c/cable-installers

Overheard a senior installer say 'stop fighting the cable' and it clicked

I was on a job last week in a 1970s house with conduit that hadn't been touched in 30 years. Spent 20 minutes wrestling a coax through a 90 degree bend, getting nowhere. Then I heard one of the old-timers on the next job say to his helper 'stop fighting the cable, work with the curve not against it'. That simple thing made me rethink how I approach tight pulls. I stopped yanking and started feeding it slow, matching the bend instead of forcing it straight. Finished that run in under 5 minutes after that. It sounds dumb but it changed how I handle any tricky path now, especially in attics where you can't see the route. Anyone else have a moment where one sentence from a coworker completely changed your technique?

Question about running fiber through old conduit in Chicago

I keep hearing everyone say you should never pull fiber through existing conduit, that it always gets damaged. Last month I had to run 500 feet of single mode through a conduit that had been sitting empty for 3 years in an old office building on Michigan Ave. Pulled it slow with a mule tape and a swivel. Zero issues, passed OTDR testing first try. Anyone else have success stories with old conduit or am I just getting lucky?

Hit 5000 installs last month without a single callback

I always figured a few screwups were normal until I tracked every job for a year. What's your callback rate like, anyone else keep a log?

The $70 label maker gamble - lifesaver or paperweight?

I spent $70 on a fancy Bluetooth label maker for marking cable runs. First week it was great, organized everything in the truck. Then the labels started peeling off in the heat after two months. Now I'm back to sharpie and tape, but the old guys swear by their cheapo manual ones for years. Did the tech upgrade burn me or did I just pick a dud?

Just realized my crimper was the problem after I blamed bad ends for 3 months

Took me until Wednesday when I borrowed a buddy's Klein at a job in Phoenix to figure out my cheap old one was barely squeezing the connectors, and now I'm kicking myself for all those service callbacks-anyone else had a tool fail on them without warning?

Took me 7 years to notice this one thing about ground blocks

I was swapping out an old ground block on a house in Phoenix last Tuesday and noticed the installer before me had the ground wire looped the wrong way. It was going down instead of up before the block, which creates a drip loop that can actually trap water against the fitting. I see this on about 1 out of every 4 jobs now that I look for it. It matters because corrosion happens way faster that way and you'll be back out there in under two years fixing a signal issue. Has anyone else noticed this pattern on older installs or am I just seeing things?

Hit 200 residential installs this week and finally had to admit something

I crossed 200 residential cable installs on Thursday. That number surprised me because I never actually kept count. But what really hit me was how many of those were in houses built before 1980. The old wiring and tight crawl spaces in these Milwaukee neighborhoods are a whole different game. Anyone else notice their install count creeping up faster than they expected?

I swear older homes had way more slack in the cable runs than new builds do now

Was in a 1985 house yesterday and had like 8 feet of coax to play with in the attic, but the new subdivisions I've hit since 2020 give you maybe 2 feet if you're lucky, which makes tight bends and stress on the connectors way more common - has anyone else noticed the builders pinching everything down to save materials?

Old timer told me I was running coax too tight and making the signal bounce, so now I leave a little sag in every drop.

After I started leaving 2 inches of slack at every clip, my return loss numbers went from -18 dB to -28 dB, has anyone else seen that big a jump from just changing tension?

Last month a rat chewed through a drop line in a crawlspace near Austin and it took me 3 hours to fix

I was working a new install outside Austin last month and the signal kept dropping out. Crawled under this house (miserable, 90 degrees) and found a rat had gnawed right through the RG6 about 2 feet from the ground block. Had to replace a 50 foot section and re-terminate both ends because the damage went further than I thought. Customer was watching the World Series that night so I was sweating bullets. Anyone else deal with rodent damage worse than you expected after a quick look?

Spent 90 minutes wrestling with a bad connector on a rooftop in Phoenix yesterday

The compression fitting on the RG6 just would not grab the cable right, and after three tries I finally saw a hairline crack in the barrel of the connector, has anyone else run into cheap fittings that look fine but fail under tension?

Spent 4 hours chasing a signal drop that was just a loose connector behind the wall plate

Took me forever to find that one bad compression fitting hidden behind a customer's new entertainment center, has anyone else spent a whole afternoon on something that stupid simple?

Had to choose between fiber crimp and fusion splice on a Friday rush job

Got a call at 3pm for a new install in a warehouse near Austin. Fiber run was too long for a simple crimp connector so I had to pick between a quick mechanical splice or renting the fusion splicer from the shop. I went with the mechanical and it held fine but I'm still wondering if I should've just waited for the fusion. Any of you guys ever regret rushing a fiber termination?

