atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring What is this?

I think the lead stub at the top is the feed, don't know what that is on the bottom but it looks awful big to be a feed for only 16 pair.

-Hal

Please remember that the terminal was probebly placed in the 50's or 60's. Back then feeder cable was lead cased because it terminated in a lead splice case and had to be solder "wiped" to seal the case. This was all that was availible back then. The size of the terminal is only due to the technology of the times.

As justbill stated a new terminal was placed in the building and has its own lightning protectors. They removed all the outside protectors so the pairs weren't double protected. If the cat 5 and other wires are tied down to the outside terminal they along with the equipment they are connected to are now unprotected.

John, look closely. The only protectors that have been removed are 14 & 16.

While that terminal is old, it's still quite functional and I don't see the need for replacement unless there are issues not shown in that picture. It stands as a testament to the old Bell System quality that we'll never see again.

-Hal

Not to mention, AT&T (Western Electric) still manufactured terminals with lead stub cables well into the late 1980s, so it might not be as old as it looks. Because of the fact that all of the protectors are gas tube, I tend to think that it is newer than we think. Of course, someone could have changed them all out from carbons, but it isn't very common for them to do this. It is usually done on a per-circuit basis.

Even though the stub cable is lead sheathed, inside it is a gray jacketed PVC cable with plastic pair insulation, just like inside wiring cable. The only difference is that the copper wires are tinned.

There's a date of manufacture stamped somewhere inside of the base of the housing. I'm going to guess that it was made around 1976. Because of the fact that this stuff was built to last forever, 38 years is a drop in the bucket.

Plenty of those around here. No trouble unless left open in heavy rain.

It's a 16-pair protected terminal. No company is going to replace it for any reason, unless it takes a direct lightning hit and melts into a pool of metal.

Why are you concerned with replacing it? Is it defective?

There are certainly more modern replacements, and they are in the family of products called "quiet front" which is a trademark. The name refers to gel-filled IDC connectors that are not affected by weather.

The white paint indicates those are gas protectors. It was an easy way to tell if the carbon protectors had been changed.

At one time, we were required to change out all of the carbons in a terminal no matter what size terminal. We covered our behinds by filling out an IPC form to come back later.

OP probably wants it replaced since the door is bent and allowing water to leak inside, corroding terminals (note copper oxidation/green stains). I haven't found one of those aluminum doors not bent or broken in some fashion. I make it a point to bend them back into shape as much as possible and get them to clip back on, so the door won't flap open in a stiff breeze. Another annoyance is the lack of room for IW, no where to leave slack IW for future termination. Turns into a mess real quick with a lot of circuits & IWs.

edit: could also be leaking at the top by the stub. Hard to tell.

Let's keep in mind that these terminals were really meant for pole use, whether attached to the pole vertically with a bracket or to the cable's support strand using the lashing eyes on the right side of the OP's photo. In these applications, typical drop wires were simple one-pair 18.5 AWG copper coated steel drop wire. The slack didn't reside inside the enclosure, rather it was coiled in a loop beneath the terminal and routed through rings. The drop wire entered through the vinyl grommets and terminated directly on the binding posts with no internal slack. Note that there is a grommet in line with each pair of binding posts.

These made it into use as building entrance terminals probably due to the fact that they were so popular elsewhere in pole installations. Kind of a "one size fits all" scenario. My guess is that they were a cheap and easy mid-range terminal and the lack of space was just something that they learned to live with.