AHL: Skilled Labor Is The New Constraint

We take rapid-fire questions from the field and get blunt about what’s changing in low voltage work, from labor shortages to PoE terminations to fiber habits that build real trust. We also dig into estimating mistakes, dark fiber strategies, cybersecurity boundaries, and what to learn before stepping into design and the RCDD path.
• livestream schedule change coming soon and how to stay connected 
• fundraiser progress update and pushing to hit the goal 
• LinkedIn profile lockout story and where to find our daily LinkedIn content 
• labor as the biggest estimating risk and why averages hide crew variability 
• adding risk management and assumptions to bids to protect schedules 
• cross-training as the fastest way to reduce labor constraints 
• pass-through versus traditional RJ45 terminations under PoE loads 
• importance of crimper maintenance and matching tool to connector 
• choosing a specialization based on passion and then stacking skills 
• certifications and credentialing that improve marketability and job access 
• AI data center growth and the bottleneck debate across GPUs, power, cooling, cabling, skilled labor 
• fiber testing growth beyond class fundamentals and why humility matters 
• contamination control, labeling, and documentation as the marks of a great tech 
• building customer confidence so clients request specific technicians 
• estimator mistakes under tight margins including site logistics and lessons learned 
• dark fiber and spare capacity rules of thumb with cost versus flexibility thinking 
• where cybersecurity responsibility starts for structured cabling teams 
• what to keep learning before moving from field work into RCDD and design 
• firestopping foam selection, inspector expectations, and safety concerns 

Also, keep in mind that I'm still doing the uh Save Our Sons walk-a-thon um uh ministry event, trying to raise money for um Living Hands Ministry in Dade City, Florida. So if you haven't donated yet, please go look at my LinkedIn profile, go look at my Facebook profile and donate to that cause. 
So if you ever consider joining the Let's Talk Cablin community, please make sure that you do so.

Transcript

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Livestream Updates And Fundraiser Push

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Wednesday night 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. That can only mean one thing. Live after hours with your favorite, your favorite RCDD, and you know that's me.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Stay connected. Do it right.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

So Wednesday night, 6 p.m. You know, we always do this live stream. Be aware of the fact that we are going to be changing the live stream to a different night very soon. It's probably going to start going to Monday night, so keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that I'm still doing the uh Save Our Sons walk-a-thon um uh ministry event, trying to raise money for um Living Hands Ministry in Dade City, Florida. Okay, man, have you donated yet? So if you haven't donated yet, please go look at my LinkedIn profile, go look at my Facebook profile and donate to that cause. I am still 40% short on my goal. 40% short. If you know me, I don't like being short on my goal. I just don't. I don't. So there we go. Flip over to the chat. Let me see. We are starting to see some chat messages come in already. Who are those chats? There we go. Mountain Dew is in the house. There we go, there we go. He's always, always drinking his Mountain Dew. I appreciate that, my friend. So yeah, make sure you go and support that cause. Also, did you did you see last week's episode? Oh, I forgot to do the acronym challenge. FCS. FCS. What does that acronym mean? Huh? What does that acronym mean? I'll give you guys a few seconds to answer that in the chat box. In the meantime, what are you drinking? What are you drinking? I am drinking ginger ale Zevia mixed with ice, water, and a throat lozenge. Yeah, because you know being loud and obnoxious hurts your throat. So tell us in the chat box, what are you drinking? And then also answer that acronym challenge.

Upcoming Guests And Study Group Plans

SPEAKER_00 2:37

So anyway, I started a two-part series. First episode aired Monday of this week. I had some famous people on. Ed, the old tech guy, you know him from TikTok, you know him from YouTube. Big creator. I think he's got over 20,000 followers, I think, on YouTube. I also had Henry Frank from Belden. Henry Frank from Belden. Now, being from Belden is not what made him famous. He was the chair for the TIA 42 committee for the longest time. Cindy just took it over this year. So these are people who are very knowledgeable. So we talked about data center myths. Why is there so much why is there so much hatred towards data centers? What good does data centers bring to our industry? So we talk about those kinds of things. So make sure you check that series, that show that came out on Monday. Also, it's a two-part, two-part, two-part series. So the second session comes out this Monday. So make sure you watch that one. And I got some great, great, great shows coming up behind that. Matt Schumacher from Leviton's gonna come on and talk about the truth about counterfeit cabling. That better be a Ed's in the house. Ed, I just told everybody about uh your episodes, and TJ's in the house. So I got Matt Schumacher coming on. We're gonna talk about the truth about counterfeit cabling. What is CCA cabling? Why should you not use CCA cabling? What are the liabilities if you use CCA cabling? And we also touched briefly on CPR, um uh CPR, not not the CPR like you do on people, but uh construction products, something or another. Uh talking about the flammability of products in a building. So we talked about CPR products and what that all means. Great show. We actually had to record it twice. Record it twice. Hey T uh TJ, I got a question for you while you since you're here, because you probably are way more accurate in answering this question than I am. So, right before you came in, uh Tommy13 asked, how fast should somebody terminate 12? I'm sorry, how fast should someone splice 12 fibers and then splice a 48-count tray? How fast should somebody splice 12 fibers and how fast should they splice a 48-count tray? So, TJ, if you could answer that, I'd I would greatly appreciate that, my friend. Trav's in the house. So, yeah, so that's a good show. And then right behind that, um, I got Shelly Olmsted on. Shelly Olmsted is a uh senior level management person for IES. And we talk about the challenges of uh finding, keeping, and growing people who build the network or with the ICD infrastructure. So there you go. TJ says, with prep, about four and a half hours. That's why there you go. Uh Valid says, received my TDMM version 15 the other day, starting study for the RCD. 13 years in the low voltage world. Okay. So good. Uh so Valid, you didn't say what your question was, but guess what? Chuck's starting a new RCD study group soon. Yes, I am. I'll put that message out there right now. I've revamped the study group sessions that I do, so it's an 11-week thing. And um, so I'm doing I'm doing a new study group. So there you go. Um there you go. So that's uh oh, I never told you what FCF stands for. FCS stands for frame check sequence. Frame check sequence. So now let's get straight into our questions. Okay, straight into the questions. We already answered one already. How long does it take to uh splice 12 strands of fiber? Uh and TJ, a very well-known fiber guy, says four and a half hours. Uh so there you go. There's your answer to that.

