Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, just wanted to say what a great place with knowledgeable people.

I'm a relative newbie (3 yrs), started with FIOS splicing and have been doing copper most of my 3 yrs. I work for Verizon in NE Indiana and nowadays we do EVERYTHING from the CO frame to fixing cable to CPE to computer work (DSL contracts). A handful of us install and repair special ckts (T1, analog, etc).

Since we have a large area, some of the old independents Verizon (GTE) acquired used what we call traditional 4w T1s where you had your pr separation with shielded cable and long hauls (most of them are for CO or RSU (huts) to Muxes).

In the city its fiber (lite-span) muxes. The T1s are 4w HDSL 1st gen, HDSL4, or HDSL2. The prs assigned are whats left in the count, or what we can use that's good - without any consideration for what binder generally. HDSL4 is used when HDSL2 reaches the maximum attenuation spec (length, gauge, etc).

HDSL4 is definitely more robust than 2w, but I think the main problem with all of these flaky ckts is:
1) Are the prs REALLY clean? (faults, dirty splices, bridge tap, etc.)
2) Is the ckt falling well within specs (dB, S/N, atten)
3) Is the HTU-C (CO card) any good? Sometimes when ckt goes down when all else has been done and the remote testers say its good to the office the card is erring on the cable pr side of itself.
4) Have the protector modules (5 pin) been changed, and are they the right type rated for hi-cap ckts? If the demarc screw in tube type and they're carbon, they can break down and throw errs.

The ADTRAN cards that have the T-SCAN diagnostic built in can clue you in on what is going on alot of times. We plug our laptop in to the craft interface (RS-232) and look at the Margin (of S/N ratio) fluctuation, Atten (dB), history of err/sec, severely err/sec, Unavailable (down) sec.

The nice thing about working on HDSL4 with repeaters is loopable repeaters to isolate what section pr faults are in. The traditional T1 you gotta goto each can, pull the repeater, next can, next can, put em all back in....Plus with HDSL I can loop myself w my laptop (which should of been done before ticket sent outside).

Sorry for the long story, and believe me I respect you guys and your decades of experience, I just wanted to give you my perspective of how I work ckts.

And THANKS again for all the info, I've sure learned alot in the posts you "Old-timers" have done!