AHL: Fiber Basics, Tools, And Field Wisdom

We unpack fiber fundamentals, smarter Wi‑Fi design, and the practical gear that makes field work safer and faster. We also cover tester calibration, useful labeling, and how to hire and keep technicians who grow with the company.

• fiber core and cladding roles and refractive index
• starter toolkits and personal PPE for installers
• right-sizing home and data center Wi‑Fi with heat maps
• certifier calibration cycles and warranty requirements
• velcro vs tie wraps and airflow awareness
• pricing fixed bids with explicit assumptions
• mentoring new techs on safe fusion splicing
• conduit fill variables and de-rating
• standards-based labeling for faster maintenance
• predictive and validation surveys for reliable networks
• hiring for attitude, growth, and retention

Make sure that you send me questions for next week. DM me and I’ll do that one video for the Cat 6 cables through a two‑inch pipe, and I’ll make a YouTube video for it as well

Chapters

• 0:00 Live Kickoff And Acronym Challenge
• 4:30 Fiber Core vs Cladding Explained
• 12:30 Starter Toolkits And PPE Reality
• 19:30 Do You Really Need Room‑By‑Room Wi‑Fi
• 26:30 Certifier Calibration And Audit Readiness
• 33:00 Dressing Cables In Data Centers

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Wednesday night six PM Eastern Standard Time That can only mean one thing Live after hours with Chuck Bowser your favorite R C D Doc Top T.

SPEAKER_00: 0:38

You know I'm your favorite RCDD. Just don't just just go and go to your fit go to your go to your go to your favorite social media post, right? Your f TikTok, Instagram, wherever, right now, and post in there, Chuck is my favorite RCDD, and then hashtag me in it. Hashtag CBRCDD. Let's let's rock the internet. Let's rock the internet. Let me go and put it on the chat box so I can see people chatting with me. There we go. So I always, you know, Wednesday night, 6 p.m. Still thinking about changing the the podcast. Maybe doing live streams on Mondays and doing the actual recordings on Wednesday. Still tinkering with that idea. Haven't really made a decision right yet. Oh hey, what are you drinking? Tell us in the chat box, what are you drinking? It is uh obviously six o'clock here. I'm drinking honey chai turmeric tea. Honey chai tameric. It's actually pretty good. Pretty good. It's nice and keeps you nice and warm. Tell us in a chat box what you shot, are you drinking a diet, Dr. Pepper? There you go. I didn't see his post before I actually said that. So let's go ahead and do our uh our acronym challenge. Our acronym challenge get your typing fingers ready. Get your typing fingers ready. What does the acronym OEM mean? What does the acronym OEM mean? So I'll wait. You gotta give us a couple seconds to do that. And then that's actually an acronym that will actually work across um multiple multiple Kevin Brake Wire two-bit. Did you get my message, man? Did you get my message? Please say yes. So Kevin said, original equipment manufacturer. That's exactly what it stands for. Exactly. Glad to have you. I'm glad to have you in the room, Kevin. I truly, truly am. And uh and I want you, I want you to keep me honest. Okay? Keep me honest, man. I that's one thing I appreciate. I don't, you know, it's funny, I got the you know, those who know me know that I teach for a living. And after every class that I teach, they automatically get this survey. You know, how was the class, how was the curriculum, how was the instructor. And a lot of times I get I get, you know, great, good, fantastic. I would rather have somebody say, hey, Chuck, and this happened in just this last class. Somebody said to he said, Yeah, he made a comment in there, you know, hey Chuck, you know, maybe maybe a little less experience, a little more, more content, or something. I don't know how you worded it. I love those kinds of comments because it gives me something actionable to improve on. See, I'm I'm addicted to being a constant learner, and I'm also addicted to being 10% better than I was in the last episode. That's why I appreciate Kevin in the house because Kevin was one of those kinds of Kevin is one of those kinds of people that uh if you're wrong, he has no problems calling you out and telling you you're wrong. And I and I appreciate those because those kinds of people keep me on my toes. Keep me on my toes. So I appreciate Kevin being in the house today, right? Um uh people are too soft, Chuck. No one has the the balls to give you the straight goods. Amen, brother. Amen. We uh we live in a society where you know you might hurt somebody's feelings. I get that. I get that a hundred percent. So I got questions left over from last week. I'm gonna go through, but I also want to um talk about uh I got a question in in chit chat, uh chit chat, tick tock right before we started, and this this question comes from TJ. TJ, and he says, explain the difference between the core and the cladding. What explain the difference between the core and the cladding? So, what TJ's asking about is about a fiber strand. So with every fiber strand has three components the core, the cladding, and an acorite coating. Every fiber strand is typically 250 or 900 micron in overall size. There are a few other sizes, but the vast majority is gonna be 250 or 900. 