AHL: Cat 6A Or Overkill and other questions

We answer rapid-fire questions from the field on cabling choices, troubleshooting discipline, and what real professionalism looks like on a job site. Along the way, we get practical about Cat 6A, intermittent network drops, training new techs, tool buying, and how PoE and newer AI camera demands change your planning. 
• when Cat 6A is actually worth the effort and when it is just spec inertia 
• bend radius, cable diameter, termination time, testing time, and other real install impacts 
• why intermittent drops demand Layer 1 focus and documented testing 
• a real-world example of a hidden physical fault that only appears sometimes 
• habits that signal a skilled tech fast: cable management, labeling, service loops, clean work 
• knowing when to keep troubleshooting versus calling for help 
• PoE, NEC safety versus performance, and what is changing in the field 
• AI cameras and what changes for power, bandwidth, placement, and lighting 
• pulling cable in older buildings by planning pathways, avoiding electrical, and communicating 
• training priorities for new technicians and why slow correct terminations win 
• tool strategy, organization, and buying quality within a budget 
Please go look up that LinkedIn post, find uh that video, and please donate. 
And if you can't donate anything financially, would you please pray for successful completion of that? 
Reezy make sure you join the the Bixie Technician study group guess who it's run by me yes we're doing a Zoom call next week Tuesday at 8 p.m and we're gonna answer questions for people studying for their Bixie Tech or installer questions. 
Be there or be square and it is free it is free. 

Transcript

Live Setup And Viewer Questions

SPEAKER_00 0:28

I am pumped up. Pumped up. I don't know why. Whoa, that is whoa, that was way too loud. There we go. I fixed it. I fixed it. So make sure you put your questions in now. I've got some questions I already have scheduled to uh to answer, but I want to make sure if something comes in during the live stream that I am able to answer those questions too. Okay, so let me go. Let me flip this over to the chat button. There we go. Um I don't know what's not doing. It just is not working right. There we go. So, hey, just a kind of heads up, I'm heading down to Bixie next week. They got something going on. They invited me to come down. More on that later. I won't say what it is because I don't know if they want me to say anything about it yet. It's not just me. They're asking for a whole bunch of credentialed people. So, and I just I live in the area, so they they know that and they reached out to me and said, Hey, would you be interested? There you go. So, you know, we start every uh every Wednesday night, 6 p.m. with what are you drinking? What are you drinking? And Chuck is drinking water. We need right after we finish the stream tonight. Well, maybe not right after, but sometime tonight, we have to go get some Xevia sodas because we are totally out. And I really don't want to drink a hot tea when it's 110 degrees outside. So water is my choice beverage here

OFNP Explained With Real Cable

SPEAKER_00 1:45

tonight. Tell me in the chat boxes what are you drinking? What are you drinking? Uh tonight's acronym challenge. OFNP. OFNP. Hey, the old tech guy. How you doing, my friend? OFNP, what does that mean? That's our acronym for tonight. Again, it has something to do with fiber optic gabling. I'll give everybody a few seconds to kind of figure that out and answer it. Uh, where is my my chat box? It's still kind of acting funky. Uh let me see, not mark. Uh React script layout leave. Let's try layout maybe. No, no, we don't want to change that. Um, I am not sure why it is not showing up the uh the chat messages. Uh that's weird. Anyways, OFNP, optical fiber, non-conductive plenum. Optical fiber non-conductive plenum. So I happen to have a piece right here, so he sees a fiber optic cable. You see, it's got the Kevlar, it's got the fiber strands. There's no metal inside of it, so it's gotta be either OFNP or OFNR. Uh hey, trivia question based on the color of that jacket. Based on the color of that jacket, what kind of fiber is this? Let's see who's really good. The cable guy's in the house, Mr. Cable Guy. How you doing, my friend? How you doing, my friend? So if you've been watching on uh

