go to your doctor because you got a pain in your shoulder , right , you go to your general practitioner . They're gonna look at it and then they're gonna refer you to a specialist , potentially . So I'm a generalist . I know a little bit about everything right .

But you know , there's people who specialize in voice systems , people who specialize in data systems , people specialize in access control , voip right , all that kind of stuff . So yeah , there are specialists , absolutely there are specialists .

So if one of those specialists really excites you , I would say get your base certification first , right , and then get your RCDD . But absolutely you want to make sure that you get that right . So yeah , absolutely , that's a great question . I don't know . That was on my head today too , by the way .

So let's talk about the questions that are some special here . Ed Dillteck I chime in Ed says some specialize in DWDM , layer two and layer three . That's what we should talk about . The OSI model , that's it . Get in touch with Colonel Dump and the Beard IT guy and let's have a show about the OSI model . Yes , there we go , there we go .

So let's go through the questions . I got seven of them . I got seven of them . So here I got them all written down on my handy-dandy , extremely convenient , messy handwriting . So the first question is how many sheets of plywood should I put in the TR room ? Okay , that depends , right , that really really depends . Let's talk about some confusion that's out there .

Okay , technically okay . So codes are for safety . You have to follow codes . Standards are for performance . You don't have to follow the standards unless you're in a contract with a customer that stipulates that your work will meet and or exceed the standards , then contractually has to follow the standards . So let's go through those .

The code book does not say anything about putting plywood in a telecom room . It doesn't say anything , nothing at all . The standards tells us at least one wall should be covered with three-quarter inch AC grade plywood . One wall should be covered with three-quarter inch AC grade plywood .

Ac means that one side of the plywood is beautiful , the other side is not quite so pretty . So you want to mount the pretty one to the . The pretty good one's facing out . Look my brother's in the house , stole the wife's phone while at dinner and keep kicking out the knowledge . Big bro , that's my little bro right there .

Nice , glad to have you here , buddy , glad to have you here . If you have a question , put it in the chat box . I got you covered . So , going back to the plywood , the standard says one wall should be covered with three quarter inch AC gray plywood .

When you go to the Bigsy Best practice manual , the TDMM the it's a manual those tell you , two walls should be covered with three quarter inch AC gray plywood . So the answer is kind of ambiguous . But you gotta ask yourself do you wanna be good , do you wanna be better , or do you wanna be the best ?

If you wanna be the best , then follow the best practices . So Jordan is asking us to fire rate a plywood . So yes , it does have to be fire rate . Well , your local authority , having jurisdiction , may require it to be fire rated . So fire rated plywood , by the way , has a stamp on it .

So when you mount that plywood to the wall , make sure you put the stamp facing outward . Some jurisdictions are gonna make you put fire retardant paint on fire retardant plywood . If you do , you gotta paint all sides , front , back and all the insides . The Bixie recommendation in the ICT field guides if you don't have a copy of these , dude , get a copy .

Get a set Copper fiber general practices cost like 65 bucks , 75 bucks . So like here , show us the TikTok , people can see it . You need to get one of these , need to get one of these . And when you call Bixie to order one , tell them Chuck sent you . Okay , tell them Chuck sent you . So that way they realize I am making an impact in this industry , right ?

So , anyways . So the best practice manual says unless the inspector is telling you to put paint on it , the recommendation by Bixie is to not paint it because the chemical that they treat the plywood with it doesn't allow the paint to adhere to it . So their recommendation is don't paint it unless you have an HJ telling you you have to do it .

Now , getting back to that plywood , you do have to mount that plywood to the wall , right ? That's one of my mentees right there , mr Henry Yates . If you ever take a Bixie class , he might be one of your teachers . He's a really smart guy , really smart guy . Anyways , you gotta securely mount them to the wall . So you gotta use toggle bolts and fender washers .

Place them more than two feet apart , at least two inches away from the edge , all the way around the perimeter and then down the center . If you don't wanna use toggle bolts with fender washers , you can use galvanized screws .

The galvanized screws has to be at least a half of an inch longer than the thickness of the gypsum board and the thickness of the plywood . It's gotta go through both of those and get into the thing . Jordan points out that if you do paint it , make sure you don't paint over the stamp . Yes , I might have forgotten to say that .

