atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Cross connect colors

For Partner and any other two pair station systems it's always been two pair crossconnect: W/B and W/O.

-Hal

I have a bunch of different colors but normally use yellow/blue type F 24 gauge.

For electronic telephones requiring 2 pair, I use WE Red/Blue-Red/Orange cross connection wire.

When I worked that AT&T ISDN plant we used the R/BL-R/O 2 pair too. W/BL fro SLTs and W/BN for power.

Sam

I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of multi pair cross connect wire. I have a spool of 3 pair I use for my 1A2 and I find it unwieldy. I know it's the right thing to use, but what a pain in the butt. I just can't get it to lay down nice with those pretty "drip loops" I've seen in some of the pictures of really good work on here. Mine just looks like crap. I try to do the drip loops but they end up going in every direction except down. Maybe Uncle Arthur will show me how it's done at the TCI show in June.

It takes experience and patience. I always wanted to strangle the guys who would take itty bitty pieces of cross connect to tie the cross connects together to make the frame look "neat". I was a maintenance tech. It took a long time to troubleshoot stuff trying to find those hidden little gems. My other pet peeve cross connecting from the bottom up. Gravity works.

Maybe you aren't using type F if the pairs all seem to come apart. Give it a few twists before you punch it down.

I can't imagine using individual pairs if there are two or three going to the same place. I take the two or three pair in my left hand then maybe two or three inches from the end fan it out in order while holding it that way with my fingers. Then, all at the same time, I slip the wires through the slots and hook them on the 66 block clips. While still holding them in the hooks I form the loop with my right hand finger by applying a slight downward pressure. (Wire should be coming from above from the rings.) I adjust the individual wires on the clip hooks if necessary to see that all wire lengths are the same and the loop is not "coming apart". Then I punch them down.

It takes practice and dexterity but it actually is quite fast.

-Hal

It's not that the wires are coming apart, it just doesn't lay straight. It seems to hold too much of the curl from being on the reel. (Despite my best efforts.)

You need to run it through your thumb and finger first to take the "lay" out of it and make it sorta straight.

Like Hal says, it's just a matter of practice. Put a Help Wanted ad on Craig's List for "1A2 installer" and you'll get plenty of experience. I hear that there's plenty of 1A2 work in Afghanistan these days.

I agree that putting little tie-downs around them is a pain when trouble-shooting, but the number of times you need to go back into an installation are few and far between.

I hate to ask what kind of... ahem... improvised devices they would connect to all those unused line keys...

I think I'll stay up here in the frozen north and live with slightly messy jumpers on a phone system that hardly gets used.

In all seriousness, I will try both Hal's and Arthur's suggestions to make my install a bit nicer. I have a best offer in on some red/blue-red/orange x-conn on ebay. 2 pair for the digital stations, single pair to the SLT's and maybe I'll get another color for the CO stuff, but I'll probably do the single pair jumpers all in yellow/blue.