The BICSI Cable Skills Challenge: Round Table Discussion with 4 Competitors

Step into the arena with Nathan, Sean, TJ, and Doug, seasoned pros who've mastered the high-stakes BICSI Cable Skills Challenge, and learn firsthand what it takes to reign supreme in a competition where every splice counts. This episode takes you behind the scenes of the ICT industry's most electrifying event, where camaraderie meets fierce rivalry. You'll discover the motivations that drive these elite competitors to push their limits, and the unparalleled sense of achievement that comes with conquering the expo's bright lights and pressure-cooker atmosphere.

Sweat the small stuff alongside our panel as they unravel the meticulous preparation that precedes such a prestigious showdown. Hear Nathan's perspective on trading fieldwork for business ownership, TJ's dedication to securing his spot in the winner's circle for a fourth time, and the empowering support Doug receives from his employer, fueling his competitive fire. It's not just about speed and efficiency; it's about precision, practice, and the intricate dance of patch cables and fiber splicing. Each narrative is a thread in the rich tapestry of the ICT profession, illustrating the dedication required to emerge victorious in an event celebrating the pinnacle of technical prowess.

Finally, gear up for next year's cable-slinging battle with insider strategies for acing technical exams and embracing hands-on practice. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a newcomer hungry to make your mark, you'll find invaluable advice on mentorship, understanding competition standards, and the timeless relevance of legacy cabling. This conversation isn't just about winning; it's about the relentless pursuit of excellence and the relentless drive to be the best. So, join us and get inspired to throw your hat in the ring – because when the stakes are this high, every connection counts.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey Wario Monkeys. Welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling. This episode we're talking the Bixie Cable Skills Challenge. What are the participants like, what's the competition like and what's it really like behind the scenes? Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, estimators, project managers, customers, even IT personnel. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're watching us on the listen to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five star rating? And if the show is not a five star rating, let me know what I can do to make it a five star rating. The simple little steps helps us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry.

Speaker 1: 1:10

Thursday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream where you get to ask your favorite RCDD and you know that's me questions about installation, certification, estimation, project management, even career path questions. But I can hear you now. But, chuck, I'm driving my truck at 6 pm on a Thursday night. I don't want to get into an accident. I got you, they're recorded, so you can watch them at your convenience, when it's safe for you to do so. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, would you mind clicking on that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can even schedule a 15 minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course.

Speaker 1: 1:53

So, like I said, the Big C Cable Skills Challenge. That's where the best of the best of the best of the best to use a men in black colloquialism come to me to compete. But what's it really like? What are the competitors really like? What's it like behind the scenes? I've got a special round table of participants in the Big C Cable Skills Challenge this year and we're going to cover this. I got some tough, hard-hitting questions, so I hope they're up to speed. I hope they're good at shooting from the hip with questions that they are terminating fiber. So I want to welcome to the show tonight four special people, all participants in this year's Big C Cable Skills Challenge. Gentlemen, why don't you go ahead and go around the room and just introduce yourself and give us the 15, 20 second. Who are you, nathan? I'm Lover.

Speaker 3: 2:48

Madison, wisconsin. I currently run my own business home run cabling and technologies. Been doing it about 25 years. I've been a Big C member about 10 years and yeah, that's basically it.

Speaker 4: 3:05

Mr Sean Sean Rep, Kansas City. I work for Envision Technology Group. I am a project manager for them. I've been a Big C member since 2017.

Speaker 1: 3:25

Who are you rooting for in your Super Bowl? Just out of curiosity.

Speaker 4: 3:28

I mean 49ers, but I wasn't upset that the Chiefs won DJ.

Speaker 5: 3:36

I am TJ Paite, the current Cable Skills Rating Champion, three-time winner, two times back-to-back, one, one time in 2020, but then Michael Ratliff won in 2021. 22, since we didn't have a 21,. Then 1 in 23 and then 1 in 24. I work for Florida Cowarin Light here in the 70th and Ball City, florida, and I actually work right now on a splice trailer on a transmission line working on some OPGW fiber that we're bringing into a solar site.

