atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems Outside Cable Plant help!

I just got off the phone with guy who's helping me tomorrow who is experienced with OSP. I'm giving serious thought to pulling new wire. I think I mentioned earlier in the post that when I hooked up a 1000' foot box of CAT 5e to at the headend of where the outside cable begins the phone worked like a champ. That being said and with the comments about CAT 5e not being the best wire for this application am thinkin about going with CAT 3. Your thoughts??

Stick with the original PE-89 cable installed and terminate it correctly. Have your cable friend kick test each pair. My guess is that the 3M bond clamps you mentioned aren't installed properly (they can't be on cable that small) and some of the pairs got damaged.

Please, please, please forget all of this CAT 3 or CAT 5 talk. That only applies to runs indoors or outdoors under 100 meters, period.

1,100 foot runs are not EIA/TIA regulated (they really can only make suggestions). You are dealing with an outside plant situation, a separate industry, that is category ZERO, period. Get your friend to check it out and you will be up an running in no time.

People equate outside plant to be "extended versions" of inside wiring. Not true. A whole separate set of rules and standards apply; not even close to the simple "Category" ratings. There are major factors to be considered, such as capacitance, EMI, RFI and of course, resistance. You should not be having such issues on a properly-installed piece of cable that short. PE-89 cables run for miles without error if installed, maintained and terminated properly.

Thanks Ed...

So at the risk of sounding even more pathetic do I divide my reading by 2 since I really tested twice the lenght??

Twice the length- multiply resistance per foot x 1100 x 2.

Actually all your readings look good.

-Hal

Thanks Hal!
I'll let you know how it all comes out today..

If you estimate your length to be 1100 feet do as Hal said to get your estimated ohms, so you know what to expect to see. If your looking for actual feet you were correct, take your total loop reading and divide by two for the length. That's the way I read your question. Personally from your post I think you need some onsite experienced help to figure out your problem.

Well guys, I had the other company come out and he was stumped too. The customer wants me to pull the wire back out to the headend and test the wire when it is out of the conduit like I did with the box of CAT 5e. I'm going to talk to one other company I know does OSP today and see if they can take a look...

The customer wants me to pull the wire back out to the headend and test the wire when it is out of the conduit

Ok, now you're getting ridiculous. What possible difference would that make? What does the customer know?

I'm not there to see what has been done but I'll tell you what I would do at this point. Disconnect the run from the PBX and connect it directly to a POTS CO line. Go to the other end and put your butt set or plug a plain old single line phone in the jack. If it works with no hum and rings when you call the line blame your problem on Avaya.

-Hal

You don't need an OSP person. You need someone that knows how to trouble shoot. You're in over your head.

I agree with justbill. Do you have any friends that work for the phone company as an outside tech.

If you do Give them a call. They should be able to help you.