AHL: First Live Steam of 2025

This podcast episode highlights the importance of taking breaks and maintaining well-being in the telecommunications industry while tackling common challenges faced by technicians. From fiber optic termination mistakes to effective project management strategies, the discussion emphasizes continuous education, collaboration, and community engagement to foster growth in the field.<br><br>• Taking breaks and avoiding burnout is essential for quality work  <br>• Discussing favorite drinks creates community engagement  <br>• Contamination is the biggest enemy of fiber optic termination  <br>• Proper conduit fill ratios are crucial for safety and performance  <br>• Understanding T568A and T568B standards is necessary for installations  <br>• Conducting site surveys is vital for optimal placement of wireless access points  <br>• Project kickoffs should focus on clear scopes and open communication  <br>• Sharing knowledge and maximizing resources are key to enhancing the telecommunications field

Chapters

• 0:00 Tech Talk Live Chat Overview
• 9:33 Fiber Optic Termination Best Practices
• 13:18 Network Infrastructure and Technology Basics
• 22:29 Cabling System Design Best Practices
• 31:37 Low-Voltage System Compliance and Project Management

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Wednesday night, 6 pm Eastern Standard Time. It's time for your weekly dose of let's Talk Cabling live chat. Got lots of questions tonight. I think I got like 10 or 12 questions because I've been storing them up. Storing them up, as you notice.

Speaker 1: 0:31

I took a break from social media from about, I think, the second week of December, I think it was. I quit making content and didn't do any podcast, didn't do any live streams. The only thing that went out was just regularly posted social media stuff that's already scheduled and, as I said, if you didn't listen to my podcast on Monday, I needed a break. I needed a break because there was. I was burnt out.

Speaker 1: 1:00

A lot of people do not realize that creating content it's not just turning on the camera and just talking. You've got to research the subject or you've got to coordinate the questions together. You might have to coordinate guests that come on the show and then you've got to record it, then you've got to edit it, then you've got to post it, then you have to interact. For every one hour of content, every one hour content, there is easily easily three to four hours of back work to that. Yeah, so it says I got a chat here in sync, but I can't seem to pull it up here. We'll put it, we'll type in test because I can't see the scene, the chats on the other places there we go. Test because I can't see the scene, the chat's on the other places there we go. So first, live stream of 2025. So you're gonna have to be gentle on me if I don't quite, if I kind of mess up my steps.

Speaker 1: 1:54

But you know we always start every episode off with what are you drinking? What are you drinking? Okay, so Chuck is drinking Earl Grey tea. Earl Grey tea Because it's 30 degrees outside. 30 degrees. Yes, it's cold in Florida. Thank God I put the plastic up on the greenhouse because otherwise my aquaponics would have crashed. So somebody says I'm on a break from East Coast, ken TikTok and YouTube channel right now, being gone for a little bit. I agree, it takes a toll. Hey, make sure you put in the chat box what it is that you are drinking. I also have here too, next to me, a Colazevia. Here's a weird thing. You know, I'm not one of the people that can just drink tea all the time or drink coffee all the time. I only drink hot fluids when it's cold outside. Baby, it's cold outside. It's 30 degrees, it's 30 degrees, all right, so East Coast Ken's drinking Sprite and Blue Powderade mixed together oh, that sounds good. That actually sounds good. Right, all the tears for my helpers.

Speaker 1: 3:10

I love that. 10,000 points to tell Tom guy. That's funny, it's all heck. Also, I apologize for my eye. I've got a little bit of an eye infection going on Also. I apologize for my finger Stupid thing. A little bit of an eye infection going on Also. Apologize for my finger Stupid thing.