LinkedIn Lockout And Community Support

SPEAKER_00 6:33

So the first question comes in from uh uh comes from David on LinkedIn. Hey, did you notice? Did you notice my LinkedIn profile disappeared this week? Yes, it disappeared. Um I started getting calls, I started getting messages, I started getting text messages from friends like Chuck, did you win the lottery? I'm like, no, why? He says, your your late your LinkedIn page is gone. I'm like, what? Yeah, Chuck's LinkedIn page got hammered this week. So evidently LinkedIn thought there was an issue, somebody trying to break into my account, and they locked me out of my account. So I'm back into the account. I finally got back access back to it, but it's they said it could be two to four days before my peers or my connections on LinkedIn will see my profile again. So if you see a if you see me disappear off the radar off of LinkedIn, I am not gone. I promise you I'm not gone. I am here and I'm pushing out of LinkedIn. And by the way, if you're not on LinkedIn, make sure that you go and look me up on LinkedIn and send me a friend request, okay? Because I put lots of great content. Project management Monday, where I do project management tips, TDMM Tuesday, valid. TDMM Tuesday, where I talk about uh questions and answers for the TDMM. I have uh named this tool Wednesday, it's a Thursday for people trying to get their technician certification, right? And then I do pro um pro tip Fridays. So all that stuff's broadcast on LinkedIn. And also, I'm you know, I'm creating I'm creating a Let's Talk Cabling community. Let's talk cabling community. All right, here's the here's the issue. Uh the podcast needs to make more money because it's not covering the bills, okay? Not covering the bills, and we need to get that fixed. So if you ever consider joining the Let's Talk Cablin community, please make sure that you do so. Okay, any little bit helps, any little bit helps. So, okay, first question from David.

Estimating Schedules With Labor Shortages

SPEAKER_00 8:38

And he get this came came to me from LinkedIn. As a project manager, I feel like labor is becoming harder to secure than materials. Are you changing the way you estimate schedules? Because qualified technicians are becoming the biggest constraint. The biggest constraint. Let me tell you this right out of the gate, David. Labor has always been the riskiest part of a project from the estimating standpoint. Okay, materials are materials, right? As long as you did accurate rake-offs and you did your counts accurately, the materials is pretty much going to stay the same. It's always been the labor that has been the problem. Okay, that's the unknown. Because what if you get a crew who let's say, let's say you get the dream crew, you get Ed the old tech guy, TJ Payton, Matt Abfel as your crew. Well, guess what? You're probably gonna be under budget. But if you get the uh the crew where, you know, they say they work 8 to 5, but they show up at 9:30, they leave at 3, they take a two-hour lunch break. Well, guess what? You're probably not gonna make your labor budget. And as an estimator, you never know who's going to be the crew on that job. So your estimate, your labor of your labor values are averages unless you know specifically you're gonna get a particular crew, which as an estimator, that rarely happens. So labor has always been the problem. That's always been the big risk on projects. But in today's environment, in today's environment with labor shortages, okay, that's why everybody's hammering on finding people, all the big companies, Big C, all the trade shows, even Mike Rowe is out there saying, we don't have enough people coming into the trade. That makes that problem even worse. Even worse. So as an estimator, it's always your first duty, it's always your first duty to make sure that when you're estimating the projects, you know, I used to tell people all the time, uh, my boss, when bids would come in, and I tell him, look, I don't need practice estimating. I want to estimate the projects that A, I'm likely to win, B, that I know we can do it. Okay, I don't want to just throw a number out there just so the customer can have a number to go bid it against somebody else. Okay, I've got I got practice estimating. I don't need more practice. Okay, so labor shortages is making it even proper even more. And what that's going to do is if you're a good company, then what should happen is you should be having some kind of risk management rolled into your estimates. So you identify that risk management for that labor shortages, identify it that, hey, that there's a problem, and what are the workarounds for that problem? Okay, that that's that's how you on the on the estimating side. On the operational side, what you really need to consider is cross-training, cross-training your field teams. You should be on TikTok right now. They are blowing it up. TJ and another guy are talking a whole bunch of cool stuff about fiber. You should be watching that right now on TikTok. Um, cross-train your people. Cross-train your people. I'm gonna say it louder for the people in the back. Cross-train your people. Okay. We as an industry, we've always been horrible about training people. And you could say lots of reasons. I don't have the money to send them to training, and what's a new guy, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you are not training your people, you are preparing to fail. Okay. So take your fiber guys, train them on how to do stuff they don't know how to do. Okay. Take your copper guys, train them on how to do things that the that they don't know how to do, right? Cody is out here trying to start some problems on TikTok. I'll answer your thing there in just one second, Mr. Cody. Shotzi joined us on TikTok, by the way. Hey, Shotzi. Um, so yeah, cross-train your people. Cross-train your people. A good the sign of a good manager, listen to me now. The sign of a good manager is somebody who trains his people, right, that they're supervising to take their position. Okay, but Chuck, then I'm gonna lose my job. You should be learning to get your boss's position. Okay, don't be afraid to train people. Okay, cross-train them.