Walkathon Fundraiser And How To Help

SPEAKER_00 3:20

on uh on on my social media feeds, it is multi-mode, but what kind of multi-mode? Um you notice that I'm pushing out, I'm doing a I'm doing a ministry event next week. No, no, no, in 18 days. It's for a local mission up here in Dade City called Loving Hands Ministry. We're doing a walk-a-thon, save our sons, and yours truly is in it. Yours truly is in it. And I've already reached out to a bunch of people via LinkedIn. I reached out to a bunch of people vis-a-vis vis-a um Facebook. I know I reached out to you, Caitlin. Uh, Mr. Cable Guy, I don't know if I reached out to you. So we're doing a walk-out on the raise funds for a discipleship rehab program here in uh my backyard. And you know, if you know me personally, that's a huge cause for me. So please go look up that LinkedIn post, find uh that video, and please donate. I set a goal for $10,000. Holy smokes. $10,000. God laid it on my heart. He said, do this, and I want you to raise $10,000. I am not where nowhere near $10,000. So I need your help. You know, $10, $25, $50. And if you can't donate anything financially, would you please pray for successful completion of that? So make sure that uh that you do that for me, if you don't mind. Okay. Uh

Upcoming Shows And Industry Updates

SPEAKER_00 4:50

upcoming shows. Upcoming shows, God will make it happen. Yes, he will. Um, so I did an episode with Ed the old tech guy and Henry Frank from the TIA committee, and we talked about data centers. What's why the myths, the myths surrounding data centers? Why do people hate them? What are the bad things about data centers? What are the good things about data centers? So make sure you watch it. In fact, we went way longer than I thought we were going to. So I'm breaking it up into a two-part series, and that's gonna be next Monday and the Monday after. Then I also had it, I just got done interviewing last night, Shelly Olmsted from IES, and we talked about how to find how to keep people in this industry. Okay, that's that's a huge subject matter. And I did do an interview a few weeks back with uh Matt Schumacher from Levitant to talk about the truth about counterfeit cabling. Unfortunately, there was a glitch in the video, so we have to re-record, so that's coming up as well. Okay, so there you go. Um you're overthinking communications. I'm overthinking communications. Hey G Brown, Think Fiber, how you doing? Superman, I have no idea what you're even talking about. So moving on, first question of the night, and this comes from Ethan. Oh, by the way, the last two weeks. One week I had technical difficulties, the other week I was sick. So

When Cat 6A Is Worth It

SPEAKER_00 6:20

I was offered there for two weeks. So here we go. All right, so this question comes from Ethan. Ethan wants to know I've been seeing more jobs calling for Cat 6A everywhere, even on some of the pretty basic installs. Where do you think Cat 6A is actually worth the extra effort? And where are people just following the specs without thinking it through? Specs are a document that's usually created by a customer or a consultant for the customer, which says, here are the products you have to use, here's the manner in which it has to be installed, here's the codes and the standards and the best practice manuals you have to follow to put that in. It's hard to change a spec. It's you know, people are sometimes successful in changing specs when they're just changing products or manufacturers, but not changing from cat 5e to cat 6 or cat 6a, right? Communications is a big problem in communication companies from experience. Yeah, I say that all the time, silver luck. And just because we work in the communications industry doesn't mean we communicate. So absolutely. Hey, you guys. Hey, you guys. What movie is that from? That's one of my favorite movies. Anyway, so yeah, changing the specs are hard to do, right? Um, here's the thing: Cat 6A, cable guy's already chimed in. He says Cat 6A is rarely needed. Um rarely needed, yes. I'll agree with that. But here are some times when you might want to consider Cat 6A. Okay. Residential networks, yeah, only if you're doing it for, you know, you know, a billionaire, a millionaire. You know, that's when you would use Cat 6A. You know, Cat 6, that can do 10 gig, 50, 55 meters. That's going to be sufficient for most houses. Um, cat 6A, where there's future proofing. And we're better placed to do future proofing. Listen to me, cable guy, you know this. We're better to do future proofing than in when wiring up a home. Wiring up a home. It's easy to do the wire when it's just stud walls. It's a lot harder to do cabling once the um once the walls are drywalled in. So why not why not do cat 6a? Because that's future-proofing it. Here's the thing. Cat 6A has bigger outside diameter. And if you put in category rate cable, you know you can't exceed the minimum bend radius of four times the outside diameter of the cable. Kevin's in the house. Kevin, how you doing, my friend? Long time to talk to. Um, so four times outside diameter. So cat 6a is gonna have some pretty big bend radiuses, and that might be tough in some installations. Okay, so make sure you pay attention to that, especially in residential wiring, right? There's also gonna be a difference in time to terminate and time to test, because it usually takes longer to terminate Cat 6A because it's 23 gauge and it's twisted a lot tighter, and it's usually, you know, might be minimal, might be, you know, 30 seconds, 15 seconds, but when you multiply that by you know the number of jacks you got to do, they can be actually kind of hard. I mean, significant. Uh I call Bixie to take a course. When is your next class? I'm so I can sign up. Okay, so make sure I make this clear, G Brown. I do not work for Bixie. Okay, I don't. I do a lot of Bixie content because I believe in Bixie's mission. I am not a Bixie instructor. I am an instructor, just not for Bixie. Although I might consider that one day if the if the if the opportunity arises and the and the and things come to the right thing, I might consider that. Um I've taken Bixie classes, but I'm not I'm no longer a Bixie instructor. I used to be a certified Bixie trainer a long time ago at another company, but that's a whole different conversation, right? Um, you might want to consider Cat 6A when you know, for example, somebody who's an early adopter, and you know, I know there's not much 10 gig out there right now for home stuff being put in homes, but you know, there are comp there are people out there that just want the best as soon as it comes out. Why not do CAT 6A? PoE, power over Ethernet, PoE, to be specific. Again, you have 23 gauge conductors, so bigger conductors, less resistance means it can handle that DC current a lot better. Okay. Hey, tell me in the chat box if you know this answer. Why is a 23 gauge conductor bigger than a 24-gauge conductor? I know Kevin knows that answer. I know Kevin knows that answer, right? Uh oh yes, absolutely, you're absolutely right, Kevin. There is plenty of 23-gauge cat 6. Absolutely. But the question was specifically about Cat 6A, not Cat 6. So, but you're right though. Absolutely. Um, so there you go. That's when you do it. Uh,