900 is typically gonna be your inside plant fiber. 250 is typically gonna be your outside plant fiber. Outside plant fiber, because it's 250, you do have to use a furcating harness uh when you put that on when it comes into the building. That makes that strand a little bit more resilient and makes it a little bit easier to connectorize that cable. So, what's the difference between the core and the cladding? So the core and the cladding, they're both made of pure silica dioxide. Pure silica dioxide. And uh the core is the very center of the glass, it has a high index of refraction, which means light travels through it very easily. Okay, surrounding that you have the cladding. The cladding is also made with pure silica dioxide, but it also has a little bit of boron mixed with it. Uh there's also another chemical that they use sometimes as well, but I can't remember what that is off the top of my head. And what that does is it's it makes it makes the glass, the index refraction lower. So what happens is the light doesn't go through it as easy. So it creates what's called total internal reflection. See, the core has an index of refraction. It might be, for example, you know, um one 1.43, and the clouding might be 1.45. That little bit of a difference only takes about three to five percent of difference between those refractions to make it work. Because as the way fiber works is it turns the light on, turns light off, turns the light on, turns the light off. And each one of those represents a one or a zero. Now that light is going down the fiber and it's literally bouncing off the cladding because the cladding is acting like a mirror to keep that light on the core. And as long as you're inside what's called the critical incident angle, the light will stay on the core and not escape out of the strand and continue on down that fiber. There is a fantastic, a fantastic video on this. And if you if you I'm gonna give you the name and how to find it in just a second, do me a favor. If you do go to that video, make sure you put in the chat box, hey, Chuck from Let's Talk Cabling sent me to watch your video. Okay, so go to Google, type in uh how fiber works. It's a video made by engineer guy. And he he does he take a bucket of water, he cuts a hole in one side, puts a cork in it, cuts a square hole on the other side, glues a clear piece of plastic, fills it up with water with a little bit of um creamer. And the creamer is kind of like the boron. So what it does is it makes light refract a little bit. He takes the laser pointer, shines it on one side, takes the cork out, the water streams, and you can literally watch the light bounce on the water as it streams and goes through another bucket. That's exactly how fiber optic cabling works. How fiber works, engineer guy, go watch that video. And then also, um, that guy in that video, they also talk about um they also talk about the Tat A cable. Tat A cable is uh is the fiber optic cable that connects the North American continent with the uh with um with Europe. Really great video. Uh talks about refraction, refract, reflection, refraction. It's a great video. Make sure you watch it. It's it's I I've I showed I show it almost every single virtual class I do now. Almost every single class that I do now. All right, let's get on with the other questions. Uh these are leftovers from last week, and this question comes from Aaron. Hey, Shotzi, Kalen, and T and TJ, make sure you answer this question too. And also you too, Kevin. I know you've got some input on this. So Aaron wants to know what tools should every installer buy before day one. Aaron wants to know what tools should every installer buy before day one. So big put your comments in the in the chat box. Let's help Aaron out. My first thing is go buy the appropriate PPE. Okay? Go buy the appropriate PPE, the great boots, you know, comfortable, you know, good work pants, you know, either Milwaukee or or uh or jeans or some kind of you know good quality pants, um, nice socks, stuff like that. But there are some basic hand tools that I really think you should have, right? Kevin in the chat, the tip TikTok is saying screwdriver, scissors, dykes, which means um cutters, and or torpedo