unknown 13:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

And then also for those who are working for smaller companies, and this even works for big companies too. Um, smaller companies, communicate with the owners. For larger companies, communicate with your area vice president or whatever the case may be. And start talking to them about these kinds of strategies. Because if they're a good manager, they probably already thought about it. But you know what? You are closer to the problem than they are. So you might have some information, you might have some opinions that they may not have figured.

unknown 13:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Okay, so now

Pass-Through Connectors For PoE Debate

SPEAKER_00 13:43

next question. This comes from TikTok. This is a live question. A lot of my questions are submitted in advance, but this one's live. This one comes from Cody. And Cody says, What's my opinion on pass-through connectors with devices that require power over Ethernet? Power over Ethernet. Now, for those of you know what power over Ethernet is, power over Ethernet is sending DC current over twisted pair cabling to power up devices, cameras and and wireless access points and a bunch of other things. So we're putting DC current across the cable along with that network signal. And it comes in a bunch of different sizes. I mean, for of voltages, you know, there's 15 watt, 30 watt, 60 watt, 90 watt. I think AV even has a hundred watt. Well, technically it's like 99 watts, but so we're putting a lot of DC current across that cable. So now the concern here that Cody's raising is your uh your your modular, not your modular plug, but your RJ45. Well, that's the old term, school term for it, but your mod plug, which looks like that, which looks like that for those people on the screen over there, right? They come in two different they come in two different kinds of connectors. Okay, they come in pass-through connectors and they come in through traditional connectors. The traditional connectors have been around ever since I've been in this industry. Pass-through connectors are relatively, well, they're new were. I won't say they're relatively new, but they're new were. And the what's the what the difference is with pass-through connectors, so when you strip that jacket off the conductor and you line up those pairs, you got to shove them up in the back side of that connector, right? The back side of that connector, and then they push all the way up to the top, and then you take your crimper and then you crimp them. Okay. It does take some skill to do that, to do it nicely, to do it efficiently. That does take some skill. So manufacturers came out with this with pass-through connectors. So what happens is when you push those conductors in, there's holes on the end of that, and they go out the other hole. You can grab them, pull them out, and then you can crimp them. So when you crimp them, it leaves bare copper conductors on the very end face. Okay, that's what a pass-through connector is. There's a huge debate, huge debate on the internet right now, especially in the low voltage circles, right, as to which is better pass-through connector. Performance-wise, they both perform the same. No big differences there. Where the problems come into play, two areas, okay, Cody, let me know if I'm right or wrong here. Two areas. Number one, if you don't maintain your crimper with a pass-through connector, when you crimp them down, what happens sometimes is it grabs a conductor and it might stretch one conductor a little bit more than the other or not. So they kind of all different lengths. And when you plug that into a switch that's putting DC current on across it, that could, not always, but that could cause a problem. So what some of the manufacturers have done is they've made PoE modular connectors. Well, after you crimp, there's a little plastic piece that goes over that. Okay. If you maintain your crimper, if you have good quality craftsmanship, and you got that little plastic bar that comes up front, I don't have an issue with pass-through connectors. I don't get the whole debate. Well, I no wait a minute, take it back. I do get that debate. I truly do. Well, I like the trade, the traditional ones because I've been in this industry since 1999, and that's all I've ever done. I don't like these young whippersnappers, they don't like pass-through connectors. And the new guys, they like the pass-through connectors because let's be honest, they are a little bit easier. So if you do them correctly, if you maintain your crimper, if you use here's another one a lot of people miss. If you're using, let's say, for example, okay, I got uh here on my desk, these are Simply RJ45 connectors. I always got all kinds of cool stuff on my desk. Simply RJ45 connectors, and this is not a sponsored show. So simply RJ45, hey, contact me, right? The podcast needs money. Um, so use the crimper that's designed to work with that mod and connector. That's going to give you your best results. Yes, the standards tell us what are the dimensions of the mod and connector, and they should, it shouldn't really make a difference. You should be able to use a Klein mod crimper on the Simply RJ45 connectors, right? Okay, and you can to an extent, but if you want the best termination, the best performance, use the crimper that's designed to match with the mod and connector that you're using. TJ, tell me if I'm right or wrong there, buddy. Um, yeah, so there you go. Uh Joe says, My first year in the industry, and they stuck me with a service guy, and I absorb so much. Oh, that's Joe, you are lucky. You are lucky because a lot of people in our industry, first when they first get our industry, they get put on an installation crew. And all they see is pulling category-rated cable, terminating category-rated cabling, testing category-rated cabling. And then when they finally get enough skills and they're proficient enough as a tech, they might get asked to go do a service call. And then they walk into a demarcation room and they see a 66 block, and their mind just. So you are so lucky, Joe, that you got to do that work run with a service tech from the very, very beginning. Because you get to see 66 blocks, bigs blocks, you know, um grounding and turn grounding and bonding. You get to see building entrance terminals, you get to see all different kinds of things, you know, commercial office buildings, veterinary offices, national landmarks, military bases. You get a I think every personal opinion here, personal opinion. I think everybody who starts off in this industry should run where they serve as tech for their first year because they get that, and then pull them off and put them on an installation crew. That's that's I think the best way to do that. Question