Speaker 1: 3:28

I was out building a chicken brooder for my wife and I had a folding pocket knife and the folding pocket knife closed. Ow, I just hit my finger, can't fold it on my finger, cut it right across the knuckle. I had to go to the emergency room and they get a tetanus shot and they glued it together and they said I got to keep this thing on, for I can't remember if it's 24 or 48 hours. I'll have to ask the boss, my wife, because she's got the instruction sheet. So all I know is man, it is. My son says that's your. You got to keep that finger working right for your road rage. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1: 4:05

Oh, the acronym challenge, the acronym challenge. The acronym for tonight. The challenge is BICSI, b-i-c-s-i. What does that mean? Put your answer in the chat box, bicsi. I'm still trying to get this chat box to work so I can see what people are saying. Maybe it's this one. There it is. There it is. Yes, I got it to work, but I can't tell who's saying stuff. Though Let me see Somebody says hey, chuck got a gold cup of Thai milk tea. Thai milk tea, I'm going to have to try that. That sounds good. I love Thai food too. Sean's in the house. Sean says water in his Milwaukee packout mug. Man, those things are expensive, aren't they? Ray Klein's in the house Happy, first podcast of the year.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Yes, he said he's drinking water. You see, the thing is up there in Pennsylvania. You're used to the cold, I'm not. Somebody's drinking lemon water and honey and somebody I'm not. So somebody's drinking lemon water and honey and somebody's same old water in my Milwaukee pack. Oh, there we go. So, yes, there it is.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Daryl, the RCD got it. It's building industry consulting services international. 10,000 points to Daryl. Good job, buddy, good job. Of course you better know, because you're an RCDD, a registered communications distribution designer. Yes, you better know that.

Speaker 1: 5:27

Hey, tell me in the chat box are any of you guys going to the big city conference in a couple weeks? Let me know in the chat box, I'm going. I'm not going as the uh, as a, as a podcast person, I'm going as a for my day job. So I got, I got booth duty on Monday night and I'm coming down with something. So let me know, are you going to the Bixie conference later on? If you are, dude, let's meet up. Yeah, let's meet up.

Speaker 1: 5:58

So Telcom Guy says he's doing virtual this year. Yes, they got one really great master class. So when you go to the Bixie conferences, they got the regular conference and $185 each on top of the conference fee. There's one master class that I want to go to so bad, but I can't attend it because it's at the exact same time slot as a meeting for my day job and that master class is so if any of you guys go and you attend that master class, can't touch me. You guys go and you attend that masterclass, can't touch me. It's a. It's a masterclass about the, the NEC and the changes coming down the pike and and you know that you know there's a movement now about uh, uh, classifying what we do as low voltage technicians to be done by electricians, not by us anymore. So I really wanted to attend that masterclass, but it's obviously not going to happen.

Speaker 1: 7:05

So let's get straight to the questions. Straight to the questions. Oh, before we do that.

Speaker 1: 7:14

I want to talk about the last couple of podcasts. Okay, I am in the middle of a three-part series, a three-part estimating series. I already done the first two parts, so the third part, which will be coming out this Monday, is going to be talking about work breakdown structures. What is it, how do you use it, how do you use it to estimate projects, stuff like that. But I did, I kind of broke that series up a little, because it really should have aired today's Wednesday. It should have aired two days ago.

Speaker 1: 7:44

But I broke in and did a special episode for 2025 because I got to thinking 2025, new Year's resolutions Everybody's making resolutions to lose weight and stuff. Why not make a resolution to get more knowledge, to make more money, to be more successful? So I did a whole episode on must attend events in Q1 of 2025. Obviously, I talked about the Bixie Conference. The second thing I talked about was TechFest In April. Yours truly is going to be a keynote speaker there talking about bonding and grounding, bonding and grounding. So I suggest you go to both.

Speaker 1: 8:25

The Bixie Conference is going to cost you over $1,000. And actually their early bird price is expiring tomorrow, I think, and then the price is going to go up. Tech Fest is only $249 for a two-day event. $249 for a two-day event that I'm helping the C-suite of tech knowledge worldwide to get that recognized for CECs. So two days where the CECs were $249. And that's because it's half price right now. Even if you missed the early bird pricing on that, it's still. I think it's going to be like 499. That's 499 for two days of training. Don't get much better than that. Don't get much better than that. And it's a great community. Look up, look up Technos worldwide. It's a great community to be involved in. You know they're, they always have, you know, community of competition, always helping each other. I highly suggest that community to everybody. So so that's, that's why I kind of interrupted the the series.