Speaker 1: 4:11

And future show topic. Just saying, Just saying Stay tuned.

Speaker 3: 4:16

Doug, you look a little chilly today, doug, it's cold in Florida.

Speaker 1: 4:21

Don't let people fool you. I got goats with sweaters on right now it's cold in Florida.

Speaker 5: 4:26

It got to 60. Sorry Doug, it's 60 degrees right now. That's why I'm in my parking lot.

Speaker 1: 4:32

Okay, doug, good.

Speaker 6: 4:33

Sorry to interrupt you, doug Sherwood, here, 29 degrees, columbus, ohio. I'm a data center team lead. I work for CVE. I've been in the field since about 1997. Got my Bixie Technician in 2004. So that's me.

Speaker 1: 4:57

I got to say I'm impressed because it's a wide range of people I was expecting. Like somebody, everybody say, oh, I'm a technician, no, we got a project manager, data center lead, a business owner and then the has anybody ever? Are you the only one who's won back to back TJ, or did somebody else win back to back too?

Speaker 5: 5:14

No, Michael Ratliff won back to back and then he won back to back and then set a lull I didn't win one. And then he beat me the next year and then the very first Three years was won by the very first three years of the K-1 skills challenge was won Individual. He won it three times and then there's only three people that won it three times.

Speaker 1: 5:45

I know two of them. Yes, actually, yeah, do not do them. So let's go around room, let's, let's find out what motivated you to compete in this competition. I get asked, I got asked several times at the conference how come I wasn't in it? And you know I have an old war injury that I've got a hobble, so I can't, I can't really participate in it, you know, because of that war injury. But you know, nathan, what motivated you to do it?

Speaker 3: 6:08

Well, you know, going back to when I was just getting started doing this, like 2000, we always thought there should be a competition like this, even before Vixy started doing this. Because you know there's competition in between the guys or the crews at work and you know Everyone likes to talk a lot of game. But you, you get down to, you know, under the bright lights of the Expo Center and they're Looking over your back and taking notes and timing.

Speaker 1: 6:39

You and You're, really you're really the rubber meets the road right, exactly Right and you're so spot-on because I got to attend the Nica show and Philly this year. My day job my day job sells electrical product. So I got invited there to talk about low voltage stuff and I was kind of like why am I going to this electrical thing? I'm a low volt guy, right, electricians don't like low volt guy, but yet I had I had the second most amount of contacts at that meeting because I knew how to push the guys buttons. I'd see two guys walking down the aisle. I'll say, hey, which one of you terminates faster? And Know the what I do? Oh, I don't know. Come on over here, improve it. Guys are competitive. They truly are competitive. So this is your first time, right? Yes, what motivated you to to jump into the fray?

Speaker 4: 7:28

Kind of like what Nathan said there's. There's always been like a healthy competition out in the field a lot of times instigated by me, probably, but and I've all that I've. Back back in the day seamons used to have some competitions and stuff and I want a few of those. And then my, my bosses would go to the big see winter conference and tell me that they had a scapelly cabling skills challenge and it's just always something I wanted to do and try.

Speaker 1: 8:03

I know one skill challenge that they had in the skills in the in the big see cable skills challenge you'd win cable dressing, cable dressing.

Speaker 4: 8:14

Two cables or three, three cables.

Speaker 1: 8:18

Don, sean's got that, dad, he's got that dialed in, buddy dialed in. I heard a little birdie tell me, though, that TJ's got the fiber dialed in. Jj. What motivated you?

Speaker 5: 8:32

Well, I honestly I wanted to win it three times and Michael Ratliff was on me about listen, there's only two of us in this club. We need a third person. And I wanted to challenge myself again, knowing that I've worked on my skill set and how much fiber work I've done in the last year and how much better I'm trying to make myself doing fiber work. And I said I can do this. So I knew what I needed to do going in. I need, I knew what I needed to prep myself with and I said you know what I can do this.

