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

Arthur,
You are right really shouldn't need to go into the cross connect field too often. Today was just one of those days, doing cross connects where part of the job is krone, part bix, part 66 and of course it wouldn't have been complete without 110. The equipment was all bix (Nortel) The station cables were the flavor of the day.

I'll never understand why people can't just stick to one method. What a pain to have to keep switching punches. I have one punch with just a 66 blade and my other punch is 110/66. If it's one of those days I find myself going back and forth doing keystones and punching cables on a block I'll carry both so I don't have to keep changing the tip over. But to have four different styles in one closet is just stupid.

I live in ex-Nynex territory and they had a thing for krone. I bought a krone tip for my punch and I think I've used it twice. Mostly it sits in my kitchen drawer so it doesn't get banged up. I haven't run into any bix yet, but I'm not out doing this stuff every day like you guys. I just get the occasional job adding a jack or two somewhere for either voice or data. Around here it seems all the data (patch panels and such) are all 110 and voice is almost exclusively on 66.

Here is my basement MDF which I rarely mess with anymore:

yellow/red 22 gauge for CO feeds
violet/blue 24 gauge for Panasonic and Norstar stations
yellow/blue 24 gauge for Inter-tel stations
red/orange 24 gauge for paging and music
3 pair for 1A2
2 pair for buzzer and power

Jeff,
You are a better man than me. I gave up on neatness like that years ago. I have a BCM 400, IP Office, a Samsung Os7400, Os7200 and Bcm 200 all mounted in the same rack. An Option 11 with a card option mail mounted on the wall a Os 7030 nesting and testing on a shelf and our office is running on an Os 7100. All test boxes for the madness. Oh and a 1A2 for when I'm bored.

Ahh. How are you taking it off the reel? I don't have a picture but every backboard I do has two #10 sheet metal screws about two inches apart sticking out usually at one end of the crossconnect area. Anybody who works with me knows what they are for. In my tool pouch I carry a bracket that I made (actually a Kindorf saddle or threaded rod support bracket) that I put a 3/8" threaded rod sticking out of it. The bracket has oversize holes that line up with the screws in the backboard and hooks over the heads. The threaded rod has a couple of nuts at the end jammed together so they won't loosen. When I need to run some crossconnect, I put the bracket in place and put the reel on the threaded rod. The reel spins nice and free and the nuts keep it from falling off. Grab the end of the wire, thread it through the rings or over the spools then down the side of the block. No curly cues or kinks.

-Hal

Chris, Verizon (formerly NYNEX) is very big on Krone - as are AT&T and some of the other carriers.

I did a job for Bellevue Hospital here in NYC before I retired. Two floors of the Laboratories and Offices of the Infectious Disease section. Probably 300-400 stations of Voice & Data.

Part of the job called for me to pull a feeder cable for Verizon from the MDF/MC to the Demarc in the basement - and terminate it on both ends.

On 110 Blocks.

When the Verizon foreman came to look at the job he freaked out and insisted that I change the blocks. His men had nothing but 66 and Krone tips for their punch on tools. He had no idea how he could get them 110 blades.

I suggested - buy them? NY Tel always had accounts with Graybar. Did not Verizon? Yes, but....

I showed him my spec (stating 110 blocks on both ends) and told him to take it up with the GC.

I never heard back.


Sam

Pretty much par for the course with Verizon, no?

That's actually a pretty funny story.

Hal, that's part of my problem. I know I can't just lay the reel on the floor and pull the wire off the side, it'll be a huge knotted mess. I don't have a good way to spin it off, though, either. I need to just get a hook thing or something. There's a Graybar about a mile from my house. I like the idea of something removable because the room is so narrow, a permanent hook sticking out would be a real hazard.

I'll take and post some pictures in a little bit of my setup, the good, the bad, and the ugly. My data wiring is a disaster right now because my 48 port POE switch died and I had already sold my other good switch, so there's like three switches hanging there just to keep everything working.

Jeff, Cool setup. You have more phone systems than I do, at least up and running. Right now I've only got the Partner ACS and the 1A2 going. In storage I have another ACS rev. 6, a partner plus, and two merlin 410's. I went on a mission looking for a working merlin breadbox and the first one I bought had a few dead ports and a horrid hiss on the rest. Paul hooked me up with a spare one he had and I was happy as a clam. But.... Ever the tinkerer I am, I took the first 410 apart and replaced a couple thermistors and the dead ports came back to life. Then I recapped the power supply and the hiss is all gone. So now I have two sitting in my workshop.

What's with the mushrooms halfway down?

Here is looking in the door. In the back you can see the disaster that is my data cabling at the moment. It was neat at one time. Yes, I own a cat.



This is looking at the main field of 66 blocks. On the left are the station blocks for the partner system. The next two rows are the 1A2 stations and the rest are spare. The four in the upper right corner are just basically splices because the 25 pair cables were too short when I redid this the last time. The block in the lower right is the CO block, essentially an unofficial demarc. One of the relays is a power fail relay. It puts the one real copper line on the phone upstairs that is normally on the Comcast line and puts the copper line onto the 1A2 ringers that are usually CMB. The other relay shuts the 1A2 ringers off via the contact closure adjunct.



This is just a closeup of the ACS and the 501. I have the last module unplugged because I'm not using it right now. I need some more 2 pair cat 3. I know... good luck.



This picture shows the three CO blocks. The left is where all the lines appear that actually exist. The middle block is the CO lines to the Partner, and the last block is the CO lines to the 1A2. Those 25 pair cables just go up the side, they don't connect to those blocks.



This is a closeup of my better looking cross connects. This is all 1A2. The partner has none, and that's what I plan on changing, hence the original purpose of this post. Those numbers on the block are meaningless. It was a used block. I know, I know.



The little bastard himself... He follows me around like a shadow. He's generally lovable and well behaved.

Sure...blame it on the cat.

The only thing I blame on the cat is the coating of dust on all my equipment because I have no other place for the damn litter box.

I could start a whole other thread just about that cat. He was an unwelcome (at the time) gift from my sister who was moving into an apartment where she couldn't have him. The short version is he was a stray, feral, miserable critter when she found him. He wasn't violent, and that was his only saving grace. Turns out, now that I've had him for a couple years, he's really friendly. He can be pretty timid, especially if there's new people he doesn't know, and he'll hide somewhere. When it's just me and him, he's always by my side. I have to admit, I've grown quite fond of him. Guess all he needed was someone who cared. God knows my sister didn't. It took me months of slow training to get him the way he is now. He was afraid of all people, including me.