The day I did a cable install inside a chicken coop and nearly got pecked to death

I was running a line out to a customer's new shed in rural Ohio last spring and they insisted the best route went right through their 30-bird chicken coop, and after 20 minutes of dodging beaks and stepping in droppings I realized I should start asking customers about livestock before I even pull up to the property.

Spent 45 minutes chasing a ground fault that was just a loose bonding nut on the meter base

Turns out the weatherhead was fine and the drop tested clean but that one nut was finger tight on a install from 3 years ago, anyone else waste a whole morning on something this stupid?

Hot vs cold termination on aerial drops, night and day difference

I finally compared hot side lashing versus bringing the cable down to ground temp before pulling tension. Cold termination (letting it sit in 40 degree weather for 30 minutes before lashing) gave me way less sag after a week. Hot lashing at 80 degrees left me with a droopy mess after 3 days of sun exposure. My foreman told me to try it after I had to redo 6 drops last summer. Has anyone else noticed a big difference with seasonal temps on their aerial work?

Why does nobody talk about fiber splitters going bad in the rain?

Last week in Portland I had three service calls where brand new splitters failed after a single heavy rain because the waterproof seals weren't actually sealed from the factory, has anyone else dealt with that yet?

A senior installer in Phoenix told me to never use compression fittings on RG6...

He swore they'd fail within a year, but I've been using them for 8 months now with zero signal loss. Has anyone else had a different experience with compression vs. crimp connectors in dry heat?

Vent: Chose the cheap crimper instead of the Klein...

Had to decide between a $15 no-name crimper at the hardware store or the Klein Tools one for $45 last Tuesday. Grabbed the cheap one to save some cash and it mangled three ends in a row before I got a good connection. Anyone else get burned by cheap tools on a tight timeline?

Spent 4 hours chasing a signal drop in a 1920s brick house

The drop was in a back bedroom, and the attic crawl was a nightmare of old knob and tube wiring. I finally found the issue where the coax had been pinched behind a baseboard heater for probably 20 years. Re-ran the whole line and it was perfect. Anyone else have a crazy old house story that ate up a whole morning?

Appreciation post: A customer in Phoenix told me my cable slack was too tight

They said it pulled on their wall plate when they moved the TV, so now I leave a full 6-inch service loop behind every outlet. What's your standard for slack length?

My old boss swore by using a Klein VDV501-822 for every coax crimp

He told me for years that the ratcheting action on that specific tool was the only way to get a perfect crimp every single time. I used it for about two years straight, even though it felt a bit heavy in my pouch. Then last month, I was on a job in Phoenix and my Klein broke, the spring just gave out. The supply house only had a cheaper, non-ratcheting Paladin crimper, so I grabbed it. To my surprise, the crimps looked just as clean and passed the meter test with flying colors. It's also way lighter. I feel like I was overcomplicating things for no good reason. Has anyone else switched away from a ratcheting crimper and been happy with it?

I always thought those cheap crimp tools from the hardware store were fine, but one snapped on a simple RG6 connector in a Phoenix attic last Tuesday.

Got stuck for 3 hours on a simple wall plate because of a hidden nail

I was doing a standard install in an old house in Portland last week, just swapping out a coax plate. The screw wouldn't bite, so I figured the drywall anchor was shot. After messing with it forever, I finally pulled the whole plate off and found a tiny finishing nail, maybe from an old picture frame, driven straight through the back of the box. It took me way longer than the whole rest of the job to drill that thing out without wrecking the box. Anyone else find weird stuff blocking wall boxes in older places?

A customer's simple comment made me rethink my whole approach to cable runs

I was finishing a job in a new build over in the Westridge neighborhood last month, running a line for a home theater setup. The homeowner, an older guy, watched me work for a bit and then just said, 'You know, that's going to be a real pain for me if I ever need to pull a new wire through there.' He was right. I had bundled everything super tight and stapled it down every six inches along the stud, the way I was taught. It looked clean, but it was basically permanent. I thought about it all drive home. Now, I still make it neat, but I leave a service loop at the box and use those plastic J-hooks instead of staples in the attic crawl spaces. It takes a few extra minutes, but the next guy, or the homeowner, will have a fighting chance. Has anyone else had a moment like that, where a bit of feedback from a client totally shifted a routine part of your work?