Intermittent Drops And Layer One Testing

SPEAKER_00 11:15

next question. This comes from Carlos. When you're troubleshooting an intermittent network drop, what's the process before starting to replace hardware? I feel like the newer text jumps straight to swapping equipment. I guarantee you, everybody who listened to the show who who actually does cabling, who actually has done cabling, and the old tech guy Eddle knows this too, right? Trying to diagnose an interminute cable problem is hard. Absolutely hard. I'll give you a real quick story. Long time ago, when I was a younger guy and actually had hair and it wasn't gray, I got caught out to troubleshoot. I was a service tech. So I got called to a local law firm in DC, because that's where I lived at the time, because they had a cable from a new install that we did literally like six months beforehand, and it kept going on and off. It kept going connect and not connect, right? Way back in the 1900s. Exactly right. And it's funny you say that, Ed, because I asked today's class, hey, in the chat box, here's another trivia question for you. What year was the first code book published? What year was the first code book published? I asked that in every single class that I teach. And the funny thing is, people are saying, 1980, 1982, 1978. I'm like, that wasn't that long ago. That wasn't that long ago. But, anyways, I digress. So you get back to my story. So I'm out there, I'm a service tech, and it's probably mid 80s, late 80s, and this this cable keeps intermittently connecting or not connecting. Uh it's not 1930, Mr. Kevin. You're not even in the right century, buddy. Or at least the NEC. The CEC might be, but the NEC's not. The NEC is different. Um, so it was we got out there and I put on the tester. Here, here's this shows you how old. Uh yeah, I shouldn't know because I wrote it. 1897, by the way. Um, so I put my this shows you how old I was. It was one of those um, one of those testers that goes, it was an older sucker. I mean, real old sucker. And I tested and it came up fine. So I told the customer it's not a cable problem. She says, okay, she signed my ticket. I went on to my next job site. A week later, I'm back again. Penta scanner, that's the name of it. A pentascanner. My name, my mind pulled a blank there on me. It was a penta scanner. So a week later, I get called back. They're still having the same problems. Vinny, what's going on, my friend? So I go back again and I test it, and it tests fine. So I tell the customer, look, I showed them, here's the test results. It's fine. It's not the cable problem. It must be a software or it must be an equipment problem. It's not cabling. I can tell the customer's getting kind of ticked. So he shot my ticket and I went off. A week later, I get called back again, but this time I'm there at the exact same time that their IT person is there. And so we we get there and we fire it up, and I test, I test cable, testing just fine, and I show the customer, look, I show the IT guy, look. And he goes, Well, it's not a software problem. So I disconnect the tester, I plug it back into the workstation, and we're just kind of sitting there, we're talking about a project coming up in the future, standing right by that uh paralegal's desk. And all of a sudden she goes, Hey, it's not working again. And I look at it, I go, What? So I quickly throw the penta scanner on it, and sure enough, there was a short across all the cables. And while I was testing it, the shorts went away. Yeah, they disappeared and it went back to working. So I got on the ladder and I started tracing this cable down. The techs had ran the cable through a mechanical room in big offices, high-rise buildings, there's usually one room dedicated to the mechanical. There's a big HVAC system in there, and they're usually isolated from the floor with these springs. So that way when they turn on and off, they don't vibrate the entire floor. Somebody ran the cable right through the springs, and every time it would turn on, it would shake, it would ground out the cable. So troubleshooting an intermittent cable problem is not easy. Okay, not easy. But personally, I think I would always look at the physical layer before maybe Ed can chime in about this in the thing. I would look at the physical layer before I make any assumptions about software or equipment. Okay. Um if I tested the physical layer and then tested fine, I might switch ports to a known port that's running fine and switch the port that was working to the other one and see if that the trouble follows it. If it doesn't, then I know that the problem is isolated back. That's called half chunking, by the way. Half chunking. But like I said, most of the problems are usually caused by common field mistakes. Like I just showed you, the guy ran the cable through that spring. Ed says always start with the layer one. For those of you who don't know, Ed's talking about the OSI model. And I think there's seven layers to the OSI model. Ed, remind me if I'm right or not. Um I think there's seven layers. All people seem to need some data processing. We're layer one, the physical layer. So always assume it's the cable. Prove it first, okay? And then don't just guess that it's working. Use a tester, especially something that can document it. Okay. Uh, and then uh, you know, good troubleshooting habits are critical in this industry. The next question this comes from Amanda.