Speaker 1: 9:31

All right, now let's get straight to the questions.

Speaker 1: 9:33

The first question comes from Jessica Miller and she says what is the most common mistake that installers make when terminating fiber optic cabling? Yes, so if you ask anybody who does anything with fiber, anybody manufacturer, any fiber trainer, they're always going to tell you keep everything clean. Contamination is the number one enemy to fiber. That's dust, dirt and debris. Even in the area right now about me in this room, there's just particles of dust floating around. And a lot of people don't realize and I can't do my normal demonstration because of my finger, but you know. So when you make two fibers together, they're held together with 2.2 pounds of pressure. Now that doesn't sound like a lot, but when you actually look at the actual surface area that's touching and you divide that by 2.2 pounds, that's 40,000 pounds of pressure. So if you've got some contamination in there that could cause debris to be embedded, it could cause debris. If it's bigger than five micron, that debris can actually be broken up into multiple pieces of debris and it's only going to keep getting dirtier and dirtier every time you made it and remade it, made it and remade it and that's going to cause things to work. Now, that's probably one of the big ones.

Speaker 1: 10:55

The second thing that I think that people do wrong determining fiber is not working over a proper surface, and I can't really show you right now, because I got my fiber mat sitting on my desk right here and I got a bunch of stuff sitting on top of it. But you really should be terminating fiber over a black mat a black mat, because that way if you break fiber, you can easily find it. You can easily find it, and that's why you should always carry a flashlight, because if you look down and you don't see it, you can shine the flashlight, move your head from one side, move your head to the other side and you'll usually see the light reflecting. Oh, and I thought of another one. My ADHD just kicked in. Pick it up and put it in an approved scraps container, approved scraps container. So there's my three tips, my three tips on things that people usually mess up.

Speaker 1: 11:50

Question number two this comes from David Chan and I apologize, I didn't capture where these came from, whether they were emails or where they were through direct messages. I just kind of kept them on a spreadsheet. And David wants to know how do you calculate the conduit fill ratio when running multiple cables in the same pipe? Okay, so calculating fill ratios is really not that hard. It truly isn't. If I can do it, you guys can do it. Okay, it's really not that hard, but there are some general rules. Okay, the rule in the codebook says if you have three or more cables, the maximum fill ratio is 40%. Okay, maximum fill ratio is 40%. You'll find that in table 9.1 in chapter 9. Three or more cables maximum fill ratio is 40%. But remember though, the code book is not for performance, it's for safety, safety. So, realistically, you probably want to be below that 40%. Now, if you happen to have access to the TDMM like mine sitting back there on my desk the TDMM they've got four or five fill ratio charts in there. They got a 30% fill ratio, a 30% fill ratio with one bend, a 30% fill ratio, I think, with two bends, a 40% fill ratio, a 40% fill ratio with one bend, 40% ratio with two bends. So you can actually even look up that, so you don't have to do that For those of you who don't like doing.

Speaker 1: 13:18

I saw this funny post, this funny, funny post on Facebook a couple of days ago and somebody it was a meme and somebody said the meme said A squared plus B squared equals C squared. For those who may not know that, what that is, that's called the Pythagorean theorem. It's also known as the three, four, five rule and it's something you get taught in school and it's part of the whole algebra class. And so they did a meme and they said huh, I've been out of school for 20 years and I still haven't used a square plus B square plus C squared. So I got on there and I said, huh, that's interesting, cause I just used it yesterday again because I'm building it. I told him in my podcast episode on Monday I'm building a 20 year chicken coop, I want to make sure everything's square and so. So, yeah, you do that right. So why'd I go from the tangent? I don't remember why I went off that tangent.

