I respectfully disagree. 5-pair buried drop (blue, orange, green, brown, slate) was most certainly in use in 1974. I ran a plow and buried plenty of it. The color code was developed in the early 1940s.
Uh, "filled" cable. (icky pic)
...and it works GREAT - until someone chops it in half.
Still are the Mean, Evil Bell System... reforming rather like that terminator thing...
Never seen it in any old residential installation anywhere.
We call it flooded in the cable biz.
It still keep moisture out of the cable, just doesn't do much for the cut ends.
The line has already been patched (by telco) in the middle of its 1 furlong run one time from when the elec co. broke the phone line. I couldn't be there to see what he used, too bad. It was only about 4 years ago.
Surely this encapsulant can be purchased somewhere. Its a large city here.
Thanks
phil
ps thanks everyone for all the input.
Heh! He wouldn't be the first - or last.
If I know there already exists one (or more) buried splices in a single run of buried drop, I usually have the line replaced. Given their assured, eventual failure, more than one or two buried splices further reduces the usable life of the line.
Graybar Electric comes to mind, but you didn't hear it from me.
something like this
Good point, Pete.
Even now I encounter the occasional "attitude" displayed by a coworker. Oddly, they weren't around when The Bell System existed. I suppose we're no more immune than any other company when it comes to employing folks with lousy customer service skills.
...and the neckties wonder why we aren't competing any more effectively than we are with the competition.
5-pair buried drop was pretty new in 1974 and rarely used except for running to small businesses and residential mansions.
Of course, it all depends on the telco and part of the country.
Oops. Thanks for the correction. (sorry)
Ain't it the truth. ...and it softens yours hands so nicely!
Did/do you work in cable draw or what? We have (had) a HUGE Western Electric plant in Omaha - the Omaha Cable Works. It's called "Connectivity Solutions" this week.
Only yesterday I encountered more, brand new, GARBAGE (inside) phone wire (cable). It was purchased at Menards, made in China and marketed under the Southwestern Bell banner.
Three pairs (I love this: red/green, yellow/black, white/blue) and absolutely NO twist.
I activated a second line to the SNI of a customer who wanted BOTH lines at the new location - prewired with this garbage wire.
I put my butt set on one pair and my toner on another pair. When the toner was switched on, it was as if I had the phone connected DIRECTLY to the toner
- there was THAT much inductive cross.
This trash was UL listed (and what a joke THAT is) and classified CMX on the jacket.
Don't buy phone wire at Menards, folks. Get Cat 5e at Home Depot or Lowes and be sure. Wotta mess. :(
CATV cable, not wire / cable manufacture.
UL only cares about safety, and that garbage wire probably won't kill anyone. Of course the jacket PVC probably has a high lead content like most everything made in China seems to have...
What causes a "proper" splice to fail. Not disagreeing, just curious.
Water ingress is normally the problem. "Proper" would, of course, prevent that in theory...getting a permanent watertight seal in field installation doesn't always happen.
Water, and maybe soil that's heaving (shifting) due to freezing & thawing. Some wire is below the frost line, but maybe not where it enters the house.
Wow, thats a big minimum size roll for Harry Homeowner.
Might be a market out there for 100 foot as opposed to 1000 foot rolls of the phone stuff.
I couldn't get a "locate" on my property. To make matters worse the telco doesn't really "bury" their line. My wife built over a hundred houses in the last couple years and every one of them had the phone wire laying right under the sod! Needless to sat "cut phone lines" were a regular warranty issue, which got tossed back to Sprint, now Embarq, who came out and strung a new wire, right under the sod. They just peeled it back, dropped in the wire and stomped it down. When they do "bury" a wire in an established lawn they use a flat bladed tool about 8" wide, that splits the turf and they push the wire down ... about 2". That is what I had
All that said I would suggest he fix it the best he can and hopefully it will last until the scars of recent digging have cured. It it starts acting up after that, call the telco and say your phone is broke. They will test it and if they think the wire went bad they will just run a new one, never digging out his splice of shame.
Thanks for posting the interesting links.
When it comes to "safety tape", I can't say I've ever seen it "protecting" non-hazardous, buried plant. That doesn't mean I think it doesn't happen or gets placed, just that I've never seen it in the field.
Usually, the way a brain-dead digger knows that something is amiss are the short lengths of fine, colored wire coming up with their spoils. Either that or when the convoy of telco trucks show up.
Safety tape is probably never placed for a buried phone "drop". It might have helped in the OP's case, though.
[chopping on "tree root"] Oh, sh*t! It's a WIRE! Ethel! Call the power company! What do you mean the phone's dead?
Yeah, case of eight, no less. That's surely a LIFETIME supply!
Moisture eventually breeches even the best encapsulant as the encapsulant ages.
Frost heave exacerbates the process, flexing the splice over time. Moisture follows a little pinhole-size gap and infiltrates the splice. Eventually, the moisture compromises the plastic insulation and the copper conductors contact a ground source and each other. This is manifested by static, hum, buzz and is worse during a wet season.
In the repair world there is a commonly-used acronym: ETIR.
Every Time It Rains.
I can't argue with that especially since the OP said the power utility had already cut the line elsewhere some time prior.
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