atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information 25 pair... Category Question

I have two 25 pair cables, one of which says on the PVC Jacket: Cat 3 - 24 AWG - CMR/MPR
the second says: Cat 1 - 24 AWG - CMR.

The Cat 1 is made up of much thinner cable than the Cat 3. I know that the Cat 3 is a good one, but should I be concerned with the Cat 1? It seems like a good cable, but thought I should check.

These 25 pair cables are going to be punched down on 66's pretty soon, so I need to know if I need a change...

Thanks!

Depends on the use. If you are using them on the voice side of a KSU, no sweat.

I am assuming they are not long, as in 100s of feet.

At least it says Cat 1 so it can't be as old as Ev.


KLD

thanks KLD,

It is three feet long, and to be used to connect Incoming Lines to the 66 block, and the KSU... I am going to use the Cat 3 one for Station Connection.

As for Ev and the Cat 1: No Comment. LOL.

Can't tell you the date they started putting Category numbers on cables, for what you're using it for no problem. I still use (don't laugh) the old non-twised quad wire for some residential stuff, especially if I have to run it on the out side. It has a tougher jacket and doesn't rot with the UAV rays like this thin jacket stuff does, I do try to find the quad that says UAV resistant.

I do know the CAT ratings were after 84, only because it was post divesiture when then came out.

ive used cat 1 befor for station connections just make sure you punch them down good cause it is thinner than cat 3 i guess you guys dont use bix blocks i find bix easier and it takes less space then 66 blocks

The wire in the ground from the central office to the the B box down the street is probably Cat. 1.

I would use it for bringing dial tones to a system but I wouldn't use it for bringing ksu stations out to wall jacks because you could get cross talk between the data and voice pairs on a two pair system.

No, outside plant is not "category" rated at all. It is basically the same as CAT nothing. It was never designed to meet the current criteria of inside cable manufacturing standards. Hell, even the sheer distances that OSP cables run goes against all TIA/EIA standards for categorized cables.

There are some category-rated outside plant cables available now for smaller jobs, but they won't ever become widespread in use.

Outside plant cables rely upon extremely compact construction to conserve space in ducts, manholes and vaults. Tighter twists=larger outside cable diameter. OSP cable outside dimensions are tightly followed amongst manufacturers. This standard is to ensure duct fill and splicing equipment standardization. The reason your 25 pair cables were different diameters had to do with the CAT3 cable having more twists per-pair, per inch, thus a larger cable core.

These cables are completely different animals. Sure, they carry communications circuits and may use the same pair coloring code, but that's where the similarities end. Actually, there haven't been many changes in the design and construction of outside plant cables since the late 1960's!

There aren't really any voice applications where category 1 can't be used except maybe for ISDN stations or very long digital station cable runs.

As for the category question, the first I heard of it was from our rep at Anixter in 1986. I called to order some cable and he advised me then that I would soon have a choice of category 1,2,3 or 4. There was no talk of 5 at the time, but once it arrived on the scene, category 4 pretty much fell by the wayside.

Good point Ed. Also in the OSP world the line conditioning is done on the ends to make up for line loss, attenuation and harmonics, so what was in the middle wasn't real critical as long as it was clean. You can make up for about anything by conditioning the line except noise.

Umm, Houston....we have a problem. :read:


https://www.copper.org/about/pressreleases/2001/RulingMakes.html

I wasn't aware, thanks for pointing that out. I only use it limitedly for outside runs, guess I'll have to find a CAT 3 or 5 that's rated for UAV.