level. Excellent. Excellent. Um TJ's asking for copper or fiber. I would assume copper. He didn't specify. Uh, most people, when they come into this industry, they come in and uh they usually do copper before they do fiber. Don't get me wrong, there are people who do fiber from day one, but the vast majority of us do copper for a year or two before we get in that. So, yeah, screwdriver. Um, um, and that Kevin brings up a great point. Kevin says, doesn't your employer usually supply PPE? When I'm when I'm sorry, when I there's there's there's employer PPE and then there's what I consider my own PPE. So I don't know of too many employers that would buy you work boots. So for me, that would be personal PPE. Now, a high viz vest, a hard hat, safety glasses, absolutely that should be the the main, that should be provided to you by the by the employer. I agree with that 100%. So I also recommend, you know, obviously uh an assortment of screwdrivers, straight and Phillips, um, a pair of needle nose, a pair of cutters, maybe even a pair of linesmen. Some people call them nines. Um I got I got 10,000 points for somebody who could tell me what nines mean in the chat box. What does a nine mean? Electricians use that term all the time. Um maybe even a keyhole saw. A keyhole saw is cheap. Keyhole saws, you know, I don't know, 10, 12 bucks. Um, a torpedo level, as Kevin mentioned, right? The nine-inch diagonal cutters, exactly right, Kevin. 10,000 points to Kevin. 10,000 points, my friend. Yeah, so those that's good hand tools. And here's a bit here's a bit of advice that I get in trouble with saying all the time. Buy the best that you can afford when it comes to those kinds of tools, right? You know, screwdrivers and and and nines and and and needlenodes and stuff. Buy the best tools that you can afford because I learned a long time ago, cheap tools don't usually last not very long. I have I have a pair of snips, well, actually, it's my brother has it. I've said it on more than one occasion. I have a pair of snips that I had when I got in this industry, and he has them now, and they are 40 years old. 40 years run. Thanks for coming by, Mr. Kevin. 40 years old. So buy the best tools that you can afford. Okay. Um, some people might even say, hey, uh buy a modular plug tool. A modular plug crimper. My thoughts there are is again, I think that should be an employee, employer um tool provided to you because the modular plug tools are really going to be dependent on whose modular plugs you're using. If you start using one manufacturer's crimper with somebody else's head, you may not get a good quality, consistent crimp. So, for example, you know, if you're doing uh here's a shout out to to Simply RJ45, right? So if you're using their their mod ends, use one of their crimpers. Okay, use one of their crimpers. That's the best thing to do. Best thing to do. Um I even had a guy one time in his his toolkit, he had a pair of um their medical tools. I can't remember what they're called. Daryl, the RCDs in the house. Um forceps. He had a he had a set of four sips in his tool bag so he can reach in the wall and grab the cable and pull it out. Um, I thought that was kind of eccentric, but okay. Because have you ever priced medical equipment? It's not cheap. Not cheap. And you can do the same thing with a with a with a uh with a um coat hanger. So the coat hanger's gonna be a lot, lot less. Daryl, the RCD is in TikTok, and he says, uh, I have a tone test, toner, and probe that my dad gave me when I graduated from high school in 1989. Oof, Daryl, you're almost as old as me. Almost as old as me. Um there we go. So, yeah, those are the tools that I suggest that you buy. Um, and good luck. And if you if you have any other questions, you know, or need any help, Aaron, because I know you listened to the show, just give us a holler. Question number two, and this comes from uh Heather. And Heather says, My client wants the home run Wi-Fi to every room. Okay, I want the hi-fi I want to run Wi-Fi to every room. Is that realistic? It can be done. Absolutely, it can be done. I think it's an overkill. Well, I'm gonna ask you this: how big's the house, right? Now, for example, my house is only uh 1,300 square feet, I think. I live in a small house. One or two access points would more than cover everything in this place. Now, if it's a big, huge house like like say Potomac, Maryland, Beverly Hills, Florida, you know, where the houses are 10,000 square feet, you might need more Wi-Fi access points. I still don't think you need one for every room, though. And if you're gonna do that, kind of beats the purpose, doesn't it? If you're gonna put a wireless access point in every room, why don't you just run a cable to a faceplate and let them do a direct