Picking A Specialty And Earning Credentials

SPEAKER_00 19:38

from Jordan, and this came from YouTube. Says, I'm about three years into the trade, and everybody tells me to specialize. If you are starting over today, would you focus on fiber, wireless, security, AV, or something else that you think has the biggest upside over the next decade? Oh my God, that's a great question. That's a great question. So, my peeps and TikTok, if you had to start over today, would you start off in fiber, copper, wireless, security, or AV? And my people over here on Restream, same thing. Tell me how you would start off in this industry. I'm gonna tell you right now, yeah, I've said this before, and I'll say it again. Our industry is like a tree. The low, I call it the low voltage tree. I'll even put a graphic right here when I when I put this out the public, or put this up to the thing. The low voltage tree, right? There's a trunk and it goes up, and there's many branches off this tree. There's there's structured cabling for voice, structured cabling for data, security, access control, uh, distributed antenna systems, wireless, fiber, AV, all that stuff. Okay, and there's no one expert in all of those branches. So what you've act with only three years into this trade, you've already identified that there's many branches to this tree, and you're trying to figure out which one to do. Okay. The first one I would choose is choose the one that you're passionate about first. Okay. I kind of started off in a lot of people don't know this. I started off my it in this industry working for a company called Super TV. Super TV. So we were kind of like a cable TV type of service. We brought in broadcast signals from an antenna, ran it through coax into the set top box, and hooked up their TV. Okay. I didn't do nothing about structure cabling at this point in my life. But you know what it did is it gave me a fascination for AV equipment and all the different types of displays and all you know, RCA cables, and inputs, and outputs, and all that kind of stuff, and matrixes, and all that kind of stuff. That's a really cool industry. So start off with something you're passionate about first. Then once you've mastered that skill, then then start thinking, thinking about start talking about fiber. Okay. Hey, I need to I need to go go to the Big C go to Bixie Training Academy down in Tampa, Florida. Look up Nelson. Hello, Nelson, and schedule a course. Do the fiber course. There's also other ones, too. There's the FOA, the Fiber Optic Association. They got their CFOT certification, certified fiber optic technician. They also have a the F kind of weird thing. I forgot about this until somebody mentioned it to me today. The FOA has a copper certification too. It's called the I'm going off of memory here, so bear with me if I get this wrong. I think it's the CPCT, Customer Premise Cabling Technician. I think that's what the certification actually is. So they do copper certifications too. So then do that one, right? Work your way up. Nobody starts off in this industry knowing everything. Nobody does. And understand this, Jordan. Certifications matter. Credentialing matters. I see this post repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated all the time. I've been in the industry for 20 years. I've never need to have a credential. I've never had a job that has a credential. Good for you. Good for you. But guess what? There's lots of companies out there, especially the federal government. They want credential people on their job sides. So get that credential. That credential makes you more marketable, more valuable. They do truly matter. And just because you were taught by somebody who had 40 years of experience, doesn't mean they taught you correctly. All right. If they're still calling the telecom room the IDF, they are not up to date. They are not up to date. I'm sorry, I hate to say that to my people, but yeah, if you call the IDF, you're not up to date. Sorry. And the funny thing is, is I don't correct people when they use the wrong acronyms. I just don't. Unless there's, I think they'd really want to know the best. And the good thing is, um, Jordan, is you're in this industry at the right time. Because there is so much stuff coming down the pike right now. When I've when I got in this industry 40 plus years ago, I had to walk to work uphill in the snow both ways. The dad joke right there for you, right? Dad joke. Um yeah, so but when I got in, we there was just voice cabling and data cabling. So the only the only real true industry growth that was happening was people start talking about doing telephone and ethernet on the same cable. Okay. But in today's environment, we've got VoIP, right? That that's you know, that's that keeps going on. We've got we got building automation, Poe lighting, PoE curtains. There's even I got read somebody a company reached out to me just a few a day or so ago, and he wants to come on the show. There, it's a company that makes this film that you put on a window, like a window that faces outside, and it's connected to a PoE switch, and you can through software, you can turn it on. What it does is it makes that window where you can see through it, it makes it go opaque. That's cool stuff. We never had that, right? We never had that. And now, and on top of that, you know, you got fault-managed power systems, right? You've got um holocore fiber, multi-core fiber, power over fiber. All this stuff is kind of coming on board, and and and we're starting, it's a great time to be in this industry. So, what you really need to do is you really need to think about, again, chase that thing you're passionate about first, and then start thinking about your long-term career. Think of this thing as a career, not a job. Not a job. Those who treat their this thing as a career will go further than those who treat it as a job. Right? So there you go. All righty, search for short, starting out older guys helps. Uh, should not be don't have the two, yes. Uh, depending on whether you're in the career, yes. Uh, I'm so glad that multiple sides of low voltage and IT, even understanding how the end equipment works. Uh, you know, I didn't even Joshua, thank you for that. I didn't even talk about going to the equipment side, like Ed does. Ed does, he does switches and routers and servers and all that kind of stuff. So if you're passionate about computers, use the low voltage industry as a hurdle to get to the equipment side. And you know, that used to it used to be that way in our industry. It used to be that way. But if working with computers absolutely uh uh interests you, then use structure cabling to

