c/cable-installers

Just noticed a lot of guys skip the ground block and it bugs me

Honestly, I've seen three jobs this month in Toledo where the ground block was just bypassed, and the drop went straight to the modem. That's how you get static hits every time the neighbor runs a saw, and it takes an extra 5 minutes to do it right. Anyone else finding this more common lately, or is it just the new guys cutting corners?

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tyler_white42•2d ago

Old cable guy memories hit different after a chat in Cleveland

Ran into a retired installer at a coffee shop in Cleveland last Thursday, he was telling me about running coax back in the 80s when everything was just one line and no ground blocks. He said we have it easy now with toner probes and pre-labeled drops, but hearing him talk made me realize how much I take the little stuff for granted. Any of you older heads wish we still did some things the old way, or is all this new gear really better?

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kevin_wells46•2d ago

That $40 cable toner saved my butt on a 3 story house

Picked up a cheap toner and probe combo from Amazon after guessing wrong on two runs in a row. Found the exact line behind drywall in about 10 minutes on a job in Tacoma. Anyone else swear by these or do you just pull new coax every time?

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lindareed•2d ago

Three years ago I sized a drop wrong and learned my lesson

Back in 2021 I had a job in Springfield where the home run from the tap needed 180 feet of RG6, but I only brought a 150 foot spool. I tried to splice it with a barrel connector inside the attic, and sure enough the signal dropped to nothing once the customer called about their modem. Last month I pulled the same length again, but I measured twice and ran a single continuous line through the crawlspace. Has anyone else had trouble with barrel connectors acting up in hot attics, or is it just me?

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shane_nguyen•3d ago

Used a cheap toner instead of my usual one, big mistake on a 200-foot run

I picked the $15 toner from the supply house over my trusty Fluke and spent 3 hours chasing a dead pair that turned out to be a bad connector, has anyone else had a cheap tool totally waste their whole day?

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olivia554•5d ago

Took a chance on a cheap toner probe, now I swear by it

I always figured those $40 toner probes from Amazon were junk compared to the Fluke ones, but my old one finally died on a job in Tacoma last month. Picked up a random brand with good ratings, and it actually traced a buried line through wet ground without any issues. It even has a louder speaker, which helped when I was working near a busy road. Anyone else had luck with budget gear that surprised them?

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brookef73•6d ago

Customer complaint about my cable loops made me rethink everything

I had a homeowner in Austin tell me my drip loops looked like spaghetti and it bugged me for days. But after I started measuring every loop to 4 inches with a template, my callbacks for water damage dropped to almost zero. Anyone else get pushed into changing their install style by a picky customer?

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barbara_owens•7d ago

Two years of push connectors before I read the fine print

I used push style connectors on every drop for about two years. Then one day last month I had a job where the customer kept losing signal after heavy rain. I swapped the connector out and everything worked. That got me reading the package label a lot closer. Turns out the ones I was buying were rated for indoor use only. I had been blaming the ground blocks and the splitters this whole time. Anyone else ever skip the fine print on a box of connectors and pay for it later?

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spencer_thomas4•10d ago

The cheap toner probe I mocked saved me a 3 hour wild goose chase

I've been running coax for 9 years and always thought those $20 toner probes were clown tools, my $130 Fluke tester was supposed to be the real deal. Last Tuesday I had a nightmare situation in a 4 story office building in Austin where my Fluke kept giving me a dead read on a line that was clearly active, so out of desperation I borrowed the super cheap probe from the new guy's truck. It found the exact run in about 4 minutes and I've been quietly using it since, has anyone else found that the budget gear beats the premium stuff on certain jobs?

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blake432•11d ago

That $80 Klein fish tape paid for itself after one nasty conduit pull

I fought a 2-inch EMT run through three 90s for an hour with a cheap tape that kept bunching up, then borrowed my coworker's Klein and it glided through in ten minutes, so I bought one the next day and honestly has anyone else had their stubborn tape snap mid-pull on a hot attic job?

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paulperez•12d ago

That $180 toner probe I bought from Amazon already saved me twice this month

Got sent to trace a dead drop in a crawl space last Tuesday and then again on a commercial job today, and the tone comes through clear even on bundled Cat6, so is it worth spending the extra hundred bucks on a Fluke or has anyone else run one of these cheap ones into the ground yet?

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mason.keith•12d ago

Hit 1,000 house wraps last Tuesday and it felt weird

Counted my tickets going back to 2009, just for fun, and landed on 1,000 even. Has anyone else hit a round number like that and realized how many attics you've crawled through without really noticing?