Speaker 1: 14:08

So, anyways, if you're not good at math, look at the charts in the TMM and I really suggest you be closer to 30% fill, not 40% fill, because that's going to be less stress on the cables and that leaves a little bit of growth for somebody to put cables in behind you. So the fill ratio the two big limiting factors is the number of bends that you're pulling through right and the size of the cable and the friction. The friction coefficient is, I think, what they call it friction coefficient. So the more bends you have, you use cable lubricants. You got to derate your fire, stop. This is another one of those areas where codes and standards kind of part ways right. Remember this Codes are for safety, standards are for performance. Standards always meet or exceed the codes. So the codebook says when you're putting in a conduit, you can have up to 180 degrees of transition. That's four 90-degree bends. The standard says for low voltage, two 90 bends. Okay, so you're not. You're not putting as much stress on the cable, so always try to follow those rules.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Next question comes from Maria Gonzalez and she says Chuck, what is the difference, what is the difference between T568A and TIA568B standards? That's a great question. I could do a whole 30 minute show just on that alone, but I've got. I've got. I only on question three and I got nine more questions, so I'm going to make this quick and simple. Okay, the biggest difference between those two pairs is where the orange and the green pair land. Okay, so if you look at an RJ45 layout on a T560A, the green pair is pins ones and two right, and then the orange pair is pins three and six and they're reversed with the green pair is pins 1 and 2. And then the orange pair is pins 3 and 6. And they're reversed with the orange pair On the orange pair. The orange pair is pins 1 and 2. On B, the orange pair is pins 1 and 2, and the green is pins 3 and 6. So they flip the orange and the green pair. There's a whole history behind why they do that. I'm not going to get into tonight's show because I don't have the time for it, but I've done TikTok videos on this. I've talked about it on the podcast episode Go, look at those things.

Speaker 1: 16:19

Now some people will try to tell you A is better than B, b is better than A. No, it's not. No, it's not, they're equally the same. I did an episode one time where I took a cable. Terminate A test it, cut all ends off. Terminate B test it Test results are almost identical. Almost identical Now.

Speaker 1: 16:33

So you can use A or B for any kind of commercial job or government job. You will find and Daryl will probably attest to this, daryl the RCD and the TikTok feed. There are some government installs that like using the A wiring scheme and that's perfectly fine by the standards. Okay, perfectly fine. When you get into residential installs, the standard is going to tell you to use the A wiring scheme, not to use the B wiring scheme. And the reason it tells you to use the A wiring scheme is because the A wiring scheme is backwards compatible with an old wiring scheme called USOC, and that means it's backwards compatible with an old wiring scheme called USOC, and that means it's backwards compatible with two line phone equipment. So that's why A or B commercial doesn't matter. Just make sure that if you use A, you do A on both sides. If you do B, you do B on both sides. You don't do A on one side and B on the other.

Speaker 1: 17:29

You run into it and some people try to tell you oh but Chuck, what about crossover cables? Crossover cables, yeah, yeah, okay, talk to me like it's 1989 again, right? Computers? You used to use a crossover cable when you connected two computers together, because you can't connect a conductor on the transmitter on one side and connect it to the transmit on the other side. It's got to go to the receive, right. And that's why they would make those crossover cables.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Today's environment, you know, nic cards are auto-negotiating. It doesn't matter, they'll figure it out and fix it by itself. So I don't know. Ed the old tech guy, if you're still in, let me know. Do you still ever come across needs for crossover cables? Just let me know. Right, and Mal Degata, thank you for all the likes. I appreciate that. I appreciate that, all righty.

Speaker 1: 18:21

So the next question comes from Sophia Patel. Sophia Patel and she goes how do you determine the placement of a wireless access point in a building. I will tell you, this is one of those scenarios. The more the better, the more the better. You got to pay attention to because if you go, look at the manufacturers, the system that you're buying, the antenna, it'll tell you what is the coverage area. That coverage area is, colby says, scattered networks sometimes still use crossover cables. Very good, a heat map? Yes, neo de Gata, a heat map, exactly right, I'm going there, I am, but you got to pay attention to what are the walls made out of? Is there any windows? Because all that stuff attenuates that signal, right? So, again, what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to conduct a wire, do a wire site survey, and there's all kinds of cool tools out there to do this. There's the Echo, how, the Air Magnet, who is? Somebody who is I'd had. I had a guy on the show about a year ago. Oh, his name is escaping me at the moment. I'll probably see him at TechFest and he I had him on the show. We talked about doing wireless site surveys and because if you look at just the square footage it'll give you one number, but as soon as you start measuring through walls you might have to put in more. So make sure, wherever you place those access points or APs, make sure that you place them strategically, so that way you minimize the interference and you maximize the signal strength. So get that equipment. Or if you don't want to buy the equipment, you can also rent the equipment. Yeah, look up, rent telco. I guarantee you they rent that piece of equipment, I guarantee it.