AI Data Center Bottlenecks And Supply Strain

SPEAKER_00 26:30

get to that side. Okay, next question from Kevin. And this came from Clapper. He says, with AI infrastructure growing so quickly, do you think the biggest bottleneck is still GPUs, or has the conversion shifted to power, cooling, cabling, or skilled labor? Ed, I'd like to hear your answer on that. Um, so Kevin wants to know what is the bottleneck? Is it GPUs? Because I don't track the GPU market, uh, or is it power, cooling, or cabling, or skilled labor? Tell us in the chat box, Mr. Ed, what what you think about that. Um, from my point of view, again, I don't track the GPU market. I don't track the server market. So for me, I see a huge problem with skilled labor. Skilled labor. Again, you you'll hear this when I when I when I when I uh air the show with Shelly, she even said, and she Shelly works for IES, one of the largest low voltage contractors out there. She said, I just want you to be able to show up for work on time. I want you to be honest. I want you to be, if I give you a task, you'll do the task. I will teach you the skills on how to pull, terminate, and test. You got to have that good, solid foundation, right? And um, so for me, looking at the data center infrastructure, I it's a biased opinion. I'm gonna tell you that right now. So for me, it's the skills. It's the skills. And and I on a basis conversational because I've got several friends who work in data centers. One of them is my brother, and and his and they all complain about finding skilled labor, bringing somebody on who's not just a total idiot, right? Um, there are issues with supply chains right now because, you know, like for example, look at fiber. Right now, there's a long, long lead time with fiber because of data centers. And I think, you know, nobody's ever said this. Nobody's ever said this in the in the trade magazines or stuff. But I also think, and I might be wrong, but I also think that another issue driving the fiber shortage is the war in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine. Because they're using the drones to attack the enemy, the the Russians. They can't use radio frequencies because that ooze can be jammed. So they're attaching fiber to the drones, and then it's got a little canister underneath, and as the drone flies, it pays out the fiber and they communicate it with the fiber. Well, you can't penetrate fiber. And I've seen many pictures of force covered with what look like, you know, I live in Florida. We have these things called um banana spiders. You go out in the woods, they're everywhere. That's what it looks like. It looks like spider webs everywhere. So I really think part of the fiber shortage is because of the war in Ukraine. I can't base that on anything. I haven't read anything that confirms or denies that, but there's got to be some kind of correlation there, right? Alrighty, next question. This comes from Noah. Noah. Uh let me see. Skilled labor is a major one, but chips and power hurts us as well. Excellent. Uh, run magnet processors taken up by AI Robotics. Also slow things down. So, yeah, there's a lot of stuff right now. A lot of

