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Cabling Chronicles

LinkWare 7 –A good thing just got a lot better!

What do Albert Einstein and Michael Jordan have in common?  No, they’re not both LinkWare users… They focused on continuously learning and pushing the envelope even though they were already far ahead of everybody else. Just like our engineers who worked tirelessly to rebuild LinkWare from the ground up and make the best even better. Improvements include:

June 27, 2012

This one is for the ages! New OTDR redefines enterprise fiber testing.

By now you will have heard about the new OptiFiber Pro OTDR  and that’s a relief for me because I’ve been biting my tongue for a while!  Now that its been announced, let me share my impressions and an overview of what makes the product unique.  I will also include some links to more detailed information.  Take this from a guy that has spent five of the last seven years playing with OTDRs… I’ve used them all.  And this one is going to change everything!

March 14, 2012

For the Good Times. -Looking back on the DSP Series one year after the retirement of repair and calibration services.

March 7, 2012

Would you fight this speeding ticket? The 10% rule explained.

Ironically my desire to speed in traffic evaporated when I bought a real sports car.  But this story is not about me and my desire to push the limits.  It’s about you.

February 25, 2012

Cloudy days ahead!

Everybody is talking about the cloud.  Most of the chatter is about how it is changing the way we interact with data and our electronic devices.  But what those of us in the cabling industry want to know about is how the cloud can represent business opportunity. 

February 23, 2012

Re-upped!

I received my new RCDD certificate, good through the end of 2014, in the mail last week. My reaction was more pensive than the elation I experienced after first passing the exam in 2003.

January 26, 2012

Why a Cat 6A Patch Cord Adapter has that funny little “A” next to the 6

If you’ve seen a set of Category 6A  Patch Cord Test Adapters, you may have wondered why the “A” is subscripted.  It has to do with the standards that the adapters support. The little “A” denotes that the adapter meets the ISO/IEC specifications for a patch cord test.

January 7, 2012

The worlds most trusted cable tester reaches an imporant milestone

When I was a technician we worried about, bad cable, poorly performing jacks, and doubted our testers. The threat of ongoing callbacks and the risk of large installation re-dos keep contractors up at night. Those that have passed the test of time don’t leave much to chance.  But the contractors I know do make decisions based on trust. And trust is earned over time through a series of trials, tests and demonstration of performance.    

November 30, 2011

VoIP for the masses…the end of “voice grade cabling”

When I was a cable installer, we often built redundant networks for voice and data communications.  The data cabling was terminated on patch panels, and the voice grade cabling was terminated on wiring blocks. There are thousands of installations done this way.  And there were lots of reasons for it, including cost.  But I think the major reason we kept installing separate “voice grade cabling”  was that , deep down, the key influencers of cabling installation design didn’t believe that the end of voice circuits  would ever happen.

November 23, 2011

Encircled Flux still a hot topic in the standards

Fluke Network's fiber optic technologist Seymour Goldstein just returned from Melbourn Australia where he attended IEC SC86C/WG1, and ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC25/WG3  meetings.  I caught up with him this week and got a download from his trip.

November 8, 2011