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dexman Offline OP
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This is going to be a little long winded...

This past week, I neatened up the telephone wiring here @ the house. I have been wanting to do this for a while now and decided to stop procrastinating.

Since my cabling work at my church is done, I grabbed a used pull box of Systimax CAT3 gray plenum cable and got to work. I ran out of cable and went back the following day to grab another box. I purposely grabbed the newest box which was labeled "Commscope" as opposed to "Systimax" and headed home.

When I pulled the end of the cable out of the box, I could not help but notice that the outer jacket had a "ribbed" feel to it as opposed to the "smooth" feel of the older cable.

I grabbed my Cyclops and removed about 3" of jacketing.
Talk about a letdown, the wire insulation was translucent, making it difficult to differentiate between the W/O and W/BR pairs. Even worse, the conductors within each pair were twisted ala CAT5e. The conductors in the older cable have almost no twisting...and...have insulation that makes color identification very simple.

I can't help but roll my eyes when I look at the Commscope bulletin from 2010 that advises that the Systimax name was being replaced with the Commscope name on all CAT3 hardware. Commscope stated that product codes and whatnot was going to remain the same. The only changes were the name/logo on the box and the outer jacket.

I guess this is supposed to be progress. frown


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I know exactly what you are dealing with here. This is NOT progress, this is how to make it cheaper and charge more money for the same thing.

I only wish, just one time, the person or people responsible for making the insulation "translucent" (translation: IMPOSSIBLE to see the color code) be placed in a dimly lit wiring closet and made to terminate 100 of those 4 pair cables. If they get the colors wrong, a switch gets thrown and a neon sign transformer, connected to their neither parts, gets energized!

I wonder how that would change their opinion of the lousy insulation colors?

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Even worse, the conductors within each pair were twisted ala CAT5e.

Whenever you see CAT3 with that kind of twist it's because the manufacturer had a bad batch of CAT5 that wouldn't pass the specs. So rather than scrap it they label and sell it as CAT3.

-Hal


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dexman Offline OP
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Is there a chance that Commscope could revert back to the old style & form, or, are Commscope CAT3 users destined to be working with "neutered" CAT5e from here on out eh

I have a small amount of Belden 2-pair CAT3 CMR cable and the conductors are twisted really tight.


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Every place that I look for Cat3 cable to buy it costs more than Cat5E. Something I don't understand unless it has to do with the low volume of Cat3 sales.


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That is what I was told by a sales rep from West Penn Wire. The factories are producing Cat 5E and Cat 6. Cat 3 is either, as was stated, Cat 5 that did not pass sweep or a special run which the factory will pass on the extra cost of setup, etc. He also said the factory may have a quantity of already spun pairs that the jacket failed to run, so rather than stop projection, they jacket the job with what is available which may be some Cat 3 leftovers. It all boils down to economics.

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Looking at the Manitoba Telecom (our ILEC) guide for home wiring they don't recommend cat 3 for anything but alarm pre-wiring now.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Why should all rooms with the exception of
the bathroom be pre-wired with a Cat5e wire?
Technology is changing: in the near future, home
networks will expand to include more than just
computers and printers. TVs, gaming consoles,
home security systems and even smart appliances
(such as fridges) will require Internet connections.


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dexman Offline OP
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At home, the cable is supporting analog STLs and Avaya Partner ACS system telephones. Nothing there really needs the capacity of 5e cable or related hardware.

At Church, we have an Avaya Merlin Magix with 4400 series sets and some analog door phones. There is also a small Avaya Partner ACS on hot standby. Likewise, nothing that needs 5e.

I ran 6E at home and 6A at Church for data. Overkill??? Perhaps. But I do like my appliances "dumb" rather than smart.

I guess my next question is what happens with high pair-count cable? Do they re-badge failed 25 pair CAT5E as CAT3?


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I know General Cable still makes CAT-3. just bought a box a couple weeks ago.


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dexman Offline OP
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Do the conductor pairs look like true CAT3 or do they resemble CAT5E? Commscope appears to be selling substandard CAT5E as CAT3.


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