c/cable-installers

Lost $150 on a cheap cable toner from Amazon and regret it

Rant: I think fishing rods are overhyped for pulling cable through conduit

I keep hearing guys on here swear by fiberglass rods for everything. Three years ago I was working a job in Phoenix, had to pull 200 feet of Cat6 through some old 2-inch conduit that was full of rocks and dirt. The rods kept binding up. Switched to a basic steel tape, took me 2 tries to get it through. Last month saw a new guy spend 45 minutes struggling with a rod set on a simple 50 foot run. Am I missing something or do people just like the fancy tools?

Got a genuine thank you note from a customer today

I was running coax to a new bedroom in this older house out in Brighton. The homeowner was this older guy who kept apologizing for the tight crawl space under his house. After I got the line run and terminated, he handed me a handwritten card with a $20 gift card to a local diner tucked inside. Said his grandkids can finally have their own room with TV and he appreciated me not making a mess. Has anyone else gotten a surprise thank you like that on a job?

Old timer told me to stop using push-on connectors for coax

I was in a crawlspace with this 30 year veteran last month and he watched me pop a push-on F connector on and just shook his head. He made me redo it with a compression fitting and honestly, the signal reading went from -12 dB to -6 dB. Has anyone else had luck switching away from those quick connectors?

Lost 3 hours to a bad ground clamp yesterday

I was troubleshooting a drop in signal on a triple play install. Checked every splitter and connector twice. Finally found the ground block had a loose screw on the clamp. It was finger tight the whole time. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on something this simple?

Heard a senior installer say he never uses impact drivers on wall plates

He said it cracks the plastic around the screw holes about 30 percent of the time, and after checking my last 10 jobs I think he's right, has anyone else noticed that?

Frozen fish trick for pulling cable through wet conduit actually worked

So I had this job last Thursday in Seattle where we had to run 200 feet of coax through a conduit that was full of standing water. My usual tricks weren't working and I was about to give up. My buddy Mike said he saw a video of a guy using frozen fish sticks to push a pull string through. I laughed but we were desperate so I grabbed a bag from the gas station. Worked way better than I expected, the frozen fish slid right through the water and we got the pull line tied on. Has anyone else tried some weird food item as a cable pulling aid?

I finally figured out why my coax terminations kept failing

Been seeing a bunch of guys at my company messing up their F connector installs on RG6. They keep stripping too much insulation and leaving the braid exposed. Had a job last month in Phoenix where 3 out of 4 drops had signal loss because of this exact mistake. A senior guy finally showed me to use a compression tool instead of crimping and check every connection with a signal meter before closing up. Anyone else run into this issue with new hires?

Had a perfect run of attics this week... finally

Three attic jobs in a row where the customer had actually cleared a path before I got there... never happens usually. The last one even had a lightbulb working already. Anyone else get those rare days where everything just lines up?

Old fiber splice trays vs new ones - night and day difference

I swapped out a 2005 Corning splice tray in a pedestal near Austin last month and put in a modern AFL tray. The old one had me fighting for 20 minutes just to get one strand routed. The new tray took maybe 3 minutes and everything was secure. Has anyone else noticed how much easier the newer enclosures are to work with?

Learned I was coiling coax the wrong way after 8 years in the truck

I was out on a job in Phoenix last month trenching a line for a new build and noticed the signal kept dropping near the ground. This older installer walked over and asked why I was making loops like a garden hose, said it was creating a choke point in the line. I had no idea I was basically shorting myself out every time I did a tight coil near the wall. Has anyone else found out they been doing some basic step wrong for years?

Was against using gel-filled connectors in wet environments until I saw the corrosion on a 6-month old standard connector from a customer's pool house

Found a failure analysis report from the SCTE that showed standard connectors fail 3x faster than gel-filled when humidity is above 70%, so now I keep a bag of the gel ones in my van for outdoor jobs, anyone else made that switch or stick with the old way?

