atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Tracing or Toning Unterminated Shielded Data Cables - Needle in a Hay Stack

Bell guys here used to call that "the leather set" I guess because it had a leather case and carrying strap. Yup, you could use it to locate wiring in walls just by waving your probe around.

-Hal

LOL....talk about it and I need it today. I have a 500 pair PIC cable with pairs in trouble. Another contractor was there and gave up saying: "It's impossible to trace these pairs. The shielding makes it impossible."

I have no concern, at all, that I will fix this trouble in a matter of minutes with my trusty old Tumidor.

Rcaman

We need to talk about those 60 phone quotes we have out there so they happen

Now there's your first sign of dealing with a BS artist previous contractor. There's no such thing as a 500 pair cable. It goes from 400 to 600, then 900 and continues upward from there in 300 pair multiples up to 4,200 pair. Sounds like he was already disqualified from that kind of a project by not having the practical knowledge of cable construction and design from the get-go.

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

Do you have a picture of your Tumidor?

So...whatever happened to the OP and his toning/tracing job?

He read the entire thread, and his head exploded.