Fiber Testing Habits That Win Trust

SPEAKER_00 29:44

stuff going on. Next question comes from Noah. I'm an apprentice, and everybody talks to me about learning fiber testing beyond passing a certification class. Yes. Um, what are some field habits that separate an average field tech from one that everybody wants on their project? And you know, Noah, that's actually a good, good question. Let's be honest. Let's be honest. There are some people that as soon as they graduate their Bixie tech class, installer fiber class, there are some people when they pass their CFOT class, they come on, they come out and they just think they know everything. The most dangerous person on a job site is the person who says, I know everything. That's the most dangerous person on a job site. I've got 40 plus years of experience in this industry, and I will be the first to tell you, I don't know everything. If I don't know everything, you don't know everything. So, yeah, so that's the first thing is number one, after you get past that class, be humble. Be humble that you just realize that you only learn the foundation of fiber testing. Okay. You only learn that foundation. A great technician will have that foundation, and then a couple years, two, three, four years of actual troubleshooting in the field, learning how, you know, how certain types of events cause certain kinds of signals. What's the difference between, you know, and when you look at an OTDR, what's the signal look like when it goes through a connection? What does a signal look like when it goes through um uh uh uh a um a splice, right? How much should that be? What wavelength should you be operating at? How do those wavelengths affect the test results? And what about the pulse length? There's lots and lots of things, and they do kind of go over that stuff in the classes, but until you actually put it to use in the field, that's when you really become a technician, right? But and you know, and I can't I can't talk about fiber without telling everyone again, you you've you're probably tired of hearing me say this. The number one problem with fiber is contamination, dust, urgent debris. Okay. I think the second problem with fiber, and if TJ's still on, he might have a thought or two about this documentation. Documentation, labeling both sides of that fiber, right? So when you're on one side, you know where the other side of that goes. That's gonna help you out a lot. That's what makes a difference between a good technician and a great technician, right? Is how they label stuff. And you know, I know the standard says you're not supposed to use sharpies, you know, you're supposed to use a machine-generated uh um labeling machine. Got that. Yes, I understand that. But if I have to choose between no labels and sharpie, and or or and that's it, label with a sharpie, right? Because I can always come back with a label machine and fix it later. But document it, document it, document it. So that way, again, going back to the service tech question was going on earlier, if that way they know where the other end of that fiber goes. Because it's not always easy. I mean, you talk to TJ and you talk to people where who are doing G Pon and a bunch of other stuff, you know, or data centers, right? It tells you exactly. I'll I'll use data centers as my example. The other even that label in that box will tell you which rack it goes to, which rack unit it's in, and which port it's in. So that way you can visually, mentally see the other end of that fiber before you've walked away from one side. Okay. So the the best technicians always, always label, always label. And all what does all that really do? It builds customer confidence. Builds customer confidence. You probably think, well, check on the fiber, check in the field. Why do I care about Daryl? The RCDD is in the house. Hey, Daryl, um, why do I care about customer confidence? Okay. You care about care customer confidence two ways. Number one, because of the company, right? If the customer has confidence within your company, but they got good fiber technicians, they will keep using your company. And that's going to keep you employed. Okay. The second half of that, the second half of that is if you build, I've said this before, if you build customer confidence to they learn to trust you specifically as a technician, what you will find is when they win it when when they are estimating out, when they're asking for price for new projects, the customer will say, Hey, we want TJ on this job. We're not going to give you this job if you don't put TJ on it. Yes, because that customer has confidence in TJ, right? So now you'll put TJ on the job. That bills, number one, TJ's gonna go above and beyond, because he goes above and beyond anyway. He's gonna go above and beyond and beyond and beyond to make sure you're super happy, right? To make sure that you get done the way you want. He's gonna he's gonna spend the time, he's gonna invest the time to learn the nuances of your project, of your specifications, of the way that you like things to be done. That's that's that is why the things you can do to go above and beyond. Let's check TikTok because I saw a bunch of stuff flying. Uh let me see. Uh good fiber repair tech here looking to segue into OSP or mainline. So, Mr. Nasty McGrew, I will tell you right now, right out of the gate, um, I've never done mainline. I've always been a structured cabling guy, cabling within the within the office buildings and maybe cabling between two buildings. For those who don't know, mainline is the fiber cable for your cable TV service. Okay, that's that's what sends the fiber, the signals to your local to your local neighbors. I've never done that. I've never done that. So I can't really talk about how to segue into that. Oh my god, that's a good show. How to segue into mainline. Oh my gosh. I'm writing that down. It's gonna be a future show. Segway into mainline. I'm writing it down. I'm gonna find someone to talk to it about, and I'm gonna bring them on, and that's just because of you, Nasty, Nasty McGrew. Um, but I will tell you this, because you also said um uh OSP, outside plant. So outside plant can be customer owned, it can be owned by the service provider. Um if you can get on with the service provider, that's a great opportunity because um they they invest a lot of training and it's a good career path. Um you can do OPGW like TJ does, right? That's considered outside plant. That's a very that's a very specialized outside plant, too. Um, and then you can also look at, you know, doing learning. Go to the Bixie website, download the OSP DRM, the outside plant design reference manual, and just read through it, right? And then you'll kind of that's gonna kind of help educate you, maybe take a class on that, and then if it's still issue, maybe get a credential on that. Again, that's gonna do is that's gonna open up opportunities to go work for companies who do an outside plant. Okay, so there you go. So, but for as far as mainline, I I don't I don't have uh uh I don't have the answer to that one though. So there you go.