Speaker 5: 9:04

And Then a little birdie told me that Sean was gonna be there. I did my due diligence about Sean and I said, oh, oh, I really got a tighten up. And then all of a sudden, I heard my boy, nathan, was gonna be there. I'm like, oh, here we go. And then Doug's right there on my heels. I taught Doug into competing and boom, there's Doug, you know, right there too. So I knew we had a great skill set of technicians going this year and I wanted to know if I could come out you know above and compete with the best that we had out there. And there were some fantastically skilled technicians there this year Can't take nothing away from me and the guys.

Speaker 1: 9:40

So, doug, what motivated you to compete in this thing?

Speaker 6: 9:44

So, uh, I have. I'm a competitor. I've been a competitor for years. Uh, I've always wanted to get involved with the cabling skills challenge but have never had the backing of uh where I've been employed. And uh, getting involved with uh scheme alignment and JTAs uh with the with the Bixie corp Uh, and getting getting involved with the RCSC, with uh TJ uh talking with him more about it Uh motivated me a little bit to uh take that next step and ask, ask uh CVRE to kind of sponsor me to to be able to come to the event. And there I was so very exciting.

Speaker 1: 10:33

Maybe you can tell me this, TJ do they announce a runner up or a second or a third place, or is it just the winner take all?

Speaker 5: 10:40

No, it's. It's just like your Bixie test, right? So anytime you take any kind of test for certification with Bixie, no one sees their scores. No one does. So we don't get to see the score until we all gather around David Richardson and at the end of the night, after they announced the winner, and then everyone can see their score. He'll have it on his phone, on a spreadsheet, but after that no one sees it. There's no option to see it. Um, they will send out a prize pack for the bill award. You know, first place technician, first place uh fiber and then first place copper. Um, because they compete on their own individual levels. But anyone can win it. You know, an installer one can win it. You don't have to be a technician to win it. It's, it is fair game for anyone. As long as you have a credential, an installer one can come in, do the work and and installer one can win it. But that's the only time we get to see is right then, and then after that no one knows.

Speaker 1: 11:35

So the next question I want to go around the panel is. You know what specific skills or techniques do you think the showcase? The showcase showcased your skills in this challenge, starting over you, nathan.

Speaker 3: 11:46

Well, I did win one event, um, for the uh patch cable, uh, construction, and uh, that's um, I don't know if it's really where I've my strong point is necessarily. But, like I said, I run my own business now, so I'm I'm kind of out of the field as much as I used to be. I competed before in 2019, 2020. Um, I know I did a little better this year, but I didn't. I didn't get to see the scores after, I didn't wasn't hanging around too much later because my family had come down. So, um, it was cool to actually to win something. I, even though I didn't get the gold might, while I was gone, my guys made me a golden keystone.

Speaker 6: 12:32

As long as the installation prize Love it Love it, love it, love it.

Speaker 1: 12:36

That's cool, so DJ your turn. What specific skills or techniques did you showcase during the challenge?

Speaker 5: 12:44

I think this year my biggest, my biggest showcase was probably the fiber um with the, the fiber assembly where we had to put uh SoC is the splice on connectors, and then one side was a splice on connector and then your other side was a uh corning, uh unicam, so we had to put that in and then they tested it and then, once they tested it, we had to cut it in half and put it in a mechanical splice Um, even though you know we don't do a lot of mechanical splices I don't do any mechanical splices but it really showcased what we were doing and you know, with the amount of fiber that I've been uh able to work on this past year, it really it really showed where I got to show off and um, and probably second to that would be the cable terminations, not the event A but event B that actually ended up winning Um.

Speaker 5: 13:38

I was able to, you know, use my softening tool, the cable master 210, to help me because I actually landed the cable wrong. But I tested it and saw that I had it landed wrong. I had to move it because I just in a hurry, you know, mislabel. It happens to everybody. But yeah, most definitely my fiber.

Speaker 1: 13:56

So was this your first time at this event, or are you a repeat show, a repeat competitor?