Speaker 1: 20:07

Question number six. This is from James Wright. What's the difference between patch panels and consolidation points in structure cabling? You know that is a confusing thing, isn't it? Because we're taught as technicians that splicing the cable is bad. When you splice a cable, the cable signal attenuates when it goes through that splice point and has another potential point of failure. But here we are putting a consolidation point in the middle of the run. We're giving it a fancy name, a consolidation point, but yet we're allowed to do it. But really it is nothing but a fancy splice. A fancy splice.

Speaker 1: 20:56

I'll answer your question in one second, nia, and if I don't answer it, please remind me. Here's the difference Patch panels are at the very beginning of that permanent link. They are a hard structure point where you can cross-connect stuff like that. Consolidation points are in the middle of the permanent link and they're really there for when you have a customer who's going to be doing constant moves with the furniture. You'll see them happen a lot in open office environments like modular furniture where they're rearranging furniture Because you don't want to pull that cable from the new modular furniture location all the way back to the telecom room. So the consolidation point you only have to run from the consolidation point to the new location. So consolidation points are not for end users, they're for us, the technicians, and you've got to be careful with them. They should also only house passive equipment Passive equipment. So let me answer this guy's question real quick before I get too much. For long I forget. So Neo wants to know loaded patch panels or not? That's a great question, neo, and I ask that question.

Speaker 1: 22:03

Those of you who know me, you know I'm an instructor, right? I teach class. This is what I teach for a living and that comes from because I've been in the industry for like 43, 44 years. I didn't start teaching until about 13 years ago and every class I always ask students that which do you prefer to terminate?

Speaker 1: 22:29

The Keystone patch panels or what Nia's calling the loaded patch panels or the 110 style patch panels. And to me, if there's no customer preference, I would probably use the Keystone panels. And here's why Keystone panels you can put all different kinds of cable on it. You can put Cat 5E, cat 6, cat 6A, hdmi audio F-Con connect, all on the same patch panel. You can't do that with a traditional 110 patch panel. So with a 110 patch panel, for example, you're going to have to have one patch panel for every level of cable you have. So you need one for 5E, one for 6, one for 6A.

Speaker 1: 23:08

And another thing I like about the 110 style panels is it gives you the ability to color code your drops. So if you have a customer putting in, say, two drops every outlet and one drop is for operations, the other drop is for, uh, the management, okay, and you can see, you can color code them. You can have the management in in red and the operations in yellow, and you can see, you can color code them. You can have the management in in red and the operations in yellow. Well, you can duplicate that on the one 10 panels easily. I tell you he's really good at doing this. Look them up. He's all over social media. Uh, pierce is his name. He has a channel called uh, all green lights and he loves color coding His RJ 45. There, and he loves color coding his RJ45. His 110 Keystone panels. So patch panels are for distribution points in the head end and the consolidation points are for just moves adds changes out in the middle. So there you go.

Speaker 1: 24:00

Question number seven from Emily Carter how do you avoid cable damage when pulling long runs through conduit? Great question, great question. Use cable pulling lubricant, not Dawn dish soap, not whatever. Use a cable pulling lubricant that is specifically designed for high performance data cable and only use as much as you need to get it through the conduit. To get it through the conduit. Put too much lubricant on a cable. You can cause that cable to fail, because 97% of cable pulling lubricant is water. Is water right? So only use enough to get it through that run, okay. The cable pulling lubricant will reduce the pulling coefficient and allow the cable to pull through faster and simpler and easier, and also make sure you don't exceed the maximum pulling tensions.