Where Estimates Go Wrong Today

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Uh so getting back to the question, uh this one comes from Sarah and came to me via Facebook. Oh my gosh, I've already 10 minutes over. Uh this happens every single time. I always get way more questions I can go through. Uh so Sarah, how many more do I have after this? Looks like three. I'm gonna keep going until it ends. You guys okay with that? If I go a little extra on tonight's show? You okay? Tell me yes or no. If it's okay, I go a little bit longer than normal. Because I'm gonna do it anyway. So Sarah asked me, it feels like every bid, every bid has tighter margins, faster schedules, and more scope than last year. Where do you think estimators are making the most expensive mistakes in today's low voltage projects? Um I think you I think that's an accurate, an accurate observation, Sarah. I truly do. Because there's a you know, because of all the shortages on copper and fiber and and labor and a bunch of other stuff, um, and and especially you know, everybody's on data centers making money. Um, yeah, I think you're right. So here's here's some things that I think estimators make mistakes when it comes to those tight budgets, right? So uh my brother's got 10% battery. If any of you guys know my brother, send him a text message right now and say, hey, you only have 10%. And it and it came up on Chuck's show. There you go. Um, so when you're doing those bids, you know, there's there's a any good estimator, they're gonna come up with terms and conditions and assumptions. Terms and conditions and assumptions. So make sure you put some assumptions on your labor side, right? On the labor side, that talks about you know, you're basing this project on the assumption that you're gonna have, you know, a two-man crew, three-man crew, five-man crew, right? And then and then basically that would put that in assumption. That way, if it changes, let's say, you know, scope creep reaches in, you've got a legitimate foundation to chase a fate, uh chase a change order, right? Chase to change that change order. Um, also, yeah, this is where a lot of estimators kind of fail, and that's site logistics planning. Site logistics planning. They estimate how long it takes to pull cables, how long it takes to terminate cables, test cables. But what about not on a small job? This doesn't really matter so much, but on a big job, where you're pulling 100,000 feet of cable, that 100,000 feet of cable doesn't just magically appear from the from the warehouse to the job site. It takes time to get that stuff there, right? Put that in the bid. And that doesn't have to be done by your technicians, by the way. A lot of your bigger companies, they will have just they'll hire a warehouse manager and then a couple warehouse people, and their only job is to unload trucks coming in, inventory it, and then when they got a big job out on a job site, they will drive it to the job site so the technicians can do what the technicians are paid for, and that is to pull, terminate, and test cabling, right? All righty, there we go. Um, and then the biggest thing that you can do as well, Sarah, is do what's called project post-mortems, lessons learned after the project. Go back and be honest. What mistakes did you make and what could you have done better and what went good on the job? And then learn from those so that way you don't make those same mistakes on this project, same projects moving forward.

Dark Fiber And Future-Proofing Rules

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Next question, Anthony uh from Fiber Planner on Instagram. More customers are asking whether they should install additional dark fiber while the walls are open, okay? And the rule of thumb for deciding how much spare capacity is enough without overspending. So future proofing strategies come in many varieties. I always recommend, if possible, run some dark fiber. For those people who don't know what dark fiber is, let's say that you're putting and doing a job, and the customer says, hey, I need a 12 strand. No, no, let's do a six strand. I need a six strand between this telecom room and that telecom room. Okay? So you you price out six strand fiber, uh, labor to terminate six strands, labor to test six strands, and you're and you give them the price. Why not? Why not? And I know this, I know the the Bixie best practice manual say 50%. 50%. But if it's if it's a six-strand fiber, why not just price in a 12-strand fiber? So what a dark strand fiber is, is you you if you order 12 strand fiber, the customer only paid for six. So you run the 12-strand fiber and you only terminate six on each side. Those other six are left unterminated, hence dark fiber. Okay. And here's the beautiful thing. Now you're thinking, okay, well, the price of a six-stand, uh, the price of a 12-strand is going to be double that. No, it's not. No, it's not, because the labor to pull a six-stand versus a 12-strand is exactly the same. Okay. You're still only terminated six kick six fibers on each side. You're still only testing six fibers. So the only difference in the cost is the additional per foot cost of the fiber itself. And that's relatively negligible most times. So, you know, but yeah, I had said 15 to 25%. I think it's probably a uh probably a more realistic number. Um, but if I can get away, because you know, it doesn't make sense, right? You got you got to use some common sense. If you're pulling a 24 strand, do you want to do you want to double and go to 48 strand? That's a that's a jump. You know, I did six to twelve. That's a reasonable jump. So always do the the cost versus the flexibility. So think about it. And and also you got you got to find out what is the the pain point for the customer, right? The pain point. 48 count and above is where the price points changes. You know, that's actually a great point, too. Um, you know, we start getting up to above the 48 strands, those numbers start do jumping, don't they? Yes. Uh, and then you know, try to find out what is what does the owner want on their return investment. Because here's how you sell that. Here's how you sell that. Because you know, the customer say, well, I only wanted a six strand. Okay, but here's the thing. When you go to just let's say you need a another channel, that's that's a that's an eight strand, right? All that all I'm gonna charge you is the cost to terminate, the cost to test. That I'm not running a whole nother cable. So that's a great way to think about that and explain that to the customer, right?

unknown 43:26

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

Uh Vinny, always get extra, and that is with the true about the price difference. Yes, exactly. And then then there's scalability off of it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The next question comes from Lisa.