Speaker 6: 14:00

First timer, first timer. So, uh, it was definitely, I would say, a little challenging, a little humbling experience for me. Uh, I would say event B, the 25 pair, terminating. That uh probably was my strong suit, only because, uh, we used I used to build out buildings with, uh, you know, a lot of 200 pair going throughout the building, uh, the patch, patch cords. Creating the patch cords, uh was interesting. Uh, I really have done a lot of fiber, but where I fall short is I haven't done a lot of fusion splicing in my life. So, uh, even though I knew a little bit about the, the splicing, or the, the fiber itself, uh, getting my hands on a fusion splicer for the first time was, uh, very interesting.

Speaker 1: 14:49

Was the first time you got your hands on a fusion splicer was at the event. Uh, pretty much yeah.

Speaker 6: 14:56

I mean actually doing it. I took a Lipergate class but actually doing it and people watching and all that. This was the first time Really haven't had to do a lot of fusion splicing. We actually outsource that most of the time.

Speaker 1: 15:14

It's totally different when you're doing in a classroom as opposed to when someone's looking over your shoulder. Totally different, totally different. Yeah, welcome back, mr Sean. Sorry about the connectivity issue there, my friend. So we're going around the room and we were talking about what specific skills or techniques that you have to showcase during the challenge.

Speaker 4: 15:34

Event A and event B. You know copper, fibers, Fiber, I've done a lot of fiber but I've never used the UCL Swift, I never used the.

Speaker 2: 15:51

Ilson.

Speaker 4: 15:51

Tech. I'd never used any of the fiber splicers that they had, same with the tester. I'd never used the Expo, and so I was just kind of learning on the fly. But UCL Swift, they had those new ins there that nobody had done before, so that kind of made me feel a little bit better.

Speaker 6: 16:13

That was cool.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Yeah, yeah, I really loved it. But the good news is, if nobody's ever touched them before, that means none of the other competitors have touched them either, right? So they put everybody on the same playing field.

Speaker 5: 16:23

Yeah, yeah, sumitomo had their brand new Lynx2 LCMs there too, Right.

Speaker 1: 16:32

All right, so let's go to the next question. All right, so you guys are now experienced competitors in the Kiblin Skills Challenge. What skills do you take away from that Skills Challenge that's going to help you in your day-to-day job. Starting off with you, Nathan, I think you know, it's probably just to refresh on some of this stuff, you know.

Speaker 2: 16:56

A lot of us have, you know, taken these tests years ago.

Speaker 6: 17:00

And you know as much as you were able to soak up enough to pass the test is sometimes the last time you look at that book.

Speaker 3: 17:12

So it was good to do a little refresh before the written test. And it's going to be. I'm hopefully going to be testing for the RCDD shortly, so Sweet, nice, awesome, nice.

Speaker 1: 17:27

You know I've run several RCDD study groups. I'm currently in one right now, but I've also just launched there's not a study group for technicians, so I launched a group on Facebook and I've put out some questions up there. It's still building momentum, but you know what those technicians need love. And installers need love too, because it's not. You know, reading that book. It's a manual, it's a challenge. It can be a challenge Because you're used to doing it a certain way in the field. Now you've got a book telling you You've got to do it a different way, but not really telling you why you're doing it that way and why that way is better.

Speaker 4: 18:04

Yes.

Speaker 1: 18:05

See, that's where the instructor comes in. That's where the instructor says yeah, I understand, you're taught this way. Here's the correct why and here's why this is a better way. The book doesn't go that extra step, you know. That's why I created that Facebook group for everybody. So we'll see if we'll see if it gathers momentum. So who do we leave off with? So it was Nathan. Says TJ's turn.

Speaker 5: 18:23

My biggest takeaway was for me in which, as I struggle with this day to day, is my just slowing down and real attention to detail. On the optical loss test set event, I forgot to write down, well, the OTDR event. I forgot to write down if it was a splice, a mechanical or fusion splice or a made-it-pair, and I forgot to write that down Even though I knew I needed to say, all right, that's a splice, ok, that's a fusion splice, that's a made-it-pair. I didn't write it down. I wrote all the other values down. The DV losses the reflection, the attenuation is as small the details and the details are what matters, and that's what I'm focusing on now is the details. Maybe try to get the details right.

