c/cable-installers

I finally saw how a 'clean' cable run could be a total fire hazard

I was checking out a new apartment complex last week in Portland and noticed the installer ran all the coax and ethernet tight against a heat duct in the basement. One side says it's fine because it's not touching any electrical, but the other side says the heat alone can degrade the jacket over time and cause shorts. I've seen it go both ways in the field where some guys swear by zip ties near vents and others refuse to do it. What do you all think, is it a real risk or just overly cautious? Has anyone here actually had a jacket fail from heat exposure?

Rant: Lost a whole Saturday rewiring a house in Portland because the previous guy used phone jacks for coax

Still finding splitter cables spliced like lamp cords years later. Has anyone else walked into a job that straight up looked like a DIY nightmare from the 90s?

Had a homeowner basically call me out for using cheap connectors last week

I was doing a new build in a subdivision over near Springfield and the homeowner came out and asked why I was using those push-on F connectors. He said he saw them fail twice in his last house. I switched to compression fittings right there and honestly the signal quality has been way better. No more intermittent issues I was blaming on the drop. Has anyone else had a customer change how you do things on the spot?

Just found out my fish tape was causing shorts in this house in Phoenix

Guy from the supply house mentioned it last week. Said the insulation on my old steel tape was worn down and it was grounding out on some aluminum siding. Swapped to a fiberglass one and the intermittent issues stopped. Anyone else run into this with older metal fish tapes?

Switched from push-pull rods to glow rods for attic runs

I used to wrestle with those fiberglass push-pull rods for 3 years in Denver attics and they always snapped or got stuck. Last month I finally tried glow rods and finished a 60 foot run in 10 minutes flat. Anybody else find these way easier for tight spaces?

Just learned fiber optic lines have a 25mm minimum bend radius

Found this out from an old training manual I dug up in my truck from 2018. Has anyone else been getting away with tighter bends on drops without issues?

Just realized fiber optic cables can degrade from too much bending even if they look fine on the outside

I read a white paper from Corning last month that said a tight 90 degree bend can cause micro-cracks in the glass that kill signal strength over time, and now I'm double-checking every corner I ran in a new apartment complex downtown last week.

Had a senior installer call me out for not staggering my splices

I was rushing through a 200-foot run in a commercial drop ceiling last month and just kept stacking my splices in a straight line. He pointed out that if one fails I'd have to rip half the run apart instead of just swapping one connector. Do you guys bother staggering every time or only on longer pulls?

Noticed more homeowners asking for fiber prewire during new builds around here

Last month in Columbus, I had three jobs in a row where the builder wanted fiber drops in every room before drywall went up. Any of you seeing more demand for future-proofing like this over standard coax?

I finally figured out why customers keep losing signal after I leave

Was troubleshooting a drop in a house yesterday and saw the guy had coiled his excess cable like a garden hose around a metal nail. Rookie mistake or maybe just lazy but it's causing interference every time. How do you tactfully tell someone their DIY setup is the problem without sounding like a jerk?

Threw $400 at a fancy coax stripper that promised perfect cuts every time and it barely lasted 3 jobs before the blade went dull.

My old manual one from 2012 still works fine, so take this with a grain of salt but has anyone else had luck with those pricey auto strippers or is it all just hype?

A customer told me my coax connectors looked like they were put on by a toddler

After she pointed out a 2mm gap on the compression fitting I'd done in a hurry, I started actually checking every single connection with a flashlight before I leave the job, has anyone else had a homeowner catch a tiny thing that made you rethink your whole approach?

Caught myself doing the same cable bend for 12 years before a coworker spoke up

Was running a line through a drop ceiling in a old office building near Denver last month when my helper asked why I was bending the coax so tight around the corner. I told him that's just how it's done, always been that way. He showed me a picture on his phone of a signal loss chart that proved sharp 90 degree bends kill your dB levels after about 6 months. Pulled out my Klein meter and tested an old run I did 8 months ago. Lost nearly 4dB on that line. Now I use a 2 inch radius sweep on every corner and my signal tests are way cleaner. Anyone else ever get called out by someone younger and realize they were right?

Unpopular take: That new pre-terminated fiber is not saving us time

I see everyone on here raving about pre-terminated fiber drops, but after running 37 of them last month on a big commercial build in Austin, I am going back to field-terminated. The pre-made ends kept getting damaged pulling through tight conduit, and we wasted more time redoing runs than we would have just splicing on site. Has anyone else had this problem with those factory ends in older buildings?

Saw a bad cable burn in Omaha and changed my whole approach to grounding

Last spring I was helping out on a commercial job near the stockyards in Omaha and watched a whole bundle of RG6 go up in smoke because the ground block wasn't bonded right. After that I started checking every bond point with a meter before I even terminate anything. Has anyone else had to redo their grounding habits after a close call?

Had a fiber splice box fail on a pole in the rain last Thursday, total mess.

Why does nobody talk about the nightmare of old apartment building conduit runs?

Had a job in a 1960s building downtown last week, needed to run a new line to a third floor unit. The main vertical conduit was packed solid with old, brittle coax from the 80s. Took me four hours just to clear a path with a fishtape and a lot of pulling. The whole install, which should have been 90 minutes, took over six. Anyone else run into a conduit so full it's basically a wall?

A homeowner in Denver told me my wall fish looked like a toddler drew it

He was right, my old method was sloppy. Now I use a laser level for every single drop and it's perfect. Anyone got a better trick for keeping the line straight through insulation?

Just read that the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858 only lasted three weeks

I was looking up some history on the job and found that out. It was laid from Ireland to Newfoundland, but the insulation failed fast. Makes you appreciate modern polyethylene jackets. Anyone know other old tech that failed hilariously quick?

This guy in a Denver apartment building said our work was 'just plugging things in'

I was running a new line to unit 304 and the resident, Mark, watched me for a bit and said, 'Looks easy, you just plug things in, right?' I mean, he didn't see the two hours I spent fishing that line through a fire block in the wall he was leaning on. It's not just cables, it's knowing codes and how buildings are put together. Anyone else get that from people who don't get what we actually do?

My foreman in Spokane told me to always carry a spare 7/16 wrench, and it saved a job yesterday.

We were finishing a drop in a tight attic and the fitting on the grounding block was totally rounded off. I was about to drive back to the shop, but I remembered his advice and pulled the spare from my bag. Got it off with a bit of force and finished the install on time. What's one piece of gear you were told to always have that actually paid off?

A customer in Springfield showed me his old cable box collection

I was swapping out his old gear for a new setup last week, and he had about 15 different boxes from the 90s and 2000s lined up on a shelf. He pointed to a big silver one and said, 'That one got so hot you could cook an egg on it.' It was wild to see how much the tech has changed in one guy's living room. Anyone else run into a collector of old cable hardware?

I was doing a service call in a new apartment building downtown and the access panel for the main feed was completely blocked by a built-in bookshelf.

Had to explain to the property manager that their fancy renovation just added two hours to a simple tap check, so who's getting billed for that?

Back in '18 I'd fish coax through a wall with a coat hanger and a prayer

Now I just use a $30 flexible drill bit from Klein Tools, it saves me an hour on every job. Anyone have a better trick for tight spaces in these old brick houses?

Warning: My old method for fishing cable through a finished wall was a mess

I used to just shove a glow rod and hope, but after a bad snag in a 1920s house, I bought a flexible inspection camera for $150. Anyone have a cheaper tool they like for this?