Habits That Signal A Real Pro

SPEAKER_00 16:40

She goes, what's one installation habit you see immediately that tells you whether or not a technician really knows their craft? Okay, Amanda, that's it got sent to me on uh on uh on Instagram. So let me ask you, I want you to answer this too on TikTok and on my other feeds. What's one skill that when you see somebody has, you know automatically they're a great technician? I got some ideas, but I want you to put yours in there too, right? First one, cable management. If they take the effort to do the cable management, it doesn't have to be a Sean Rep level of cable management, but they take the steps to make the cable look good, right? Then you know they're dotting the I's, they're crossing the T's. Most likely, this doesn't guarantee it, but most likely what'll happen is everything else that's not seen is probably gonna be done right. If they use tie wraps, which according to the standards, you can. Many manufacturers won't let you, many companies don't reprove that, but the standard does allow tie wraps. Well, they call them cable bindings, as long as you don't over cinch, right? So if you if they if they use tie wraps and all of them are done perfectly, you know, they're not over cinched, they cut them flush and you're able to spin them, that tells you that's a higher level technician. Was the service loop done correctly? Okay. Um, did they actually do the labeling? That's a big one. Did they label everything like they were supposed to? That shows you they're taking pride in their workmanship. G Brown, ThinkFiber, says if they test immediately after they do a location and make sure it passes the OTDR. Excellent, excellent. Kevin, show me a UL listing on Velcro, then I'll show you a UL listing on TIRAPs. Um, I wasn't talking about UL listings, uh, Kevin. Um, I know there's a test they got to pass, UL444. Um, that's the flame ability test, stuff like that. I don't know if there's one specifically to Velcro or TIRAPs, but they do make Planum rated Velcro and Planum rated TIRAPs. So somebody has to have tested it somewhere, right? So there you go. Next question. Next question. This one comes from Tyler. Uh and he says,