Absolutely , if it's a fire rate of plywood with a stamp , do not paint over it . Make sure the stamp is facing outward . So thank you , jordan , for catching me on that , because that is absolutely critical . Now another recommendation by one of the best practice . Again , do you wanna be good ? Do you wanna be better or do you wanna be the best ?

Do you wanna be the best ? Follow that book , right ? They're gonna tell you that you should also use some type of construction adhesive right , liquid nails or something like that , right ? So , absolutely , what makes you a four ? Look who's in the house . Lo Vault Warby is in the house , mr Famous closet dresser himself . How you doing ?

My friend Glad to have you here . So that is the plywood question that I got right . So the next question is Chuck , can I run OFNR inside of interduct ? Can I run OFNR inside of interduct ? Ofnr optical fiber non-conductive riser rating . So the question is kind of maybe , right , maybe , because you didn't tell me if it was a riser or plenum rated area .

So let's kind of boil this down If it's a plenum rated area and you're using plenum rated interduct , then you have to use OFNP , right , plenum . You have a plenum cable inside the plenum interduct , inside that plenum space , because if we catch on fire , the heat will melt the interduct and melt the cable . So both those have to be plenum .

See where the confusion comes from . There's a lot of people out there that know the rule in the code book that says if you have a conduit going through a plenum rated space , you can put a riser or any cable inside that conduit . And that is true because the conduit's considered its own play , its own pathway , right , because it's not gonna melt that conduit .

So , oh good , anthony's gonna start doing some more content soon . Absolutely , If you don't follow Louis Vuitton Warby on the social medias , do so . He's what I call a closet artist . But even on my best day dressing up closets , I'm not as good as him . Or or Sean Wrapp or All Green Lights .

Oh , by the way , the electricians are coming next week to put the power to the new podcast studio . Yes , yes . So you know what that happens . Then it's gonna come to plywood and then everything moves up there and all the new shows will start coming from the podcast studio . Can't wait for that . Can't wait for that .

So , getting back to the OFNP , ofnr questions out of Introduct , if it's a riserated area , it's a riserated interduct , then absolutely you can put OFNR inside of it , okay . But you can't put riser inside of a plenum interduct in a plenum pathway . That's where a lot of that confusion comes from .

Next question Does armoured fiber need to be installed inside of interduct ? No , it doesn't . Quite often . Well , let's talk about interduct first . Most people , when they're installing premise distribution fiber , they install it inside of interduct . Now , why do we install it inside of interduct ? That's the real question .

The most common answer I usually get is well , we do it because of protection . Raise your hand . If you've ever stepped on interduct , let me know what happened to it In the chat box . If you've ever stepped on interduct , what does it do to interduct ? Just let me know in the chat box .

The two real reasons for interduct is A it's a visual warning to tell other trades to stay away from your fiber . If they break your fiber , we're gonna charge you a million dollars to come fix it . That's what that means . That orange tells them to stay away from them . And it's also a pathway for future fibers . That's the real reason for the interduct .

Now armoured fiber . For those of you who may not know , I don't have my sample here on my desk . It's actually packed away . I was teaching in Ohio last week so I haven't unpacked it yet . Armoured fiber has a metallic interlocking wrap . It's usually made out of aluminum , it is conductive and they designed it for industrial premises .

So you're worried about a fork lifting the cable or something like that . But the industry started putting armoured fiber inside of regular commercial buildings . Now a regular commercial building doesn't need to be as protected with armoured fiber .

But the reason they do it is because , even though armoured fiber is more expensive per foot , when you factor in interduct and your regular premise fiber , then armoured fiber actually becomes cheaper . It becomes cheaper . So armoured fiber kind of came as a result about that .

So generally you're gonna find armoured fiber by itself or inside of plant fiber , type buffered fiber , premise distribution fiber you all mean the same thing Inside of that interduct . So no , you don't need to put armoured fiber inside of interduct .

Now if you wanna have a future pathway , let's say you're going from one telecom room to another telecom room and let's say you're going through some closed ceiling space and some pain in the neck to get through there and you happen to have some interduct . Absolutely run the interduct .

Absolutely run that armoured fiber Pro tip 33 , though always leave a pull string or pull rope right . Always leave that pull string or pull rope , so that way you have a future pathway . So , yes , you can , but it's not going to negate that . So there you go . Somebody asks on the LinkedIn feed where in Ohio was I teaching ?

