Electical Contractor

What would we do without them? Standards affect all of us, everywhere we go. The minute details of standards are required to allow widespread use of products and to facilitate commerce.

You have to admire the copper cabling people for their tenacity—they never give up. In spite of hearing for the last 15 years that copper has no future, they persist in developing new technology that allows copper, like the mythical Phoenix, to rise from the ashes as strong and viable as ever.

Since the fiber optic “bubble” burst a couple of years ago, employment ads for fiber optic installers have been scarce. But are real jobs still available? If so, where are they? Is the outside plant market dead? What about premises applications? What technologies are driving new installations?

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is an industry organization with paying members from the communications/telecom industry. They develop minimal performance standards for cabling and related hardware and installation standards for the users/designers.

When Prof. Samuel B. Morse tapped out that first coded message on the key of the new telegraph machine, no one could have predicted where it would take us.

Whenever tests are performed on fiber optic networks, the results are displayed on a meter readout in dB. Optical loss is measured in dB while optical power is measured in dBm. Loss is a negative number (like -3.2 dB), as are most power measurements. Confused? Many fiber optic techs are too.

In outside plant fiber optic installations, every cable installed will be tested for end-to-end loss with a source and power meter and an OTDR trace will be taken of each fiber. Yet OTDRs—optical time domain reflectometers—are rarely used in premises applications. Why is that?

Two measurements of optical power required Compared to Category 5e or Category 6, fiber optics wire is easy to test. A “flashlight test” can make sure the fiber has continuity and is correctly identified.

A good cleaver helps cut out costly mistakes To get good fiber optic splices or terminations, especially when using the pre-polished connectors with internal splices, it is extremely important to cleave the fiber properly.