Ah! so happy I could help Alan. Good luck, sir! :-)

That’s excellent! 👍😊

Good ol SRV! Gone too soon. 😟 Glad you enjoyed the video. Rolling ladders in the MDF? Whoa, sounds big! Like a CO maybe? Serviced a few large switches but nothing that big! 😄

I feel you Gordon.. I"m going to miss copper analog voice. Unfortunately, business votes with the dollar. And, the low cost of cloud-based VoIP is making it real hard for the RBOCs to make money maintaining that copper plant. What I will miss the most is the Telco "Craft'. My dad was a pre-1984 Bell guy. And, he taught me the craft (but I never worked for Bell). But, today there isn't much in the way of professional standards. PBX closets are usually a joke most of the time. Really appreciated your comments sir!

@@DIYTelecom They really are. Even the one set up in our office back in '95 (which we bought used) was set up so ridiculously that adding new stations to the block is a nightmare. Trying to learn on it is terrifying, so we're just looking into VoIP as an alternative since it's web-based and has more configuration that's also more user-friendly. I still want to learn these old systems but hell, trying to make sense of our own system is insane!

right? I used to do a lot of wealthy residential work back in the day (Greenwhich CT, White Plains NY). See some strange things.🤷🏻

that's a good point. However, my Dracon-Harris punch tool is about 15 years old, so it may be different. I can flip the 66 or 110 blade either way (Cut or no-cut). Appreciate you bringing that up. Thanks :-)

I agree something that was missing in an earlier video along with echo cancellation with the pair twists. Very basic information.

Yes, leaving slack (also referred to as a "service loop") at each end is a best practice. So your thinking was right-on! Everyone has a different way they like to do this. For me, I like to either leave a coil of about 2 feet in the ceiling before I drop into the patch panel or the wall jack. Or the other way to do it is to leave slack in the network cabinet (or if telecom wiring, somewhere on the backboard). Only word of caution, with Cat6 cable for Data networks, making circular loops can degrade 1Gbps throughput. However,f or Cat5e or 100Mbps network, the effect is unnoticed. Great question, thanks for asking!

Fantastic! :) I will keep the loop in mind and keep doing this! I remember years ago hearing about loops in cabling degrading signal quality, and I believe there was an actual minimum size for the loop to avoid signal degradation but I don't remember. I would assume a good size loop would minimize or eliminate any adverse effects? And if not a larger loop, I suppose just leaving some sag, or making a wider turn would also give the extra slack that may be needed down the line. Thank you for your time and for sharing your expertise!

John - Nahh, loops are not a significant problem as long as they don't encircle a city the size of Cleveland (or Sheboygan, for that matter). Keep them as 'service' loops, maybe a foot and a half in diameter JUST IN CASE you might need to reroute or repunch so you have some slack to work with. ONE thing that is critical though, since you're talking wiring ... that's parallel runs with electrical. Don't do it ... ZIG ZAG your wiring as best as possible. The longer you parallel to high strength signal sources or radiating sources (such as electrical) the worse the problem becomes. Just avoid the parallel runs or zig zag as much as possible to avoid a direct parallel.

Ahahhaha right? 😄. If you miss it, I Have plenty of it here: KZfaq.com/thenortelguy

Hi James, you threw a lot at me there. As for why you’re seeing bridge clips across the pins between two stations, I have no answer except that 66-blocks are notoriously mis labeled because over time techs make changes but don’t relabel. Your question about sharing a POTS line across several diff pins, you do a non-cut punch. If you look at your 66 punch tool, you should be able to flip the bit around so that the end has not cutter on it. Hope that helps. 😊

Nothing to do with impedance. It's not uncommon for an analog line to be cross-connected through several of these 66 blocks before it finally reaches the PBX (or telco demarc). I could see why that would be confusing and frustrating to you.

A 66B block is different then the m50 shown. With the 66B block the left pins are usually where you provide the dial tone (Known as the Line Wiring from the NID (network interface device) provided by the telephone company. The remaining right five pins are parallel, and where you punch your Station Wiring (your phones from the wall jacks or wherever), to the left pin meaning whatever you punch down on the left pin, anything punched down on the remaining right pins of that row are parallel ... they carry that particular path across. So, let's start out with one telephone line Chris. Usually it will be provided as either RED GREEN for line one and YELLOW BLACK for line two. Nowadays it doesn't really matter as most everything is digital, but it's always good to follow the old ATT standard for clarity sake. So, look at this chart for a little better understanding: Old Style 3 pair - New style 3 pair RED - WHITE STRIPE on BLUE WIRE (Line 1 Tip) GREEN - BLUE WIRE on WHITE STRIPE (Line 1 Ring)YELLOW - WHITE STRIPE on ORANGE WIRE (Line 2 Tip)BLACK - ORANGE WIRE on WHITE STRIPE (Line 2 Ring)WHITE - WHITE STRIPE on GREEN WIRE (Line 3 Tip)BLUE - GREEN WIRE on WHITE STRIP (Line 3 Ring)Again, the polarity is not usually important these days unless you are using a digital Key system in which you would refer to their wiring instructions as power might be present on certain pairs.So, unless you have the same coloring codes on the left side coming in, use the above methods.Also note that maybe your house has old and new wiring ... but it doesn't matter as long as you maintain the color code if you can. ALSO NOTE - A butt set is always handy to make sure the lines coming in are correctly wired. They could have been swiss-cheesed by a previous owner or someone's brother who knows all about phone wiring but actually doesn't.So, to hook up your LINE WIRING to your STATION WIRING, just punch your STATION PAIRS as shown above. Always good to make sure that they are actually wired that way on the jack first (that brother thing again).I hope this clarified things and not totally confused you. I am a retired ATT employee and have owned a few installation companies before and after the phone company stint. If you cannot get your jacks to work, don't call your brother - call a CLEC, ILEC or anybody of reputation. You can usually find them under TELEPHONE in the yellow pages. Good Luck. And if all else fails, do what the rest of the world does, buy a cel phone where voice quality sucks, something ATT has strived for since day one.

Also, if yours has a metal clip across the middle of the block. remove the metal clip, brush it with an emory board or some sort of small wire brush, be sure to clean any fragments and re-insert it. I've had those 'bridge clips' get tarnished sometime and lose their ability to actually 'bridge' the signal path from one side of the block to the other.

That’s right. W/blu= tip (green on a phone jack). Blue/white is ring (red). 😄

@@DIYTelecom thanks!! 🙏 That’s a quick and easy reference that I’ll probably forget again and again. 😅

Let you in on a lil secret? I sometimes come back to watch my own videos to remember how to do something. 😆😆

yes, definitely a split 66 block. in the interconnect biz, that about all I run into since the 1A2’s went the way of the dinosaurs. 😉 Man, I would love to see some video footage of pole climbing. I’ve never done that. Thanks for commenting!!

@@DIYTelecom man I remember climbing a pole for at&t near a train track maybe 10 years ago. It’s super sketchy up top. Swaying like crazy every time I moved. Easily 40ft up. Man I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore

Let’s start a Kickstarter drive to raise funds for a real camera! 😁😁