I taught in Cincinnati , or technically it's Covington , it's right over the river . I taught in Columbus and then I taught in Cleveland . So I taught in all three of those cities last week and boy , what a whirlwind . That was Holy . The lead up . There's a lot of driving , and you know , for a poor old guy like me .

So , oh , hey , before I answer the next question , make sure you pay attention to my LinkedIn feeds , because I got interviewed on two podcasts about two months ago . They just finally both got published . Graybar has a podcast , they interviewed me , and then there's another one called I Could Do that .

They interviewed me , and that one published out just like yesterday or today . So make sure you pay attention to my LinkedIn feed and go listen to those podcasts . And when you go listen to those podcasts . Make sure you tag them and let them know that you're there , because I was on that channel . It just helps to spread the word a little bit , right ?

Let's go to the next question . Chuck , can you explain the difference between a Mutewa and a consolidation point ? Yes , I can . Yes , I can . So what are the differences between a Mutewa and a consolidation point ?

Well , for those of me not know , so let's say , for example , you have an office that's got modular furniture , you have a building that's got a classroom with a lot of locations in it , and those desks are all you moving .

Well , instead of having to move those cables all the time , you can run a cable either through a consolidation point or a Mutewa , kind of depends . So what are the differences ? There's

lots of them actually . Let's go through the first one , the Mutewa . Mutewa is just a fancy acronym . It stands for multi-user telecommunications outlet assembly . It's a faceplate or a small termination block mounted on permanent building structure right next to the modular furniture . The Mutewa is an end user interface .

So literally , the customer will take a patchboard , plug it into the faceplate and then run the patchboard through the furniture , through the desk at the ladies desk has got all the stinky shoes and the heater and then plug it into the phone and into the computer . It is an end user interface .

Now , consolidation point what you're going to do is you're going to run a cable and you put it into a terminated , for example , like on a 110 block , and then you're going to run a cable from that 110 block to the drop . Now the difference is you're going to use a Mutewa , where the changes are very frequent , very frequent .

You're going to use a consolidation point where the changes are less frequent . Now , the reason it's less frequent is because in order to fix that with a consolidation point , you got to run a new cable from the faceplate to the consolidation point .

But that's okay , it's designed that way , because that way if they move the desk say the desks are like here , but they move them further away if you've got a consolidation point , you only have to run a cable from the new location to the consolidation point . You don't have to run it all the way back to the telecom room .

That's the advantage of the consolidation point . Another difference between the consolidation point and the Mutewa the consolidation point is not I repeat , is not an end user interface . Somebody asked me do I teach in Los Angeles ? I do not . Los Angeles is not my footprint , but if I can get enough people to do it , take a class .

I'll fly out there under the banner of let's talk cabling and teach a class . I've got a fire stopping class that you can take . So there you go . There it is . So the consolidation point is not an end user interface . Plus in your consolidation point , that is for passive equipment only . Passive equipment only Meaning if it needs electricity to run .

You should not be putting it inside of the consolidation point . Should not , absolutely should not . That's the biggest difference between the consolidation point and the Mutoa . One's an end user interface , one is not . One is just literally running patch chords , the other's having to replace the whole .

Another segment One is for when you always are making changes and the other one's for when the changes are very infrequent . Right , yanking C clips . I'm not sure what that means , brady , yanking C clips . I don't know . You got me . I have no idea what you're talking about . Okay , let's talk about this . My cable's failing .

My boss says it's because I use too much lubricant . It's failing because of insurgent loss . That would be the first place I would go , absolutely . Now . There's many reasons why cable might fail because of insertion loss . Moisture is one of them . But in order of things that I would look at , first I would look at the cable length Is it too long ?

And then I would look at did it run through a hot environment ? Right , because that can cause insertion loss too . Then I would look okay , is it wet ? So using cable pulling lubricant will cause your cable to fail if you put too much in there , because cable pulling lubricant is 3% solid , 97% Ready for this . Water , yeah , water , exactly .

Now the reason it's so bad is because when a cable gets wet let me , if you don't know this , you should know this the signal travels on the outside of the copper conductor . That's called the skin effect , right .

