atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring How old is this Color-coding of telephone cable?

That would be true if this was for a telephone contractor's license, but it's not. There is more to Low Voltage than just telephone and you can go your whole career without ever touching a phone system and still have tons of Low Voltage work experience.

It's going to be interesting to see what on the test that counts when I finally sit for it. I just found it interesting that the test would have so much outdated question on it.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to government licensing.

I have a good friend who at one point was trying to get the NYC license to be a shop teacher. In order to get the license he had to show proficiency on a particular model of printing press. Now mind you, there were no longer any classes being taught on printing presses, everything was being taught on computers. But you still needed to show proficiency. Not a problem, except that the type of press you needed to qualify on was manufacturer discontinued.

Not only that there was only ONE UNIT LEFT in the whole world. Guess where it was?

In the testing facility.

But wait! as they say, there's more! The unit was broken and you couldn't demonstrate proficiency, because it didn't work. So for years, no shop teachers were certified. They could work, but couldn't be paid full salary, because they weren't certified.

Happy ending. Eventually (after the problem was publicized, and the administration was publicly mocked), the press was repaired, teachers were certified and -eventually - the testing parameters were changed.

But does it surprise me that there's antiquated information on the test? How long have they been giving this test? Is anyone serious involved in updating it and keeping it current? Who would benefit (or not benefit!) by having a modern, updated test.

Those are the questions to ask.

Sam

While all of the responses are correct, no one actually answered your question. When it comes to "standards" all of the old timers only recognize the "BellCore Specs" as gospel. The BellCore Specs don't actually mention a multi cable with those colors as a station cable.

So, what other "standard" can one turn to? Well, I think, for your test purposes, the FCC Part 68 Rules and Regulations would be the place. In Volume 10, page 151 is a diagram of a 6 position jack. If you extrapolate the jack positions to standard cable wiring, you will see that positions 3 and 4 are Red Ring 1, Green Tip 1, Position 2 Black Tip 2, Position 5 Yellow Ring 2, Position 1 Blue Ring 3 or transformer and Position 6 White Tip 3 or transformer.

If you look at some of the "other" or "Foreign" Electronic Key systems of the 70s and early 80s, you will see Green is Tip, Red is Ring, Black is Data A, Yellow is Data B, White is Speaker + and Blue is Speaker -. There are variations to this, but most are close to this.

When asking about this question, just ask "to which standard are the questions keyed?" If they say NEC or NFPA, you know they have no clue. If they say BellCore or FCC, then you have a fighting chance.

Rcaman

Why does the electrical contractors exam also have questions about classified locations, high voltage, low voltage, fiber optics, fire systems, data and communications? Because the holder of the license COULD perform work in any of these areas. Just because you only want to do one kind of work doesn't mean that you don't need to show your proficiency on the whole of what the license permits you to do.

The state of Ct for instance has a number of separate low voltage licenses that are more specific to type of work the holder does, like telecom, fire systems, security, etc. If you feel that the CA license is too broad perhaps you need to lobby to get it changed and good luck with that. But as far as I'm concerned the more knowledge the better.

-Hal

I don't think it's to broad of a license, I just thought that the information they are requesting one to know was very out dated.

There are even fire alarm system question on it and the license states that it doesn't cover Fire alarm systems.

I was mostly curious about the color coding of the cable and the associated functions as I have never seen or read about those being used before.

I'm not an old telephone guy or even a young IT guy. I'm just and Electronic Technician that has branched out into various other sides of the technology trade as the need arises.

I am proficient in the telephone trade, but by no means an expert and that is one reason I am on this forum as it is the best source of telephone information I have found to date.

Arthur, Thanks for that info and it explains why finding it is so hard.

I see a lot of this JKT cable in older buildings. Really thick gauge wire, like 19AWG or something. I was wondering, should the 3rd wire be left alone if connected to ground at the NI, or should it be disconnected if found? To clarify, is there any reason in today's "modern" telco system to leave the 3rd wire bonded to ground or disconnect it?

I see some of the LEC technicians still wire the yellow wire to ground, even if it is quad wire. Personally on quad, I remove the yellow wire from ground as it makes more of a mess, so I wrap it around the outside jacket (like the black wire) so it is out of the way and can be used a 2nd pair in the future.

No reason to connect the yellow to ground. Where would the other end connect to? Just take the yellow and black and wrap them back.

-Hal