Troubleshoot Longer Or Ask For Help

SPEAKER_00 18:55

as someone pretty new to this industry, I struggle when to keep troubleshooting myself and when it's time to ask for smarter help. How do you learn to balance? Okay. That's a great question, and that's one that everybody struggles with. Every any service tech, right? Any service tech that always starts off with that. And there's been times where I was able to troubleshoot something and figure it out literally within seconds and fix it. Bam. Those make you feel so good. And then there's been other times where you know you have to you have to go around the bushes a few times. It might take 30 minutes, might take an hour, but you solve it, and there's there's nothing better, there's nothing more satisfying than having a really tough troubleshoot ticket and you figured it out. That's a that's such a great feeling. And then there's other times you have a service ticket that you've tried everything and you've reached the limit to your to your your your abilities to figure out what's going on with that, right? When you start getting up, or if you start getting frustrated, that that's actually probably one that happens, right? Seth, what's going on, my brother? He's uh he's he's also an RCD tech at 25 out in Michigan. Nice, Seth. Hey, make sure you you we are friends on LinkedIn, okay? So if you get to that point where you start getting frustrated, then it's time to reach out to somebody for help. I remember one time I reached out to um a person to help me. I was trouble troubleshooting a fiber optic cable, and I was brand new to fiber testing at the time, and I'm still not the best fiber tester because I don't do it all the time. But so I was having problems trying to uh figure out what's going on, and I called the guy up and I said, Look, here's what I'm having. He goes, What are you seeing? I told him, he goes, okay, I go to the tester, push this button, that button, and that button. And I think, dink, dink, boom. I mean, he didn't have to look at the screen, he knew right off the top of his head, and that gets stuff fixed so much faster, so much faster, right? Um, so just know when you get frustrated, know when you're outside of your expertise, and don't, don't be afraid to ask for help because you know what? Everybody asks for help at some point in time. Seth says, Hey, I just found you on LinkedIn a few weeks ago. Oh, I already read that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Seth. John says, as we move to the future with more electrical devices to PoE, will Bixie make a deal with Yen EC? John, you know, I really wish I had a crystal ball. I don't work for Bixie, I don't know what Bixie's doing. I don't, I mean, I talk to people from Bixie all the time, but you know what? Bixie's really good at keeping stuff close to their chest that they're working on and not telling you. But I'm telling you this, you hit on a very good point, John, because what's happening is, you know, you might you're talking about PoE, power over Ethernet, but don't forget, don't forget, fault managed power systems, digital electricity. Right? They're putting current over twisted pair cabling, you know, for light fixtures, hairdryers, all kinds of stuff. And that's taking away work from the electricians. So, you know, there's a you know, there's it's that kind of already somewhat kind of already. kind of start but you know at some point the NEC and Bixie they gotta they gotta work it out they just gotta work it out so I don't have the I don't have the solid I don't have the crystal ball for that one though for you jump but that's that's a great observation for you all right next question this comes from Brandon from Clapper clap that's another platform I'm on if you're not on it go to to clapper I've noticed ai cameras are getting mentioned a lot lately flock cameras huh tell me tell me in the chat box what do you think of flock cameras I just I just noticed one in my backyard no not my backyard but literally right down the street from me I live in the country I had no idea we had flock cameras right NEC codes are usually made from insurances proposing laws poe doesn't make enough power to be bad um yeah I I mostly agree with that Seth mostly agree with that um here's the thing just remember this the NEC and I I you if you know me you know I am a I am a lover of the code book I got code books galore right the the code book is for safety not for performance the code when people talk about the code book they usually one phrase that you often hear from it is minimum quality of construction minimum quality of construction right so safety wise as far as the NEC is concerned um there's some value but but there's a lot of I know a lot of people who serve on NEC committees and they don't work from insurance companies they work for electrical companies design engineering firms and stuff like that but what you're true though Seth in that um they are reactive not proactive reactive not proactive so usually what happens is um something will happen and then the code book can say well we need to change the code book because this look this building caught on fire we gotta we gotta address it so they're usually reactive not proactive you know if you go by the standards you're going to meet and or exceed the