So it travels on the outside of the copper , right underneath the dielectric , and because the dielectric is resisted to the current , the electrons are pushed forward . So when a cable gets wet , the jacket gets wet , the dielectric gets wet . And think about this Water is conductive .

Water is conductive , so now the dielectric is wet , so it's actually easier for the electrons to go out through the wet jacket , right ? So when you're using pulling lubricant , make sure that you only use as little as you need to get it through that system as little as you need to get it through that system , right .

And because if you use too much you could cause an insertion . Also , also , yeah , tell this to my Tic-Tac Peep too Do not use soap as a cable pulling lubricant . But it works , yeah , but you know what ? It hasn't been tested .

See all of the cable lubricant manufacturers test their lubricant with the cable to see if there's an adverse effect on the cable jacket . Does it cause the cable jacket to break down or does it affect performance ? Dawn dish soap doesn't test their soap on cable because that's not the intended use .

So always use cable pulling lubricant that's designed for high-performance data cable . Never use yellow 77 on inside plant cable . Yellow 77 is for outside plant cable . My brother is in the room today . I could probably tell you that he's probably used a lot of . Did you use any yellow 77 today ? Peanut , let me know he's actually in here today .

I have my brothers in the room . I love that . You should attend more of them , buddy , you really should . All right , so the next question is Chuck , why is my fish tape getting stuck halfway down the wall ? At our project we're wiring up a church . That's probably because there's a fire break somewhere .

So yet , let me know , in your residential construction and your wood frame construction you have your wooden studs and about halfway they're gonna do a vertical piece of wood that's called a fire block to keep the fire from going up . Well , you ain't gonna get through that with a fish tape .

So what you really need to get through that is what's called a flexible drill bit , and they come in different sizes . I've seen three-footers , four-footers , six-footers , and they're bendable . So you get on , you go up in the attic , you drill down through the header and then you just kind of go straight down and you drill through the fire break .

Then you go down , you cut the hole you put your pull string on and pull it back out again . There's those flexible drill bits , though are not cheap . They are not cheap , so keep that in mind , right ?

The next question is and this actually came to me via phone call tonight Good old Rick Hauser , working for Blackbox , good friend of mine , we've known each other for 30 years , right ? Yep , wedging between the fire breaks , fire breaks , absolutely .

I've gotten it through there before , but if you're lucky enough to get the fish tape through there , when the cable goes through , the cable is gonna get crushed . It's gonna get crushed . So I just use that flexible drill

bit . Anyways , rick Hauser , he shot me a question today . He called me up and he's installing a Category 6A rated 110 block . Category 6A rated 110 block , they do make them . So , category 6 110 block , I'm sorry , category 5E 110 block . It has a row and that row has 25 pairs , so you can land either four pair cabling or backbone cabling on it .

So if you're doing backbone cabling , each row holds 25 pairs . If you're doing four pair cabling , you can get six , four pairs to one row , because six times four is 24 , right ? You have one open spot there on the end .

And then what technicians do is they put C4 clips all the way across and then they'll put either a C4 clip on that end or a C5 clip on that end to cover up that spot . Either one of those works fine A Category 6A rated 110 block , or at least the model he was working with . He was working with a Leviton model . That's why he called me .

There's only four landing spots per row , four C4 landing spots per row . They put space in between each of those to get reduced the effects of EMI , electromagnetic interference . So he called me up today and he said to me my multi-punchdown tool is not fitting on the C4 clips to seat them .

I'm like what I didn't know that See , chuck learned something new today . Chuck doesn't know everything . Chuck does not know everything . Chuck's a generalist . I'm not an outside plant specialist person like my brother is . I'm not a computer specialist like Ed the old tech guy is . I'm not a specialist . I'm good at general knowledge in communications .

So the Leviton 110 block , the Cat 6A block , when you're putting the C4 clips on them , you have to use the tool that's specifically designed for that clip . Because this number one , the spacing between the pairs , is different . A regular five-banger will not work on it . It will not work on it .

But the good thing is , if you've got a Cat 6A patch panel , you can still use a regular tool . It's only on that 110-100 that you have to use that specific 110 tool by Leviton 4 , that Cat 6A 110 chip . There , you go . Chuck , what happened to Cat 7 cable ? Is it still out there ? Yes , it is , it is out there .