Pulled 2 miles of cat6 in a 90 degree attic in Phoenix last Thursday

Had a job over near the 101 and Cactus where they wanted ethernet to every room of a two-story. I sweated through two shirts by 11 AM and my Klein crimpers felt like they were melting in my hand. Got it all done by 5 though and the homeowner brought out cold Gatorades. Anybody got a trick for keeping water cold in attics without a cooler?

Talked to a homeowner in Olympia who questioned my whole drop bury method

I was burying a feed line in Olympia last Thursday and the homeowner came out and asked why I wasn't using conduit for the last 10 feet to the house. He said he used to work for the phone company and they always sleeved the final run near foundations to avoid frost heave and animal damage. Has anyone else run into issues with exposed drops near house foundations during freeze-thaw cycles?

My old crimper vs a $40 Klein. Night and day difference.

Been using this beat up crimper from my first tool kit for years. Finally bought a Klein ratcheting crimper last week for $42 at the supply house. First RG6 connector I did seated perfect first try. No more squeezing then checking then squeezing again. Has anyone else waited way too long to upgrade a basic tool?

That time I fixed a flickering modem by checking the ground bond

Last week I spent 2 hours chasing a signal issue in a house built in the 70s, turned out the ground bond was loose at the meter base... has anyone else run into weird stuff with older homes throwing off your readings?

Compression vs crimp fittings on a 200 amp meter in Cleveland last week

Finally got to try compression fittings after doing crimps for years on a service upgrade. The compression tool was way easier on my hands and the connections felt solid right away. Crimps always make me double check with the gauge and they take longer. Anyone else switch and not look back?

TIL those fiber optic splice trays at the back of the pedestal can trap water if you don't angle them right

I was out in Phoenix last week fixing a service drop and noticed the tray was sitting flat instead of tilted down. Water had pooled inside and corroded three splices. Has anyone else run into this issue with the newer enclosures?

Remember when we used to hand-fish coax through every drop ceiling?

Had a job in an old office building in Seattle last month with a dozen runs. Used my old method for the first one, took 45 minutes. Switched to the fiberglass push rods for the rest and did them all in under two hours. When did you finally ditch the hand-fishing method for good?

Remember having to choose between crimping and compression connectors for RG6?

Back around 2010, my boss insisted we switch to compression fittings for everything, but I had a whole box of crimp-ons and a tool I knew inside out. I stuck with crimping for another year on my own jobs, and honestly, the call-backs for moisture issues went way down. Anyone else hold out on an old method that actually worked better for them?

Unpopular opinion: My call-back rate in the North End dropped by half after I started using a Klein VDV Scout Pro tester on every job.

What specific tool or change in your process made the biggest difference in your first-time fix rate?

Changed my mind about using fish tape for every coax pull after a crawl space job in Phoenix

The heat melted the tape's coating onto the line, and my foreman said 'sometimes the old push rod is just smarter.' Anyone have a favorite flexible alternative for tight, hot runs?

Rant: Remember when you could just run a new drop without checking for a dozen other services?

Three years ago on a job in a quiet part of town, I could drill a hole, run the coax, and be done in under an hour. Last month at a house in the new development off Maple, I had to check for existing fiber, security lines, and even a low-voltage garden light wire before I could even think about my own cable. It took almost three hours just to map everything out. The whole job feels different now. Anyone else spending more time tracing other people's work than doing their own?

Got a fish tape stuck in a wall back in '08

I was working in an old brick apartment building in Chicago, pulling a line through a plaster wall. The tape hit a hidden fire block and just jammed solid. I tried pulling it back for about twenty minutes, even greased it up, but it wouldn't budge. In the end, I had to cut it and leave a foot of steel in the wall. Anyone else have a trick for getting a tape unstuck when it's really wedged?

Had a coax line snap clean in half on a cold call yesterday

It was at a house in Springfield, the old RG-59 line was brittle from sun damage. I was just giving it a gentle tug to check the slack and it popped right at the fitting. Had to run a whole new drop from the pole, which took about an hour and a half. Anyone have a good trick for spotting that kind of dry rot before you put your hands on it?