PoE, NEC Reality And AI Cameras

SPEAKER_00 24:10

code book because the standards guarantee performance so great great great point Seth says I just got my journeyman's license last week good good for you um you're definitely right with safety exactly here you go Mr. Journeyman article 90.1 in the code book it says that the code is just for um um the practical safeguarding of people property from the hazards arising from the use of electricity that's 90.1 paragraph A 90.1 paragraph B says even if you follow the code book even if you follow the code book it's not going to be the most efficient way to do the work it's not going to be the most convenient way to do the work and it's not even going to be adequate for good service look that up 90.2 paragraph B the adequacy clause there you go I told you I know my code book and that's unusual for a low voltage guy right unusual right uh so so yeah the going back to my question here AI cameras are getting mentioned a lot lately absolutely from the installer's perspective what actually changed what actually changes compared to putting up a standard IP camera well typically you might find at least the ones that I saw that listed AI features to it they generally need higher power requirements and they need better placement you also need to consider about bandwidth because now you're running AI over that layer and and lighting still affects how a camera performs and that's going to affect the the analytics. So AI cameras can do that but they need more light so they can do the analytics better. Next question comes from Nicole what are some of the tricks I learned from pulling cable through older buildings without tearing everything apart and making a huge mess that's such a great question great question Nicole number one plan your pathways before you actually do the cabling open up ceiling tiles climb the ladders and look in the ceilings which hallways have a lot of electrical which hallways have a lot of HVAC ducts which hallways you know have a lot of congestion and then plan wisely plan to stay away from them stay at least 12 inches away from all electrical if you can if you have to cross electrical cross that at a 90 right stay away from that those potential source of EMI plan it plan it plan it for every minute you plan in a front that's going to save you 10 minutes on the backside right um make sure that you use that existing infrastructure wisely and I will tell you in older buildings especially like drop tile ceilings lock tile ceilings those tiles have been there for 10 15 20 30 years they become brittle so be super careful with them because they will break apart usually what happens is especially like the the the the two by two tiles usually what happens when you push them up they're old the corner catches and it breaks the corner off of one of the sides there you go make sure you know how to fish stuff efficiently I just saw a video just the other day must have been on TikTok and it actually was able to go up the wall and come back out and had this little plastic piece on the end with a wheel I thought that was so cool. I need to get me one of those right uh asbastas tiles too absolutely good good point

Pulling Cable In Older Buildings

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Seth right so be proficient at fishing cables um and then another thing and and somebody touched base on this earlier communicate with the occupants of the building yes communicate with the building engineer communicate with the other trades right because they may have some information they may have some historical knowledge of that building to help you um run that cable efficiently and here's a pro tip for you pro tip number one for the night listen up leave every job site cleaner than the way you found it that's the sign of a true professional next question from Ryan on Instagram he says if I were training a brand new technician tomorrow what skill what what's what's the first skill you'd make sure they master before I worried about certifications okay here you go here you go here's the first skill do they show up on time do they listen to instructions do they do the task to completion those are the concrete base skills if and I if they've if I feel got a feeling the guy's a per a really good person a really good tech and they might be might be lacking some I will help them through those skills first okay then then we're gonna talk about terminations because that's where we're gonna spend most of their time they're gonna spend most of the time terminating jacks and the problem is they see how fast a seasoned technician can do a jack and they want to do it as fast as we can. No no don't try to keep up with me I've been doing it for 40 years. Terminate the jack as slow as you need to that you can do it correctly every single time and keep doing it that at that speed and eventually you're gonna start getting faster right what's that what's that saying slow as fast no slow as smooth smooth as fast learn it get terminate the jacks to the point that you have so much muscle memory that you could literally do it in your sleep okay in your sleep right um documentate uh then I'm gonna teach them you know how to select the proper tools how to select the proper tools oh my gosh this is a big one do not use a screwdriver as a chisel right uh you know a lot of times the ceilings have the metal caps on them you're gonna make a hole in the top so you can run the cables down I've seen guys up there with hammering with with with screwdrivers that's not the right tool for that job okay select the right tool and why is that why is that an issue? Because it can cause an injury and he it's not professional right uh make use a drill when a drill's needed okay use a keel saw when a keel saw is needed right so there you go um and then build the confidence like I said through repetition Seth what's your favorite brand of com stuff I love Pandua Comscope second probably you know Seth I could probably give you my answer on that but those who know me and know what my day job is would uh would blow a gasket. So I'm not gonna if you ever see me in person at a Bixie conference ask me. I'm not gonna say that here online okay um but and you know what here's the thing here's what I will say if you stick with any of the big three that's good then you're gonna be fine with that the big three. This question comes from Derek what's one tool that you've bought with your own money that ended up saving you more time than anything that any company's ever provided you I I got it it's right here behind me. Hold on let me grab it real quick this tool right here this tool right here tell me in the chat box what is this tool I bought