Speaker 6: 19:09

Doug your turn. Honestly, I think you kind of touch base a little bit on it is after you get qualified as technician, installer, copper, fiber, whatever you kind of create your own habits, you do your own thing, you establish how you want to do cabling. But when you enter that arena and you're challenging yourself in the competition, it's no longer how you do it. You have to adjust to how the It'sim tells you to do it and if you don't, you lose points, you get docked. I think that's where I need to focus is and adjust, I guess my self to become a better technician.

Speaker 1: 20:00

So Sean, your turn. I don't know if you heard the question because you had connectivity issues. You dropped out, came back in. I was asking do you believe participating in cable skills challenge like this enhances your expertise in structured cabling?

Speaker 4: 20:14

For me. This being my first year, I really didn't know what to expect. And so, day one going in to take the written exam, I knew that wasn't going to be easy, but just that, I think it was the very first question. I was like this, this is just ridiculous. And then the first three.

Speaker 2: 20:37

First three questions luckily it got a little bit easier. But I feel like they were just trying to get into my head.

Speaker 4: 20:44

It was very intimidating. And then also at the beginning, them saying that they opened it up to international this year and there was people from Japan there that had to win the same competition in that country to be able to compete in this one, and it was just very intimidating, and so I wasn't sure how I was going to do. Like just I do this stuff all day every day, and at first I was kind of frustrated with just how I was messing up the simplest things, and then that's the competition part there.

Speaker 1: 21:17

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 21:18

And then, yeah, I remembered what TJ had said in his last podcast about how it's really just you're competing with yourself and so you know, just kind of not taking yourself so seriously and just kind of taking a breath, and you know, event B went a lot better, so you guys, you keep saying event A, event B, what are event?

Speaker 1: 21:47

what is it? Person who's watching hasn't looked at the page yet. What's event A? What's event B? In all the other events I'll let them see. Let's go around the room, Nathan. You pick one.

Speaker 3: 21:58

Tell us what one of the events are well, event a was what a couple of cats. Six cables from the patch panel down to a wall outlet and Also to an access point location.

Speaker 1: 22:18

TJ. What was event B?

Speaker 5: 22:20

That B was you had to land a 25 pair from a fires, bring it down from a fire stop. Land a 25 pair in a 110 block. Then land a cat 5e Like a wall outlet on a different row on it, 20 on a 110 and then run your cross, connect and Bond your ladder rack to the ground bar and then make your connection for your WAP.

Speaker 1: 22:45

Did you have to fire? Stop the fire. Stop assembly too, or was it already fire? Yes, yes.

Speaker 5: 22:50

So one fire stop is a regular standard four inch sleeve with putty and they provide the putty, and your other is an STI Speed sleeve to where you don't have to do anything. I, you know, I love those speeds, those sleeves, because that they're sitting there super easy, not the drop top it. But, doug, didn't you win a speed challenge? I remember that well, sorry.

Speaker 6: 23:16

It was a battle between me and Nathan. I think Nathan was gracious gracious enough to To hand me the W, but we were going back and forth, but yeah, I think it was like 3.6 seconds. It was kind of fun it was. It was a fun event but I was kind of short. It was hard for me to to get the cabling through the sleeves. Uh quick, but uh yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:44

So what's event C? If there is there, is there event C, I'm assuming yep all the way to H.

Speaker 5: 23:50

Event C was fusion and mechanical splicing. And then you had a event C, also that was supplemental, your supplemental fusion splicing. D is cable assembly that Nathan won. Event E1 is cable troubleshooting the table of death. E2 is troubleshooting Testing a fiber link with OTR. In event F is your fiber link testing With their OLTS test set. And then event H was your competency exam.

Speaker 1: 24:43

You know the trophy now.

Speaker 5: 24:46

You know, if I was at home I was gonna have my the check in the background and you know and that Kind of like the interview you did last time.

Speaker 5: 24:54

Yes, yes. So event E, the cable troubleshooting was the whole table where they had cable assemblies and fiber cords. You know, I did identify 25 pair blocks, possibly a 50 pair block. You know there's all kinds of stuff, big block and Crohn's block, but then you also had to, you know, say if it was good or not and why it was good or why it was bad. Event E yeah, then F and then H was the comes, the exam. I'm sure we missed something somewhere, but nothing I did not prepare.