connection? A direct connection is not gonna be susceptible to R frequency interference. You know, it you it's you get a bitter better bandwidth if you got direct connection as opposed to Wi-Fi. And I think it's I think you really should consider centralizing the access provider because there are gonna be some devices, for example, like your phone, like your tablet, your your iPad, your iPod, your iPod, there you go. Um, that you're gonna be connecting via Wi-Fi, not necessarily a cable, but um, I still don't think you need one for every room. Just put one in. There's some great tools out there to do what to make what's called um heat maps, heat maps, where you can actually uh do a uh take measurements of a you put up a you put a wireless access point somewhere and it's just a temporary, and then you turn it on, and then you take this tool, you go around. I should do I should do an episode on on heat maps. Oh my gosh, I should do an episode on that. I'm gonna reach out. Tell me in a chat box, who do you what manufacturer do you think I should reach out to to ask them if they can give me a heat map test or so I can make an episode about it. Tell tell me in the chat box who do I who should reach out to the contact, or better yet, reach out to them and say, hey, Chuck wants to do a show on wireless access points and heat maps. Uh maybe you can loan him a tool. So uh there you go. Alright, so question number three, and this comes from Omar. And Omar wants to know how do I keep certification testers calibrated for valid audits? Okay, so first off, let's talk about what does the what does the standard say about calibration for certifiers, right? So we're talking specifically about certifiers here. You don't have to worry about qualifiers or verifiers. Qualifier is a beard error rate tester, a verifier is just a continuity tester. We're talking about a cable certifier. They're gonna be expensive, you know, ten to twenty thousand dollars. Number one, um, if you are the project manager or the equipment manager, you should create a a spreadsheet. You should create a uh a data, excuse me, a database of your tools, and you know, you should have the make, the model, the serial number, that way, in case anything gets stolen, you got records, and then also put in there when was it calibrated last and set up a calendar in a calendar event on your thing in about 10 months, 11 months to get that tool calibrated. Now, here's why I say that the standard says that you have to calibrate your certifiers per the manufacturer's instructions. Every manufacturer that I'm aware of Softing, AEM, Fluke, Um, Trend, they all recommend their certifiers are are are are um calibrated once every 12 months. And most manufacturers, connectivity manufacturers, you know all the big ones, if you want to be a warranty, most of them are gonna tell you that count that the thing has to be that test has been calibrated within the past 12 previous months. Now, as a technician in the field, now that was talking from a PM's point of view, from a technician in the field's point of view, almost all the testers nowadays, when you get within the 12 months of those, right? The 12 months of the calibration date, when you turn it on, a little thing pops up and it says, Hey, I need to be calibrated in 30 days. If you're a technician and you see that pop up in your tester, get on the phone, call your project manager, call your equipment manufacturer, and say, hey, look, I just want to give you a heads up. The certifier that you gave me, it's saying it needs to be calibrated in 30 days. That way they can start making the arrangements to get it in to have it start being calibrated. Because it's better to have it go in, and some of the manufacturers, some of the tester manufacturers have programs where they will give you a loaner tester while yours is in the shop. Right? We're all familiar with the gold package, and but all the most of the test manufacturers have some form of that kind of a program. And that's always a good thing to have. But you know, if you have more than one test or you're not, you know, it's always a good idea to rotate them. Rotate them so that way if one fails or one goes out of calibration, you have a backup. You have a backup. Always a good thing to have a backup when it comes to testors. Just it just is. Okay. Next question, this comes from Sasha. Should I use Velcro or tie wraps for cable dressing in a data center? Great question, Sasha. But before I answer that, I saw a post like today, maybe yesterday, maybe even the day before, I kind of lost track of it. They were asking, can they use electrical tape instead of tape or tie wraps? I mean, instead of tie wraps or velcro. And I was like, Well, technically you can as long as you don't