Training New Techs And Buying Tools

SPEAKER_00 31:05

this this is mine this is not a loaner this is mine okay I'll give you a hint it has something to do with fiber optic cabling yes yes I paid a pretty penny for it it is a fusion splicer yes it is a fusion splicer Chuck's got his own fusion splicer but here's the thing let's look at it from a young technician's perspective make sure because you know as a young technician you're not making a whole bunch of money yet so and you might be even raising a family so money might be tight I highly recommend to buy the highest quality tools that your budget allows because I've learned personally that better quality tools last a lot longer okay they last a lot longer but not everybody can and let me make sure I put this out there there's nothing wrong with Harbor Freight tools hey we've got a tool guy in the room Ed the old tech guy watch his videos he does tool stuff all the time Harbor Freight makes some really good stuff realistically when it comes to I I got two different kinds of tools I got my communication tools and I've got my farm tools my farm tools typically are going to be Ryobi or DeWalt okay my my low voltage tools are predominantly Milwaukee. Even the fiber strippers are Milwaukee okay you can't go wrong with going red here I'll prove it to you look you can't go wrong with going red you just can't right so buy the bit and the most quality tool you can with the budget you have and make sure that you buy everyday tools first don't go out like I did and you know if you two weeks in the job and buy a fusion spicer don't do that go buy the the keyhole saw go buy a good pair of snips or scissors some people call them scissors some people call them snips that starts an argument industry every single time right um a good punch tool a good quality punch tool that has 66 blades and 110 blades don't buy the cheap you know the ones that don't have any impact those those things just you get a good proper punch tool okay right good proper punch tool um testers those are usually bought by the company right and then here's the thing once you start getting some tools you need to organize them the more organized your tools are the more efficient you're going to be so what does that mean? That doesn't mean go out and buy a Milwaukee packout kit like like I have it can be Klein mod boxes it can be the packout kits it can be um everybody there's a bunch of people making modular tool systems now just be organized and that's going to make you way much faster way much faster what size project do you think are best to learn on 5000 or 1 million for a new technician Seth I I really think the 5000 one is first because the 50 uh the $5000 project is probably going to be somewhere between one and four weeks long that way they get to see the complete picture right pulling terminating testing certifying turning over the customer right cut over and all that kind of stuff um get a couple of those under the belt but then a good uh a good big project is you know like a one million plus is good for building up those skills that we were those those muscle members you were just talking about and it says Milwaukees are hard to beat yeah but they can't beat they can't beat let's see if Ed can guess his tool the Makitas yes that shows how old I am Makitas gotta love Makitas uh Reezy says what's the most important chapters of the Itzum studying for copper too great question while all chapters the test can pull from any one of the chapters so you have to read the entire thing Reezy read the entire thing um there is a book out there a free book that you can download and it's from Bixie it's called the

BICSI Study Advice And Free Zoom

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Bixie Technician Study Handbook. Download that book because in that book it's gonna tell you you know how that chapters how that test is organized. So make sure you read that too and if you're on if you you start reading them too if you're on Facebook Reezy make sure you join the the Bixie Technician study group guess who it's run by me yes we're doing a Zoom call next week Tuesday at 8 p.m and we're gonna answer questions for people studying for their Bixie Tech or installer questions. No charge for it and it's not just me listen to this guess who also is going to be on that Matt Apfell. If you don't know Matt Apfell he's a he's a he's the he well he was the director at a JATC center in Las Vegas and a Bixie instructor and an FOA instructor smart guy. TJ Pate is going to be on that call TJ Pate is a three time Bixie cable skills challenge winner and the three of us are going to answer all your questions next Tuesday night 8 p.m be there or be square and it is free it is free. So make sure you shut look me up on on Facebook right okay alrighty now moving on last question because I'm already over this comes from Hannah can you search what an I see in the US Navy is an IC in the US Navy I don't I was never served so I can't tell you what an IC is in the US Navy so there you go. Can you tell me why Bixie doesn't respect the experience they do respect the experience um if you look at the if you look at the qualification processes on how to get your certifications some all the qualifications usually have some part from some part of real hands training. The problem with with experience the reasy the the real Z the problem with experience is not all experience is the same you might have been taught by somebody who doesn't know the right way to do stuff. So those kind of people are gonna have problems problems on the uh with the uh with the with the with with Bix exams so there you go. Ed wants to remind everyone the data center interview yes it's coming out next Monday next Monday you probably about eight o'clock nine o'clock on two part series with Ed the old tech guy who's in the show right now and Henry Frank we're gonna talk about the myths of data centers the benefits of data centers and why does everybody not want a data center in their backyard you know what it's it's six it's 638 I gotta cut the show here by people um we are we are going to uh go get some so uh some some dinner and some and some sodas and my tractor's back and running again so I got some tractor work oh and I had two eight cubic yards of uh of um of the tree companies so they they chop over the trees I got two loads of my front yard and my tractor's running so yes I

Data Center Series Reminder And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 38:20

got some work to do tonight so until next time everybody remember knowledge is powerful