My dearly beloved Ed, and fellow mod, this is a mine cable and, yes, the mine cables do, indeed, have 500 pair cables. In fact, they have 550, 600, 700 and 800 pair cables which have triple shielding. I guess I should have been more specific. These cables are MSHA approved and can only be acquired from Anxiter. They also have 2 strain cables under the insulation that are 5/8" EHS. These cables were intended to be used, primarily for mine phones (GAI Tronics) and dropped down a bore hole to the mine lateral. Except for the weird pair counts and extra shielding and strength wires, they look and connect like regular PIC cables.
In this case, the mine being the mine, they used this cable above ground as a feed from the bathhouse (where the PBX is located) to the fan sites. The cable starts out in conduit, emerges to go aerial and then down into manholes and conduit. The pairs in trouble were in the transition piece between the conduit and pole structures. As I anticipated, the problem pairs were isolated and identified within a half hour of my arrival. I didn't need my Tumidor. If the previous contractor would have "LOOKED" at the transition, he would have seen the huge rip in the cable sheath caused by a big loader brushing against the pole.
Two splice cases later and about 4 hours and the problem was resolved.
Rcaman
