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Outdoor rated Cat5 required? |
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Written by Keithb
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Thursday, 18 January 2007 |
"We've been using the gel-filled Cat5 cable for all installations, and a great deal of them only have a few feet of the cabling exposed to the elements. It makes me wonder if using this outdoor rated cable is even worth it? If we do an install on a satellite arm, only 3-4' of the cable is exposed to the weather.
Is using 50' of outdoor cable worth only having 3-4' exposed to the weather? As hard as it is to get this cable, I ponder on the reasoning?"
slipstream1:
I use a PVC jacket rated Superior Essex jacketed cable for all installations. I only use gel filled cable for tower installations or anything that would require direct burial cable.
AMD Phreak:
Same as slipstream. I used to have the techs use flooded, but it was more of a hassle than it was worth...with the time involved cleaning the pairs and then terminating them.
The jacket on the Superior cable is nearly if not exactly identical to the General Cable that is used by Bell for the phone installs on premise. Very flexable, even in the freezing weather.
Towers get STP from Best-Tronics. Before I started here, the installer was using STP cable for premise....100% pure waste of money 99.99999999999% of the time, if you catch my drift.
inova:
've had good luck with these guys: »https://www.cablewholesale.com/
They are pretty quick on the draw.
superdog:
I keep 3 different types of cable in the van. Regular UTP CAT5 for any indoor work that has to be done, The outdoor grade stuff from Home Depot for installing CPE's and short rooftop runs to AP's etc. and then STP for tower installs or any situation that requires shielding (running across florescent lights etc.). I used to use 1 cable for everything, but I have since stopped that practice as I now have plenty of room to store things(van vs. pickup) AND the cost factor. I must admit that when I first started out in the business, I was running regular UTP cable for everything, as I didn't know any better. To date, none of those "indoor" cables have failed, and I have installs that have been running for over 5 years, both tower and CPE. I guess that if I had to pay climbers for tower work?, I would use the best cable $$ could buy, as the last thing I want to do is have to pay big $$ to climb up and repair a bad cable run. I can honestly say that to this point, I do not see the benefit of using the gel filled cable?.
Original thread location |
Installation Techniques