Cybersecurity Starts At Physical Access

SPEAKER_00 43:39

Cybersecurity conversations seem to be moving everywhere in the low voltage meeting now. For structured cabling professionals, where do you think the responsibility starts and where should it end? Oh my gosh. This is a cut this is a question for Ed. Cybersecurity conversations. How does it really affect the the Layer one, the physical layer, the wire monkeys. You know, a lot of people think, well, Chuck, I'm just doing cabling, so cybersecurity doesn't really matter to me. Well, you know what? You might be running some cable to a camera. And are there known issues with cybersecurity with the camera or that manufacture camera? Because if you're running a cable, your company's probably also putting in the camera, too. So, you know, even though there's a difference between the physical layer and the logical security layer, you still got to think about this. And you need to make sure that you understand what those cyber risks are and make sure that you uh you do everything you can to reduce those risks and make sure, again, we talked about the assumptions earlier. Maybe put that in there in that in that assumption. Okay, the next question. Uh, you start and stop at the physical, your physical entry and points, access control, who can touch the cable? That's a great point, Ed. And I did an episode, I want to say about eight months ago. Um I interviewed a company, and I can't remember the name of the company off the top of my head, but they actually have a software system that as soon as it detects that there's a cyber attack, it physically disconnects the fiber. Physically disconnects it. You there's no better cybersecurity than actually disconnecting it. Right? There you

Moving From Field Work Into RCDD

SPEAKER_00 45:23

go. Uh, last question comes from Tyler. Uh, and this came from YouTube. He says, for someone who has about five years in the field who's thinking about becoming an RCDD and moving into design, what experience should they have before leaving the day-to-day installations behind? Number one, Tyler, don't ever leave the day-to-day installations behind. Always keep those experiences in your head because that's going to make you a good estimator. That's gonna make you a good designer. Because that way, when the customer wants to do something stupid, like, well, let's put in jail every 20 feet. Well, now you because you have the field experience, you can tell them why that's not a good idea. Not a good idea. Don't ever, ever discount field experience because that matters the most. So Daryl's back in the house again. Um another thing I would say to you too, Tyler, is um learn the codes. Learn the standards, learn the best practice manuals. And if I have to pick an order, learn the best practice manuals first. Okay? And because here's the thing, again, codes, standards, best practice manuals. Think of a three-tier cake. The best practice manuals follows the standards and the codes. The standard always follows the codes. The codes don't follow anything. And as I said last week, I'm pretty sure it was last week I said this. As I said last week, codes are for safety, not for performance. So learn the best practice manuals first, because they're they incorporate the codes and they kind of work your way down. Because at some point in time, somebody will ask you, well, why can't I have paint on my cable? Well, you're gonna need to know where in the code book to go find that. Okay. I think it's 311 paragraph B if I remember right, but don't quote me on that. I'd actually have to go look it up, right? Um, so learn the code standards and then also practice your communication skills. Yeah, we work in the communication industry and we suck at communicating. So learn how to communicate with people. You know, I hear the uh uh I I hear a lot of people all the time say, well, you know, um is the job done? Yeah, the job's done. But oops, but it's not done then, is it? You know, when when when communicating with a uh with a supervisor, when communicating with a supervisor, especially if you're communicating a problem, quick, simple, straight to the point. Don't write four paragraphs. I don't read four paragraphs even on social media posts. If I see four paragraphs, I skip it. I skip it. And a pro and a project manager, a program manager, a VP, they don't have a bunch of time. So tell them first sentence or two, here's the problem. Second, second paragraph, two or three sentences, here's how we can resolve it. Straight to the point. Learn how to communicate. There are classes you can take on communication skills. There are classes. Absolutely. Take them. Absolutely take them. And uh, and again, kind of tying back to the field experience. Again, again, find a way to take those installation realities that you had to deal with as a technician in the field and bring them into the design. So that way it makes it easy. Okay, so those are my questions for tonight. Boy, we went a little bit over. Oh my gosh, seven, six, three. And I know my wife is out there making dinner because I can smell it.

Firestopping Foam Pitfalls And Close

SPEAKER_00 49:00

Um, Ed asks, uh, why can't I use spray foam instead of fire stop play? That's a great question, Mr. Ed. Okay, problem here. Number one. Oh, I got that over modulated. Um you can go to Lowe's in the big box stores and buy foam fire stopping. And it even has a UL label on it. Okay. Um but some inspectors want to see red, right? Uh, and if it doesn't come out discharged red, they're gonna fail, even if it's got that UL label on it. Um, a lot of times, too, you gotta be careful because there are some construction foams that have a lot of hydrocarbons in it, and when they get exposed to flame, that puts off a lot of toxic off gases, and that's what kills people in a building fire. You can use foams, just make sure that uh it's a like Hilti or Fire or STI or one of those big name manufacturers. Use one of their foams and then make sure you install it the way it was tested. The way it was tested. Stay away from those silicone foams from Lowe's and Home Depot. So there you go. All right, that was my last question for the night. So I'm gonna go ahead and shut this down and go eat some dinner. Till next time, everybody. Knowledge is power.