Climb that mountain: Cabling photos

Oct. 7, 2022
Below the "clouds" -- in both cyber- and ordinary "meatspace" -- often loom stupendous mountains of "cablefail." Intrepid information and communication technology (ICT) professionals labor in that steep terrain daily.

Below the "clouds" -- in both cyber- and ordinary meatspace -- often loom stupendous mountains of cablefail. Intrepid information and communication technology (ICT) professionals struggle in that steep terrain daily, even as they descend into the belly of the cablegore beast.

And the technicians' fight is reflected on social media at Reddit's eponymously boldfaced sub-groups linked above, where all manner of network cabling gone awry can be found avalanching: copper, fiber, coax, wireless, ISP, OSP, fiber broadband, public infrastructure, data center, educational, Pro AV, the list goes on like a trail of pitons winding up the slope of a rock face.

Just like yours, as you survey your latest unpleasant cabling jobsite catastrophe through the lens of your smartphone camera, and snap a photo to send to [email protected] for inclusion in an upcoming photo blog in this space.

Shooting up the literal cable for the actual internet with bullets from a gun is about as wild as we've seen out here.

Reddit OP [orig. poster] u/that_guy_is_tall has the field report:

"I believe it was bird shot. It looked like birdshot. The bits of lead were still in the cable causing all sorts of signal issues."

This would be for 4G and 5G as in, "Gee whiz, that's a lot of cabling hanging off that there cellular tower."

Reddit commenter u/oilfeather knows what's up:

"The newer antenna elements have the fiber running directly to them. The old co-ax is just left in place until more room is needed."

Lots of colorful flora and even waterfalls up in these parts.

Watch though you don't slip and fall into the fire down below where, as noted by the OP, u/soupskin_sammich, those "switches aren't overheating themselves!"

Getting it all sorted out up on the fusion splicing line with the Fujikura 90R.

Working down on the bunny slopes, you know there are still some pros watching from the sidelines who'd take a crack at straightening out these greenhorns on a Saturday afternoon for a good price. Money's green too...

For those who appreciate a good spaghetti feast, the answer is always yes.

Right about now is when you wonder if anyone is still thinking about things like solar-powered streetlights with WiFi and WiMax internet access?

Getting a leg up with some PoE on top of a couple of boxes of UTP cabling from Paige from the looks of things...

Their internet was literally hanging by a thread, of coax -- who says copper's dead?

Almost looks like snow-encrusted peaks looming yonder. Get ready to go up that ladder.

As noted here by Reddit OP u/HightechHandyman, do try to have some fun on your journey if you can, especially when it's:

"Day one of probably 3...relocating a network rack and AV rack and installing new networking gear..." 

Because it is always enjoyable to get paid for doing honest work well in the ICT field.

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About the Author

Matt Vincent | Senior Editor

Matt Vincent is a B2B technology journalist, editor and content producer with over 15 years of experience, specializing in the full range of media content production and management, as well as SEO and social media engagement best practices, for both Cabling Installation & Maintenance magazine and its website CablingInstall.com. He currently provides trade show, company, executive and field technology trend coverage for the ICT structured cabling, telecommunications networking, data center, IP physical security, and professional AV vertical market segments. Email: [email protected]

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