Speaker 1: 25:34

I think we got all of it. So let's, let's shift the conversation. You know, one of the things I heard when I was Talking to everybody at the big event was how they went back and listened to the show that you and I did TJ a year ago To help prepare for the show. So let's, let's help the. The people are gonna compete against you, maybe next year. I'll leave that. I'll leave that to be determined later. But what, what advice would you have for somebody who's gonna try to compete in next year's cable skills challenge? Start off with you, nathan.

Speaker 3: 26:08

Read the it's some front to back. Join the.

Speaker 1: 26:12

Facebook group with the big C technician to Facebook group, where we helping people with that right now. Shame was plug, shame was plug.

Speaker 3: 26:21

Yeah, no, I. I did brush up a bit before the night before the written exam, because it's been a while since I've taken one. So it's just, it's preparation. Watch, watch the podcast and and listen to our advice.

Speaker 1: 26:39

There you go. One of the things I want to do is I want to in the RCD study group. I've got practice exam questions written up for those people who are in the class. They're not actual RCD test questions, because I don't know what they are and don't have access to them. They're just questions that I come up with till people kind of gauge how their studying is going. I'm probably gonna do the same thing with the it's a manual and put and start making that available in that Facebook group. Tj, what piece of advice do you have for your next year's competitor?

Speaker 5: 27:05

If you didn't get to see the Cable and Skills Challenge, for being there. See if you can see any footage I'm sure there's all kinds of footage floating around of the Cable and Skills Challenge to get an idea of what you're going in. So you don't go blind. But also talk to a past competitor, almost like a mentorship, say, hey, what do I need to do? Coming in blind, Me and Doug talked a lot about. Hey, doug, you need to prepare yourself.

Speaker 5: 27:33

This is event A, event B. We went over the basics of everything that Bigsy gives you and I helped him prep as best I could. Even though Doug's my boy, I'm still a competitor at heart. So I mean I help, but I mean there's. You know, you can only help so much and then it's a learning curve. After that, my same learning curve. What I helped Doug is as much as I could to help prepare him, to give him an idea of, hey, this is what we're doing. When you come in for the first day, don't get overwhelmed, it's okay. If you have questions, you can ask questions until the whistle blows. I told Doug that a couple of times. I said just ask questions. And oh yeah, look at this, read your sheet and you'll see some people doing some things like. I don't know if Nathan or Sean saw me do this, but I took my sheet in event A and actually taped it to the backboard.

Speaker 3: 28:24

Yes, I did exactly that.

Speaker 5: 28:28

Hey, there's Doug, so I wasn't looking. I wasn't looking for my paper to see what I needed to do. I just stopped. I read the instruction, then I moved on Because, as you know, a paper on the ground that could be a trip hazard. We're not, and, Bigsy, we're not trying to make safety hazards. We're trying to work efficiently and work safely.

Speaker 1: 28:47

So that sounds a lot to me, because I used to be a Bigsy trainer once upon a blue moon many moons ago. On the hands-on portion, they gave you a sheet for each of the stations you had to go through and it went through the steps. Is that the same thing for the competition?

Speaker 5: 29:00

Yes, it's relatively close. It gives you instructions on what you need to do, but how you do it is on your own accord. You know, making sure that you do it, you know? Oh, there he is, Doug. Can you hear us now?

Speaker 1: 29:16

I can hear you. We need some good cable guys to fix the internet.

Speaker 2: 29:19

Let's not work too long.

Speaker 1: 29:26

Sean, what advice do you have for a participant in next year's competition To hope?

Speaker 4: 29:31

that TJ isn't participating. No, you know, just prep yourself for it, study, you know, try to get your hands on some effusion splicer and attest her and just have fun and don't take yourself too serious.

Speaker 1: 29:56

I got to say this Are you really the best if you can't beat TJ? I'm just thinking out loud, just thinking out loud. That's fair. Doug, what advice do you have for a participant in next year?

