sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Had to smack around a sparkie.

I pretty much use blue and white. Only because it is easier to work with all those customers who can't tell the difference between a white jack and a yellow one. Sometimes I get those customers who want a specific color...why? I don't know...the IT guy just spec'd it. told them it cost more for neon green.

We didn't start getting "colored" cable till about 18 years ago. Till then cable came in "beautiful beige" or "gorgeous gray". Period.

When I was managing the Irving Trust Company they decided (about 20 years ago) to open a facility in Utica, NY. I had to design the communications infrastructure and set everything up. They were planning about 2,000 stations initially with a Fujitsu F9600 as the PBX. The space was going to be mostly raised floor or walker duct with dog houses everywhere and they wanted 3 cables at every desk. One voice, one IBM 3pr UTP (to a Balun panel to a 3270 Cluster Controller) and one 3pr UTP for a DEC Vax that was to terminate on an MMJ Jack (anybody remember those!)

Well, the voice went to the switchroom, and while the other two cables went to the Data Center, the IBM went to one side of the Data Center and the DEC went all the way over to the other. I was very nervous about the local labor we were using having any idea about what to do with all this data cabling, so I tried to order a third color for the wiring. What a PITA! I finally got Mohawk to agree to make me Blue as long as I bought it with a minimum of 100,000 foot orders. With a long lead time.

It worked out very well. The guys pulled three colors to each desk and any mistakes stood right out. I got Suttle to manufacture me 2,000 duplex jacks - 1/2 USOC and half MMJ.

All worked out fine.

Where I am now we use white for Voice and Blue for Data. Data jacks are Blue. Digital Voice Jacks are White. Analog phones are Green jacks(on White cable) and Emergency phones (off a Microwave Shot) are Red Jacks (on white cable).

It works too. I don't think it matters what colors you use as long as your consistent - and not just on the job - on all your jobs. Keep the installers from making a mistake.


Sam

Being a "sparkie" for over 15 years I kinda resent being slapped around. We generally use blue "data" and white "voice" because yeah out here in the middle of nowhere it can take a month to get a specific color, and most of the public assume those are the way colors are supposed to be. We do however use whatever color a client has decided to spec out for large jobs.

Hey, MN, to the BB.

You are a rare breed....a sparkie that knows V/D and have stuck around our BB.

Glad you kept your sense of humor, have an open mind, and aren't afraid to post in the land of telecom.

Standardization...the McDonald Plan....is the key to success. A cheese burger is a cheese burger in Beijing or Bucharest.

By the way, if there wasn't a barbed fence out around justbill in NW Nebraska I could see Rapid City....

I was born into the electrical field, my old man has been a contractor for over 30 years so working with him for 15 or so of those you gotta have a sense of humor. We get along much better being across the state from each other. Our hometown where the electrical business is had one old time phone guy so i showed up one day and was told to pack a bag I was going to learn something. So for the past 7-8 years we have been doing lv. By the way I learned most of my cabling from convicts- years ago our governor had a program set up for convict labor to wire the public school systems across the state with new networks when the availabilty of high speed internet became readily available. They had to have a sparkie on site because they were running power as well. But learned alot and went to school after that, again i was told i was going to learn something.

Sam, our colored cable pretty much goes the same route as yours. We used to use gray and "sand beige" until they developed that new thing called "plenum" which came natively in clear, then white. Then cat3/5/5e. It was easy to keep 3PVC in gray, 3 plenum in white, and 5/5e in some other color and blue was better because all the patch cords initially were blue. Then the big box stores decided they wanted white for the sprayed white ceiling so now our house cables turned white, or black for the bars.

I still stock mostly blue and white, but I've used Pink, Yellow, Purple, Black, White, Gray, and Green for cable colors, although I must say it was a struggle to get rid of that single box of pink :-) A certain electrical contractor in Toledo, OH used Purple for their cable color to match the company color.

The customer usually has no preference, so to save stocking, I'll stick to blue and white.

Carl

Carl-I have seen a lot of that purple cable around Toledo I think I know who it is. They also used lime green.
Personally, I use white cat3 plenum and blue cat5e data. I can get it from any distributor and don't have to worry.

A purple sheath here usually means low-smoke, zero-halogen cable.

You can get PVC or Plenum cable in purple here, it's just rarely used. A sales rep gave me a whole box for free once

Ok, who remembers the Teflon sheathed plenum cable? Came on a spool and when you spooled it off, it acted like a 'Slinky'. Throw a coil with 10-15 feet in it across the ceiling panels and it would recoil with a total (if you were lucky) of 5 feet actually laid out on the panels! John C. (Not Garand)