Speaker 1: 24:59

I'm working on an episode where I'm going to take some cables and I'm going to pull it. The maximum pulling tension for balanced for spare cable is 25 pounds. So I got a meter. So I'm going to take some cable and I'm going to pull it at 25 pounds. So I got a meter. So I'm going to take some cable and I'm going to pull it at 50 pounds. Copper cable I'm going to pull it at 70 pounds and I'm going to test the cable to see, hey, does it really make a difference? Rewatching off of that episode That'll probably be Q2, because I got to finish building my podcast studio, got to finish building TJ's in the house. How you doing TJ, the Bixie Cable Skills Challenge winner of last year's in the house. Hopefully he'll be the Cable Skills Challenge winner of this year too. Make sure you and I meet up TJ at the conference. We can do a TikTok together or something. So watch out for that pulling lubricant. Also, while we're talking about pulling cables through conduits, make sure that the end of those conduits have been either reamed or have some kind of a bushing on it. So if you have an electrician put in the conduit, that doesn't necessarily mean that they did that, and if you pull your cable through conduits without that pushing on it, it's not your job to put it on there. So there you go.

Speaker 1: 26:13

Lipman says became the number two member on the team. I'm not sure what that means. Question number eight this comes from Liam. Liam says what are the key elements of a successful project kickoff meeting project kickoff meeting. So I'm assuming that Liam has dreams of vision to become a new project manager or something like that. Right, the first thing is make sure you have a clearly defined scope. Right, the clearly defined scope. There you go, and so there should be a scope of work already written up, probably by the estimator or maybe another project manager. Make sure you get that scope of work. Make sure you read that scope of work a minimum of two times, maybe even three times if you have the time to do that. Okay, make sure that somewhere in that documentation you know all the roles are going to be required. Is it going to need a fiber crew, a copper crew?

Speaker 1: 27:13

You know is it going to need a testing crew. Make sure you know, make sure there's a schedule created for that. If not, you're going to have to create a schedule and then review all those design documents, those timelines. But here's the key thing Ensure that there's open communications between you and the person who estimated the job, because that person they know it inside and out, because they estimated it, and if they could tell you one small detail that could cause your project to go into red Now, going to red means it's going to lose money. To go into red Now, going to red, means it's going to lose money. Project managers their performance is based on their ability to bring that project in on time and under labor budget and under material budget. So they got goals to meet and if they can't meet it because how do they know what the goals are if you don't tell them what the goals are Right? It's like playing football. You got to know what TJ's in the house. Tj likes to do motocross racing. He does these quarter mile dirt track things right. How could he win if he doesn't know where the finish line is Right? And he shot me a picture on Facebook and he put one of my knowledge and powers on his dirt bike. I thought it was so cool, so cool.

Speaker 1: 28:33

Okay, question number nine. This comes from Olivia Martin. How do you design a backbone cabling system? For scalability, use the largest count cable. You can right whether it's copper or fiber If the customer says, okay, well, we need enough circuits to. We've done our math and we need to have 100-pair cable. Pull in a 200-pair cable, right. Here's the thing it takes the same amount of labor to pull in 100-pair cables as it does a 200-pair cable and then. So the price difference is not double, like a lot of people think it is, but that gives them room to grow. The same thing happens for fiber, if price difference is not double, like a lot of people think it is, but that gives them room to grow. The same thing happens for fiber. If they want a six strand, pull in a 12 strand, right, and with fiber it's even better, because the weight difference between a six and a 12 strand is really not that much right. So 50% growth is really what you want to aim for. So make sure you try to put in as much as you can and also make sure that you follow the ANSI 568 standards and also watch out. Make sure that you follow the TIA 942 standards as well and also make sure you follow the if it's outside plant, the outside plant design reference manual, because I've actually got a class I'm working on with Phil Klingensmith For those of you trying to get your outside plant certification. Be on the lookout for that class. I'm also kicking off an RCD study group the second week of February. It's a 26-week program, so be watching social media for that to be announced.

Speaker 1: 30:00

So somebody says good chance. You might go over your bid though. So that's a great point. Neil, I appreciate that. That's an absolute fantastic point.

