atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Security, Alarms and Paging Alarm to DEMARC, Best Practices?

stick with the cat3 its all you need and easier to work it will save time and your less likely to make mistakes

if you cant find it at your distributor check Lowes or home depot

But is it worth paying more?

Cat 3 should be substanatially cheaper than Cat5(E).

If it's not, certainly don't spend more for it.

Using Cat5 (or higher) cable for an alarm system is like putting premium in your KIA. It won't hurt, but you're really just throwing money away.


Sam

Our suppliers, Cat5 is running cheaper. Although I hate having to unwrap it for E66's.

Above all DO NOT Place the alarm box in the middle of a back board.It is there to be shared by you and the telephone tech. placing any kind of ksu or switch.

Jim that is a great point. I like to mount my panels high in the corners, it leaves the back board open for the telecom guys and the higher and out of the way it is the less likely people are to toy with it.

That's good advice for ALL crafts!
I can't recall the number of times I've walked into an equipment room with a large back board professionally installed only to discover whichever craft arrived first apparently thought it was strictly for their use ONLY and managed to install their equipment in a manner that made it almost impossible for any one else to get anything installed.

Around here, Sparkies install a 2' by 4' piece of 3/8" plywood, and mount their 200-Amp panel on it, leaving a 1" border.

When I can get to the builders soon enough, I tell them that I (and the owner) will need a minimum of 4' by 8' 3/4" plywood, finished side out, just for the alarm, inside wire terminations, CableTV POE and splitters, VZ NID, lawn sprinkler control, doggy fence control, shelf for modem, UPS, router, patch panel, KSU, etc, etc, etc.

When I explain it that way, they are willing to put up the 4 by 8. Then a few days later, guess what? Sparkie has been there, and put his 200-Amp box right in the middle of the board.

You can't win around those guys.

I got lucky on the last big job I did. All the existing alarm stuff was not on the backboard, they were just to the left on the block wall. The giant telco vault was in the middle of the board, then I had a decent sized space my station cables and left room for the phone system guy to put the KSU in.
Here's what it looked like when I left:

Sadly it was much worse after the phone system was installed and cross connected...

Thanks for the continued and outstanding replies.

There's lots for me to learn here, and I am soaking it all in as best I can.