Now , for those of you who may not know , we have Cat 5E , cat 6 , cat 6A , cat 7 , cat 7A and Cat 8 . Well , depends on which standard you're reading . If you're reading the ANZ standard , it goes from Cat 5 to Cat 6 to Cat 6A to Cat 8 . If you're reading the ISO standard , it has those and Cat 7 and Cat 7A .

So in the US standard the American National Standards are the ANZ standards . There is no Cat 7 . There is no Cat 7A . We go from 6A to Cat 8 . Because of that , you don't see too much Cat 7 installed in the US . Let me know in the chat boxes have you ever installed Cat 7 cable or Cat 7A cable and if you did , what kind of a customer was it ?

Was it a hospital ? Was it a commercial office building ? So in the US we generally don't install Cat 7 cable . When you look at the ISO standard , the International Organization Standardization , the ISO 11801 standard , they have Cat 7 . And they also have Cat 7A . Now the difference between Cat 7 .

One of the differences between Cat 7 and Cat 7A is the connector that they put on the end of that . The Cat 7 was a terabyte connector . It was a proprietary type of connector . The Cat 7A had an RJ45 on the end of it the way that the standards are written .

They always want to make sure that you put an APHC RJ45 for us old guys on those cables , because they want those cables to be backwards compatible . That way you can plug a 5E patch cord into a Cat 6 jack . You're only going to get 5E performance , but it'll at least work up to 5E . So they're always made so they can be backwards compatible .

So yes , in the US you won't come across Cat 7 too often . Cat 7 cable is a heavily shielded cable , which means it's a pain in the neck to work with . You better make sure that you bond it to a ground correctly . Let's see . Michael here's got a question . Let's see what Michael's saying .

Each time people see my post doing 25 to 100 pair cable on a gigabix or 110 blocks , I get a lot of . Why are you still using an outdated system ? Can you explain the importance of having this as a backup ? Oh , that's a great question , michael . Don't let Ed and I were just talking about this too just the other day . Don't let people get to you .

There are people out there that just they say stupid things , they say things that aren't true . And there are people out there that they're having such a miserable life that they want to bring you down with them . Don't let it get to you . I had somebody tell me one time that Cat 5e cable was gonna be around forever Forever . I'm like , yeah , no , it's not .

No , it's not cat 5e cable . Now it cats . Its cable performs those same forms , the same cat 5e cable . Because so many , so many people are not using it . Manufacturers aren't making it as much they're , they're not getting the the efficiencies of production . So the cost of cat 5e has been steadily increasing .

And once cat 5e , the price of it gets to the same level as cat 6 or above cat 6 . Which cable do you think a customer is gonna buy , 5e or 6 ? At some point cat 5e will go away . Right . Same thing with having to the cat 3 now . So you said 110 blocks and big blocks . I get that . I get that . I hear a lot that too .

With 66 blocks , right , there are some applications where that's just gonna be a better termination field , right , especially if you're doing like voice systems and stuff like that .

A lot , of , the lot of them still want to use VIX blocks and 110 blocks , and 66 blocks are still being used a lot , for example , like on fire alarm systems , security systems , as that , as that Demarcation point and as the as the interface between the analog , between stuff . Right , so it's still out there , it's still being used .

Don't let people see people operate from there with , from their own environment , from what they see . Oh , I don't see no 110 blocks . I don't see no big blocks . It must be old , they don't see the big picture .

See , because I travel all across the country and I talk to installers all over the place and because of the podcast , people send me pictures all the time I'm telling you 66 blocks , 110 blocks and big blocks are still being used and they are fine . They're fine as long as you're not trying to go . You know cat 6a .

Well , you can go cat 6a with With 110 . I am not sure . Can you do Michael ? Can you do cat 6a with Biggs blocks ? That I don't know . I'd actually have to look that up . I don't see . Told you Chuck doesn't know everything . Right , told you , chuck doesn't know everything . So Cruz Namada is asking me in the in the tiktok feed .

See , what is the best cable for eight camera 4k nvr . Cat 6 , cat 6a , both of those . If you want a future proof , it go cat 6a . You don't want a future proof , it cat 6 will handle that . Okay , cat 6 will do one gig . One gig up to 328 feet , right . So there you go . That's the best one for right .