Speaker 1: 30:09

So if you're in a competitive bid scenario, what I would do is I would say okay, the scope works as to run a hundred pair cable, here's the price for that. And then I would give them an addendum or a cart menu at the bottom, say look, instead of doing a 100 pair, because that's maximum growth, here's the price to put in a 200 pair, and let them see that. So that way you're still pricing in the 100 pair cable. So if you get your price compared to one of your competitors, you're not going to be overbid. Does that make sense to you, neo? So that way you're giving the customer what they asked for, but you're giving them a little bit more information to make an informed decision. And here's the thing the customer might choose you over them because they say, hey, this guy's thinking about we didn't think about growing for future, right. So there you go. Let me know if that makes sense to you, nia.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Question number 10. What are some best practices for bonding and grounding in telecommunications rooms? I talk about TechFest in April. I'm doing a one-hour presentation on bonding and grounding one-hour presentation on it, and it's going to be recognized for CECs and I'm still going to teach that class even afterwards. So be watching out for that one. I'll do online bonding and grounding classes and you can watch that class. There will be a fee for that class, but it's not because I'm trying to become rich, it's because I'm trying to get money into the podcast to make more content and I need money to do that.

Speaker 1: 31:37

So always follow the 607 standard, the ANSI 607 standard, and make sure that you always use a Technications Grounding Bus Bar, a TGB. It's not called the TGB anymore, it's called the Secondary Bounding Bus Bar, sbb and the primary. So there's some requirements there. There's some sizing requirements, some placing requirements and all that stuff. So what is the website for TechFest? Oh, that's a great question. I don't know it off the top of my head. If you do a web search or actually, daryl, I think you and I are friends on LinkedIn, all right, so go on LinkedIn, look at my profile, you'll see where I posted I'm being the keynote speaker there. But I'm sure if you do a web search on TechFest TechFest 2025, it's in Nashville I'm sure you'll find it. Question number 11. This comes from Charlotte Evans. Sorry, I'm going a little bit over my 30 minutes tonight.

Speaker 1: 32:27

How do you ensure that your low-voltage system design complies with local building codes? First, make sure you follow the NEC, the National Electrical Code, and there's lots of sections in there that apply to a lot of people. Well, chuck, the only thing that applies to us is Article 800. Not true, not true. Article 250, if you're doing bonding and grounding. There's some things that apply to us in Article 300. Article 725, if you're doing POE and you want to know bundle size. Article 726, if you're doing fault-managed power systems Great subject, by the way. Look that up. I'm going to try to catch. There's a guy that I know who does this kind of stuff. I think he's going to be a pixie this year. I'm going to try to nail him down and get him on the show again. Article 7-7, if you're doing fire optic healing, article 8-100, 8-05, 8-10, all those can apply to you. Make sure you're familiar with them, make sure that you know what they say. But remember the codebook is minimum quality of construction. So if you follow the standards, you know that you're doing good, jose here.

Speaker 1: 33:41

Question bonding and grounding. What are your thoughts on bonding indoor, outdoor Cat6A cabling? Okay, great question, jose. If you have a Cat6A cable that runs between two buildings, it goes outside and goes between two buildings and let's say that it doesn't fall under one of the three exceptions. You have to bond the shield on both sides to a ground because you don't know which way that voltage is going to go. Most of your, because you can buy the four pair protectors for cabling for Cat 6-8 or for Cat 6, like that. Make sure you bond that to a ground and bond that shield to a ground.

Speaker 1: 34:12

There are three exceptions. Let's see if I can remember off the top of my head the first exception if you're in a large metropolitan area where the buildings are sufficiently tall enough to intercept lightning. If you're running a cable between two buildings, if that second building's within the cone of protection, you don't have to put in lightning protection. The second exception is if you have a cable running between two buildings and the cable run is less than 142 feet, or if it's buried in a direct buried conduit, then you got to bond both ends of the ground, but it doesn't have to go through, doesn't have to be bonded ground. And then the third exception is if you live in an area of the country that has five or fewer thunderstorm days a year and two parts. Here the earth's density has to be less than 100 ohms per meter, or is it 500 ohms per meter? The only part in the continental United States can apply. The third rule is some parts of Southern California. Other than that, you always have to be bonded ground, except, oh, cat 6A unshielded. Okay, great, thank you. Thank you for clarifying that, jose. So cat six a, unshielded, still has to go through a lightning protection on both sides. Okay, um, because that voltage can get on those four pair of conductors and come into the building. So either way, it still has to be attached to that. That, that, uh, that that uh, building entrance terminal. Okay, there we go. Now let me see here.