over cinch it. But I don't know if I would use electrical tape to to bundle cables. Now, again, part of the standard, you can use velcro or tie wraps. If you use tie wraps according to the standards, they're gonna be placed at irregular distances and they gotta be loose so you can spin them on the bundle. Okay But your question, Sasha, is about data centers, right? So data centers generally need a lot of airflow, right? That's why they got hot aisles and cold aisles. The hot aisles where all the heat from the equipment gets put into the aisle, the HVAC unit, or not the HVAC unit, but the crack unit, the computer room air conditioning, sucks at hot air, cools it off, and then sends it underneath, and it comes back up through the floor, and that cools everything down. So it's the thing is with you know, that's why you want to make sure when you bundle the cables, you don't block airflow. And I think tie wraps are great for permanent, right? Because if somebody gets into it, especially if you use like a color tie wrap, like an orange or yellow or some weird color, not black or white, that way it now becomes temper evident. So if somebody were to cut off tie wraps and then replace them with black, because you always use green or yellow or whatever color, then you know that somebody has tampered with your cable bundles. Cable bundles. You know, so the the real question is you can use Velcro or or tie wraps, but the real the real thing is watch your bend radiuses. Watch your bend radius, especially when you exit out of the out of the ladder rack. Right, and why and also watch a lot of techs overlook this one. They tend to do nice big bundles coming down the the cable runways. Watch where those cables go across the the support bars because those cables on the bottom can get crushed. That's why the recommendation from the best practice manual says no more than 24 cables per bundle and don't stack them more than six inches high. That way the chances are less that you will crush those cables on the bottom. Okay, next question. This comes from Benji. Benji says, How do I price for unknown site conditions on a fixed bid? Oh god. So, number one, Benji, I think it was two weeks ago, yeah, two weeks ago, I did an episode on terms and conditions. I suggest you go watch that video. Last week's video, I did it on entrance facilities and the five different ways that we can bring signals into the entrance facility. Underground, direct buried, aerial, uh wireless, or tunnel. Yeah, talk about all that stuff, talk about the advantages and the disadvantages, right? Kevin, I thought you said you were leaving. Alright, so moving back on. Uh so yeah, so the the as an estimator, I used to estimate a lot of things where I couldn't go to the job site for whatever reason. So you have to make assumptions. You have to make assumptions. For example, there's going to be clear and enough space, clear space in the interstitial space in the ceiling to run the cables. Okay, there's gonna be able to get far enough away from EMI. So whatever assumptions you make, you better write them down and you better put them in that contract in as under under assumptions or under terms and conditions. And that way it becomes part of the contract documents. That way, if you get out on the job site and you said, okay, well, look, we assumed we were going to use this hallway and now we can't because the electricians are using it, and we gotta go to a different hallway. Now you have a legitimate foundation for change order. Legitimate foundation because you put it in, you put it in the assumptions or the terms and conditions. Okay. Uh all right, now the next question. This comes from Gabrielle or Gabs. New tech on the team is terrified of fusion splicing. How can I get them to be confident? Oh, this is a this is a TJ question all the way. All the way. How do you get a new technician confident while using Anthony's in the house while using a fusion splicer? So the the the here you need to start being careful before you start using a fusion splicer. Fiber itself can be pretty dangerous stuff. And and there was again, there was another another conversation thread where somebody said, Hey, we always hear in fiber classes that if you get if you get it in your in your in your blood vessels, it's gonna go to your heart and kill you. Has that happened to anybody? I know somebody who had 50 plus years of experience with fiber optic cabling and he had a fiber jab in him, it got in one of his veins. He had to go to the hospital to get it removed. Okay, so the far more dangerous dealing with the fiber. Make sure you dispose of it in approved spra approved scraps, containers. Okay? Approved scraps containers. Do not use electrical tape rolled over backwards. Okay, do not.

