atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Cat 3 vs. Cat 5e for Voice

Hal, you are speaking of "L" station wire, a twisted pair version of quad. I got my hands on some small 125 foot coils of it in nice little plastic cases. I think they were meant for installers to carry in their bag for short surface runs. Regardless, they are pretty cool items.

Brian, I know that you speak of Prince William County's former Contel, then GTE and now "Verizon" strong hold. You are right, they used that awful "band aid beige" quad and stapled it to the studs in new prewires. Permanently malfunctioning from the day it was installed.

Charlie, I remember the unjacketed 6 pair and then later jacketed 6 pair that Bell companies used for prewire loops (key word is LOOPS). A proper prewire brought both ends of the loop back to the protector so that if it was cut at any point, it would still work since it was being fed from both ends. It would take a second prewire cut to create a service-affecting issue. Bell did their homework on reliability even when the fault was due to the actions of others.

Their method was two-fold. They also upsold customers on two-lines (1A2) in the late 1960's. Six pairs was just enough to provide two lines on 1A2 phones throughout the home. They even came up with 12-pin plugs and jacks and even six-pair line cords for the 1A2 sets. For those of you who might not have seen these, the pins were in a round pattern with a keyed center post to force the proper positioning of the plug (very similar to the base of a vacuum tube or octal-base relay).

A crafty installer could even split the appropriate pairs and derrive a seventh circuit for a common ringer. I did a bunch of those installs in New Jersey, where every house built in the 1960's was wired with this stuff. They kept using it here in Virginia until around 1975. They then switched over to "H" station wire, which was 3-pair twisted pair (no category) and had a weatherized (sunlight resistant) jacket. This was because protectors were being installed oudoors exclusively in new residential construction.

I kept prewiring with the unjacketed 6 pair, using drive rings, "B" plastic tubes, etc. until the sparkies drove that business away from us. I still had about ten 1,500 foot reels of the Texarkanna unjacketed cable until about two years ago when I had to retire it to the recycling bin.

Once again, Ed, that was quite interesting.

Yes, that is in Prince William County--Contel always struck me as a 2nd-rate telephone company. And what a name.."Con"tel.

On the subject of inside wire, I used to think that cable color coded red/green/black/yellow is never twisted pair but I have found a couple of exceptions:

Radio Shack's telephone cable was (is?) actually twisted pair and has been for a long time. As of the last time I checked (a couple years ago) it does not claim Cat 3 compliance but it appears to still be twisted pair.

Home Depot sells "Cat 3" telephone cable under the RCA name with red/green/black/yellow color coding. As I recall this comes close to being perfectly round but it will deform quite easily unlike traditional quad wire which is solidly packed with jacket material, extruded around the conductors.

Home Depot does not sell any sort of "quad" wire. Lowe's, however, still does--and under the Bellsouth or Southwestern Bell name, no less.

I think that 6-conductor cable with red/green/black/yellow/white/blue conductors is usually twisted pair but I have only rarely seen this type of cable.

Hal, you are speaking of "L" station wire, a twisted pair version of quad.

Dunno. This stuff uses the w/bl-w/or colors, 22ga, has a rip cord and a rather heavy (light beige)jacket. Listed CMX outdoor CAT3. General Cable #110417E3 BOC. Really nice stuff.

I also know they had a similar black (outdoor) 6 pair version that was made by Belden/CDT for runs to outdoor NIs and terminals. This was provided as a loose coil that was to be used with a non-disposable dispensing reel. I should have a piece of that around someplace too.

-Hal

You are correct, Hal. That's not what I was speaking of when I mentioned "L" station wire. It appeared to be identical to "D" station wire but the red/green and black/yellow were twisted into pairs. The jacket was ivory colored (I believe that it was also made in light olive gray) and it was thick enough to be perfectly round and keep it's shape. It definitely didn't have a rip cord, so there's no doubt that what you have is not what I was thinking.

So Ed...
L is twisted pairs and D is untwisted pairs, aka quad aka JK?

D station wire is also known as quad or JK.

D inside wiring cable is twisted pair and is available in 24 and 22 gauge. It's similar to standard UTP cable except that it has a heavier rip cord and is designed for indoor/outdoor use.

I've seen cable printed with "AT&T-D" on it, I expect that is D inside wiring cable?

I believe that the "AT&T-D" was just a plant identifier. They had a manufacturing facility in Denver. I have also seen "AT&T-O" that I assume indicated their Omaha works, "AT&T-P" for the Phoenix plant, but I can't say for sure. The cable type would be marked either DSW or DIW. These cables were primarily produced for use by Bell companies.

Their commercial products were only given a numerical identifier, for example 1021 was category 3, 1041 was category 4 and 1061 was category 5.

Ed, so which one is L wire?