Speaker 1: 35:34

Last question, question number 12. How can project managers better track the progress of ICT installation? Our industry, our industry sucks at project management because what we always do is we always take our best technician and say, look, you're really good at being a technician, you're now a project manager. That doesn't mean they're going to be a good project manager. Those are different skill sets, right? You have to be good with Word and Excel and stuff like that. You've got to be able to track stuff, right. So there's all different kinds of project management software out there Procore, microsoft Project and there's some other. I'm going to see if I can't find a couple project management software companies at the Bixie event this year and get them to come on and talk to me about that.

Speaker 1: 36:23

Go out there and do regular inspections, the biggest thing you can do as a project manager. Remember these three things, okay. Number one document, document, document. Number two communicate, communicate, communicate. Number three follow up. Those are the things there. Make sure that you communicate clearly, make sure you document everything. Make sure, if you have to, you do punch lists. Make sure you've who was it? There's a quote out there, the quotes attributed to oh, who was the first black five-star general. I can't remember his name off the top of my head Colin Powell. So Colin Powell, so he. The quotes always attributed to him and it says trust, but verify. So if you give somebody, if you give your technicians a punch list because you did a QA inspection, make sure you follow back up with them Right. But that's going to be key, absolutely key.

Speaker 1: 37:18

All right, let me flip back over. Let me see, did I miss any questions in the chat box here? Okay, building information services. You get all that. Trying to scroll this down some More isn't always better. That's why we cite survey. If you're planning um, I will say this. I'm assuming sean's talking about um, um, wireless, and I will admit, while I can talk about wireless, I am not a wireless expert. I I'd be the first to admit that. Right, all righty, let me see any other questions coming here. My favorite rcCD is back. Yes, he is. He is back, chuck.

Speaker 1: 37:55

Lesson of the day Don't use cable pulls for category cabling. Don't use a cable. Oh, don't use a cable puller. Cable puller, yes, yes, I agree with that, 100% right. Hey, chuck, I recently purchased a digital Big C. It's Some 8th edition, got it.

Speaker 1: 38:14

Unfortunately, bixie decided to change the digital publication viewer vendors. Since I have used the digital, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, right? So when you go to the file open, the vendor does not support annotation speech to text, or let Bixie higher ups know what. The last vendor was flawless? I will guarantee I'll be talking to Bixie when I'm at the conference and I will point that out. As a matter of fact, let me take a screen snapshot of that comment and I will bring that to their attention, because I know when they switched vendors because I was right in the middle of an RCD study group and you used to be able to do all kinds of cool stuff, like you said annotations and stuff like that, and when they changed it it messed everything up said annotations, stuff again, and when they changed it it messed everything up, messed everything up, right, all right, let me see. I think that was the last question. Yes, that was, and we are obviously past my 30 minute mark. So, oops, sorry about that. It happens sometimes.

Speaker 1: 39:04

So first, after hours, live of 2025 is in the history books. I will break this up into bits and pieces and put it out there to social media so people can see as well. Remember, every Wednesday night, 6 pm Eastern Standard Time, the Bixie one. I'm going to be actually doing it from Bixie somehow. Not sure I'm going to do it, but there you go. You can't open it on the. So, daryl, I think you and I are friends in LinkedIn. Hit me up and I'll, through LinkedIn, I'll make sure you get the link or put you in touch with the right person to to find out information about tech fest. There we go. All right, everybody 10 minutes over. Remember, knowledge is power.

Speaker 2: 39:46

Take care of everybody. 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.