SPEAKER_02: 24:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 24:23

Um if you break a fiber, dispose of it right away. Also, you know, treat every fiber as if it's alive because if you look at a live fiber with your unprotected eye, you can damage the retina in your eye. So there's a lot of things that you need to do to be safe with fiber, you know, before you even start fusion splicing. Fusion splicing is relatively easy and relatively safe. You may you basically the biggest thing is, you know, you're gonna have to strip the fiber, you're gonna have to cleave the fiber. So watch what you do with that scrap, okay? You're gonna put it in the fusion splicer, it's gonna line the X and the Y axis up, and it's gonna fusion splice it, it's gonna stress test it, and then when you get done, you're gonna pull it outside the heat shrink up, put it in a thing. I Chuck's ADD is bad tonight. I have a fusion splicer up on the pot on the hill in the new podcast studio. Uh, it's a fiber fox fusion splicer. I need to break it out and make videos with it. So again, just just make you know, just make sure that you make that you brief this new person on those those dangers, but maybe maybe act as a mentor, maybe, maybe shadow them, supervise them until they become comfortable doing it. And and don't be understand that if they're gonna be new, they're going to break it. They're gonna do something, not not the fusion spectrum, but they're gonna they're gonna break the fiber, they're gonna do something wrong. That's okay. That's part of the learning process. You know, don't beat them up when they make mistakes because don't remember this. Remember this. At some point in your career, you were that new guy. You were that guy who's nervous, you were that person who broke fiber. So be kind and be patient, okay. Um, how many cat six cables can we run through a two-inch conduit? So that's a great question. I need to know what is the size of the cat six. I need to know how many 90-degree bends you're going to have, right? Because all that factors in. All that factors in. Um, as a matter of fact, here's what I'll do. Here's what I'll do for do for you. I do have a picture of a cable field chart on my phone. I will make a TikTok video and I will show I will show you that chart. Okay. Um, so it kind of really all depends, you know, how many 90s you have, you know, and and and does it because if it's three, then you gotta derate it and a whole bunch of other stuff like that as well. That's a great question. I will make a video for that for you. All right, so moving on. Uh, let me see. The next question, and this is the they got two more questions. This one's from Marcus. What is the easiest way to make labeling actually useful? How about following the standards? You know, I don't understand. People like labeling by the room numbers, people like labeling sequentially. Why not label by the standards? Because if you label by the standards, that label on the faceplate is going to tell you what closet it goes to, what patch panel it goes to, and what port it lands on. So you'll know where the other side of that cable goes to before you've even walked away from the faceplate. Okay. But we under I understand. But young the customer wants to label them this way. If you explain to the customer how their decision is going to cost them more money, quite often that's going to uh make them change their mind. It truly, truly is, right? Um so you know when you do labeling, create some kind of a uh spreadsheet or some kind of a documentation trail for that. There are software programs that you can buy that you where you can put in the the cable type, the cable number, where it goes to what closet. Costs money. It costs money, it's just not cheap. Not cheap. Okay, next question. This comes from Claire. Are wireless surveys necessary every time, or can I wing it? Well, certainly you can wing it, but you're a professional. You're a professional. You always want to at least do what's called a a predictive survey, you know, for like a for for your non-trivial install. So that way, um especially if it's gonna be something that's gonna be high density or mission critical, right? Because it's better to find the problem before it goes into live production. Now predictive you know, predictive is gonna be fine, it's gonna be straightforward, but don't skip the validation part after the install. And document, document, document. Because again, if you wing it, you're you if and it fails, you're gonna be paying for it. See, a lot of people don't realize quality construction, quality installs don't