Ed saying had to ensure the grounding on the rack and panel and Cable . Each pair has full on . It was horrible . Yeah , oh yeah , it's time to catch seven cables . So so Henry says yes , cat 6a . Henry's a big seed training delivery specialist . So if Henry says it's true , I believe it . He says there is a cat 6a gigabix block .

So see , I told you , henry , I don't know everything . I told you , I told you people said Chuck does everything , chuck doesn't know everything . Right , so there you go , let me see . You got another question coming on . Tiktok Depends . Fiber is always the best , but needs a media converter . Cat 6 should be fine . Yeah , absolutely , absolutely .

So , a lot of people the first thing to go to is always is always more . Five years better . Time has been a five years better . But you know what , when you factor in all the costs With with a . You know , the camera probably already has that APHC , a copper interface on it .

If you run a copper based cable , all you need the patch cord and , as Ed pointed out , if you run a fiber cable , then you have to buy a media converter , and you on both sides , because you got to change that electron to a photon to work on the fiber and then back to an electron again , right ? So you have those media converters .

Those media converters need power , right ? Those media converters can go bad , especially if they're mounted in a hot environment . Ed , did you ever talk to this people by the outside plant enclosures or outside plant the yeah , that's , I plan closures . Let me know so they can't go back . I actually I've got a show in the works .

I talked to true fiber yesterday . True fiber wants to come on show and I'm gonna try to do a show on on fiber media converters , fiber media . That should be a great show . By the way , I'm looking forward to it because that's another one of those areas that Chuck is not the best in . I have to actually go Researching stuff . So already , any other question .

I passed my 30 minutes . I'm at 632 , but I got 30 people on tiktok and I've got 12 people on the live stream . So any other questions before , before I kill the stream , before I kill the stream , looking forward to lots of good episodes coming up in the podcast here in the future .

If you have some idea of content , some ideas for content for the podcast , make sure that you I might've given you the wrong number . I'll have to double check that . If you have an idea for content for the podcast , get in touch with me . Say hey , chuck , this would be a good , good show content . What are fiber extension grounding best practices ?

Fiber extension grounding best practices ? I don't know what you mean by fiber extension , ed . If you're talking about outside plant fiber , if you have armored fiber , both ends have to be bonded to the ground , both ends . The easiest way to bond an armored fiber there's two ways actually . You can buy a bullet bond which we use on our high-peri-count cabling .

It comes with three pieces . One piece slides underneath the armored jack and it's got teeth on it . The other one goes on top and then there's a nut that bolts it all down . Then you run a number six from that over . That's the easiest way .

And then there's a manufacturer that sells a clip that you can strip off the jacket , off an armored fiber and it snaps to that and then you can run that over . So yeah , both ends of the armored fiber have to be bonded to a ground , right ? So why does both ends of a fiber cable have to be bonded to a ground ?

Because we're bonding the cable to give any voltage transient the easiest , quickest path to a ground . Take care , mr Brady , good seeing you , my friend , if you only bond one of the fiber into the ground , then that voltage has to go all the way through to the other side . So you want to give it the quickest path possible .

You don't know which side is going to get struck by lightning . That's why both sides have to be bonded to a ground . As you know , what the code reads is code says you have to bond armored fiber to the ground per manufacturer's instructions .

What it actually says and every manufacturer that I've ever installed have always said both ends have to be bonded to a ground . So there you go , on a cell tower . We had an engineer ask for fiber versus coax because the grounding was less of an issue . It is less of an issue if the fiber is what's called all dielectric , all dielectric .

All dielectric means there's no metal inside of it . Typically your outside plant cable has some kind of metal in it A to be detected when it's buried in the ground and B rodent protection . So typically outside plant fiber cable will have some type of armor wrapper .

There is a manufacturer who makes an armored fiber . That's not metallic , it's plastic . It's plastic and unlucky . I don't know if they make it for outside plant applications . I'd actually have to look that up . I don't know if I have my head . So there you go . All right , that was the last question . I'm already six minutes past my time .

Make sure you tune in next week for another live stream . Although next week's live stream is Thursday , I'm traveling on Thursday . Maybe I should do next week's live stream on Wednesday , that way I can get it in . And because next week I'm going to Nika , I'll be at Nika and Philly , so make sure you come by and visit me .

All right , everybody , until next time . Knowledge is power .