atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Amphenol connectors not welcome anymore?

I'm probably older than most of you guys and none of this bothers me. You adapt or fade away.

The sole issue I have is idiot phone or IT people that do not know their craft. A well versus individual doesn't care about whether it's amphenol, 8C, 4C, analog, TDM or VOIP. All have their advantages or disadvantages but have their needed place.

Amphenol connectors can be used in rack mount applications.

While the use of 25 pair cable is not as common today as it was before companies started converting to VoIP, such cable is still used in Central Offices. More often than not, the cable and connectors are rated CAT5e.

Jacks are mounted horizontally. This allows cables to be routed to the side in order to be secured with lacing cord.

Thanks for getting this back on track. I've assumed that the answer is because of the proliferation of cheap 8P8C crimp tools and all that we can infer from that. I see this as the loss of yet another tried and true system that is being replaced by something that is not necessarily better.
It likely saves a nickel and allows those without a legacy background to install a phone system. Thus increasing profits.

I buy or fabricate my plugged cables. All my hybrid and digital systems require me to custom terminate on patch panels. Pure IP will never see 100% saturation so it will always be that way.

I think some blame lies with the AT&T Merlin and Panasonic KX-T systems. Those products eliminated amphenol connectors before IT became an issue. I have bemoaned the sight of sloppy Partner/ACS installations and I am starting to see the same mess increase. I think that is part of the reason why we have enjoyed having an ugly installation forum to do our small part in preserving some cabling integrity.

ShoreTel chose to adopt the amphenol interface and--last I checked--is a player in the IP telephony arena.

Long Live the Amphenol!

I've actually become attached to the NEC hydra cables and how efficient they are. Especially when you are terminating on patch panels it makes for a clean install.

Long live Tim! Good to see ya buddy! Thanks for the input!

Shoretel did it right: amphenol connector where it made sense, modular where it didn't. They used "the right tool for the job". However, that being said, I inherited a Shoretel system that was being supported by IT folks who didn't have any telecom background, and the amphenols were broken out on "harmonicas", and then silver satin stretched the rest of the way (and in once case it went 25-pair connectorized/amphenol cable to harmonica to silver satin to another harmonica to connectorized cable to connectorized 66 block, or went to a 66 block with modular jacks on the side...try troubleshooting with that mess!). Can you guess what I replaced soon after taking over the system.

Justin

By the way, Cisco also uses amphenol connectors on their VG224 and VG350 analog gateways, as well as some of their router service modules to break out FXS and FXO ports.

Justin

I work in an IT department, so I was pushed into making telecom installs "IT friendly".

Most of the connectorized cables and tie cables tie down on rack-mounted 110 blocks, and we use 110-to-modular and 110-to-110 patch cords to connect to the patch panels and to other 110 blocks in the same rack row.

They're way too high density for my taste, and it's not easy to trace cables.

The sad and unfortunate thing is that the "phone guys" still end up making the connections, as the IT folks are mostly too apprehensive to touch it.

Justin