cost money. Well, they cost money. They don't cost more money. It costs more money, poor quality installs cost more money because now you gotta go back to fix it. And instead of going to a new job, well then you are um you're not making the revenue on the previous job. So you're taking the double hit. So poor quality work costs way more than good quality work does. Alright, this next question comes from Derek A Live, live and learn for how you doing uh from Derek. How do I hire somebody who will stay and grow with the company? Oh, I love this question. I love this question. How about treating your employee as their most valuable, as as they are your most valuable asset? Pay them a good living wage. Pay attention to their needs. But understand that not every not every technician is motivated by money. Some are motivated by um titles. Someone motivated by, you know, just every once in a while a pat on the back. Right? So that's the first step. Make sure that you are you wanna be the you want to be known as the contractor who that everybody wants to go work for because you treat them the best. That's the first step in retaining key people in your company. Now let's talk about some steps you can do. When you're doing the actual interviews, right, try to screen for for attitude and learning potential. You know, you want you're gonna want somebody who's a constant learner. You're not that you are interested in the skills that they currently have, but you're also interested in the skills that they want to learn. You're also interested in, you know, the career path they want to go. Ask them, where do you want to be? Do you always want to be a technician, or do you do you want to become a fiber tech? Or do you want to go to become, you know, a project manager or an estimator or a trainer? Right? Depending on how they answer, that's gonna tell you the caliber of the person that you have. Okay, that's that's gonna be the best thing there. And mix again, you know, I I can't say this enough. Pay them a good living wage. Pay them a good living wage. That's a great way to keep and retain good people. So let me go back and look at the comments. That was my last question. Let me see here. Uh I have two years in the industry. Should I take my Bixie? Yes. Jorge, I agree. Yes. You should take your Bixie. I mean, I'll show you that on live stream. There we go. Um, I just did a TikTok video like yesterday or today about certifications in the industry. When you have your certification, it's it shows your employer, it shows your customer that you are dedicated to your craft. Now, on the flip side of that, that's gonna cost money, that's gonna cost time. But on the flip side, there will be some people who will tell you, I'm just as good as a certified Bixie Tech. And the answer is they might be. But that certification means you had to go to an independent third party to prove it, and now you have to get you have to go back and get your continuing education credit. So I obviously agree with that 100%. Alrighty, I I can't read that. I I don't know how to pronounce that name, but uh Unify lets you position and generate heat maps in their controller software and and as do other manufacturers. I'll have to check them out. I will have to check them out. Uh calorie servers, they become uh much cheaper, high prices go into fiber certification. Okay, very good. Uh may have new fibers, built-in self-certification test. Um hold on. So that you bring up a great point. There's a a calibr there's you can't do a calibration. The factory goes in and there's a factory calibration and there's a field calibration. Those are different. Those are different. A factory calibration, they actually go in and test the the internals of the of the testers. They're different than than field calibration. So I will I just will say that, right? Uh there we go. Sign them up with GoFar. Absolutely. GoFar has some great training. They're they're a great sponsor of the channel, and I appreciate them so much, right? Uh okay. This is going back to my question that I had about how the guy was afraid of fusion splicing. Involve alcohol and party games while learning about a fusion splicer. Obviously, he's joking. Obviously, he's joking, right? There you go. So those are all my questions for tonight. Make sure, make sure that you send me questions for tom for next week's. So DM me and I'll do that one video for the for the two for the uh um for the cables that go cat six cables going through the two inch pipe. I'll make a YouTube video for that as well. So until next time, everybody. Remember, knowledge is power.