Speaker 6: 30:13

Honestly. I mean, try to really get your hands on product and you know, try to test that stuff out. You know, challenge yourself, terminate the stuff, really, really practice. And I mean the test was extremely difficult. So you know, really wrapping your head around the it's them trying to figure out how to calculate things. There were some calculations that needed to be done. There's just a lot, a lot of things that you really need to wrap your head around to get involved in this competition, but it was a fun experience, honestly.

Speaker 1: 30:54

Do you remember what they had? You calculate? Do you have?

Speaker 6: 30:57

any chance, I can't really. Can we like a lot of stuff? Well, I'm just saying like, for instance, certain things in the manual that you might have to do some type of calculation.

Speaker 1: 31:08

It's like a fiber optic loss budget or something maybe.

Speaker 5: 31:11

Oh, I'm slaw, oh, I'm slaw, yeah, oh, I'm slaw.

Speaker 1: 31:15

So application of Ohm's law. Yeah, not just memorizing.

Speaker 3: 31:18

Put it in every test.

Speaker 1: 31:19

Oh, I love that.

Speaker 4: 31:21

And your super bundles for like your super group.

Speaker 6: 31:25

I couldn't believe that one, honestly.

Speaker 1: 31:29

But there's no people out there who put in 500, 600 pair.

Speaker 1: 31:33

They're still out there. They're still out there. I know you may have to work on it. You know, one of my best friends is Phil Cleansmith and he'll write the outside plant manual and he'll tell you there's still lots of legacy cabling out there that goes up to, you know, 2400, even more, and that's where the super groups really come into play. Really come into play. Yeah, all right. So this question is for my first timers. Okay, if in a perfect role, if all the stars align and the moon aligns and your boss says yes, are you going to compete next year? Again, not not saying yes doesn't mean you actually be. It's because there's a lot of stuff that's got to happen between now and then. But if everything lines up, would you compete again next year? That's actually a better question. Would you compete again next year? Am I the only first timer here? No, no, it's you and Sean. You and Sean together, okay.

Speaker 6: 32:21

Go ahead, sean, go ahead.

Speaker 4: 32:24

I already told my boss if he doesn't want to send me next year, I'll be taking vacation time and going anyways.

Speaker 1: 32:30

That's right, I love that attitude. I love that attitude. What about you, doug?

Speaker 6: 32:35

Well, I believe I'm going to be there. Anyway. I'm on the RCSE committee. I've already started creating notes. I've talked to my boss about how to build out the rack with the grounding to try to challenge myself and get better, because practice makes perfect and if you can't do some of that stuff on a day-to-day basis, basically I'm going back to the last competition and it's going to be challenging myself just as hard. So, yeah, I'm there.

Speaker 1: 33:06

Nice, okay now this for my repeat competitors.

Speaker 6: 33:09

This for my repeat competitors Again.

Speaker 1: 33:14

if everything lines up perfectly your boss agrees and your schedule agrees and stuff would you compete again next year? Start with you Nathan.

Speaker 3: 33:23

Yeah, I'm the boss.

Speaker 1: 33:25

There you go. You make that happen easily.

Speaker 3: 33:27

I'm going to win it next year, okay.

Speaker 1: 33:30

Next year, man. You win next year too, jay, if everything lines up right.

Speaker 5: 33:35

If everything lines up right, I might actually be the first time to win it four times.

Speaker 1: 33:40

Nice.

Speaker 5: 33:40

The first four ever, but a lot of things got to line up to make that happen. So what we will see. But you know, if you want to be the best, you got to beat the best.

Speaker 1: 33:50

You got to beat the best, you got to beat the best. And if all four of you show up, well, none of you, any of you four, show up, or all four of you show up next year. Make sure you carve out time. I'm going to take you all to dinner. Make sure you carve out time.

Speaker 5: 34:04

Deal.

Speaker 1: 34:05

So I hope you learned a lot from this episode, because the competition is stiff, but they're also there to help you and mentor you through the process until the bell rings. So question is do you have what it takes to be TJ? Knowledge is power.

Speaker 2: 34:23

That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. Also, leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications. Until next time, be safe.