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charlie_ellis•17d ago

A rusty F connector had me pulling my hair out until I tried the heat trick

Spent 45 minutes on a roof in Tucson fighting a corroded fitting that kept giving me bad signal readings, then a buddy from the yard told me to hit it with a lighter for 10 seconds before wrenching it, and it spun right off, so now I'm wondering if anyone else carries a torch just for this or am I overthinking it?

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clairem38•17d ago

Talking to a retiree about tensioning changed how I run lines

I had a long chat with a retired installer named Ray at a diner in Dayton last Tuesday. He spent 35 years doing this work and said the biggest mistake he sees now is guys treating every cable pull like it's the same. He told me he always counts the number of bends and the total footage before he starts, then adjusts his pull tension off that, not off what the drum says. That hit different because I've been running the same tension setting for years and just dealing with the fallout when things bind. So I tried his approach on a three-story apartment job yesterday, and the cable went through smooth where I usually fight it. I still don't have his instinct for odd situations, but now I'm second guessing every pull I do. Anyone else ever get advice from an old timer that made you rework your whole setup?

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linda305•18d ago

Underground vs aerial drop, picked wrong for a condo in Austin

Had to choose between boring under a 40 foot concrete driveway or running aerial across a shared parking lot for a condo complex off Lamar. Went with the aerial because the HOA said boring would take 2 days of permits. First storm rolled through and the line smacked a tree branch, now I'm back out there with a span clamp and extra drip loop. Any of y'all deal with HOAs that make you pick the worse option just to save paperwork?

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hill.christopher•18d ago

A customer's comment flipped how I run my whole van setup

Guy watched me uncoil about 200 feet of RG6 and said, "You're letting the cable do the thinking." He showed me a simple figure-8 hand coil method, no reel needed, and now I pack in half the time and deal with way fewer kinks on the job. Anyone else ditch their reels for hand coiling on long drops?

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benwilliams•24d ago

That time a dog ate my fish tape in Aurora and I still finished the job

I was doing a rewire at a house off of Colfax in Aurora last Thursday, and the homeowner's golden retriever grabbed my fish tape right when I was feeding it through the wall. It chewed the end clean off before I could even yell, but I had a spare 25-foot rod set in the van, so I just switched gears. The funny part is the dog seemed proud of it, and the customer offered me $20 for the replacement part, which I actually took. Anyone else had a pet or animal wreck a tool mid-run and still make the deadline?

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veraw47•25d ago

Two hours of work because I forgot a $3 tool

Moved a drop from the pole to the house last week in the rain near Portland, but the old clip on my ground block was rusted solid. My impact driver and pliers both made it worse, so I just pulled the whole line and started fresh. Took me 2 hours and all I needed was that cheap block removal tool, who else carries one but never uses it?

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logantaylor•26d ago

That Tuesday in Rockford still bugs me

Had a route through Rockford last month, 8 stops, and the third one was a mess. Customer had a 200 foot drop from the pole to the house, all through mature oaks, and I spent 4 hours just fishing line and re-terminating. Got back to the van and realized I left my connector bag at the shop, 20 miles away. Has anyone else had a single house eat up their whole day like that?

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riverowens•27d ago

Surprised by the splice count in one apartment building

I was doing a maintenance call in a 12 unit building in Tacoma last Tuesday and pulled the covers off the main distribution panel. Counted 47 splices in the riser cable, most of them just twisted together with tape. I looked up the building record and the original install was supposed to be one continuous drop. Whoever did the later work just kept adding sections instead of pulling new line. How do you guys handle old riser cables that are basically a patchwork? Do you recommend a full replacement or just fix what's broken?

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mary_schmidt•29d ago

Finally tested that $60 cable toner I got off Amazon

I've been running Cat6 through a 1970s office building in Austin and the labels dried up from a leak, so every line looked identical. That cheap toner with the adjustable sensitivity actually traced a dead drop behind a fire wall in 20 minutes, which my old $250 unit couldn't do. Anyone else find a budget tool that beat the pricey brand?

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olivia757•1mo ago

Raccoon chewed through my fiber drop at 3am in Bellingham

I was out on a install last Tuesday in that new development off Lakeway and everything was going smooth. Ran the fiber from the ped to the house, terminated, got good light levels. Left the spool in the truck and came back the next morning to find the drop gnawed clean through and muddy little paw prints everywhere. Now I wrap all my exterior connections with that metal mesh tape before I even think about calling it done. Has anyone else had wildlife mess up their work after you left the job site?

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noah248•1mo ago

Took me 8 years to realize I was coiling coax the wrong way

Honestly, I used to just loop cable over my arm when pulling runs, ended up with twists every time. Last spring at a job in Tacoma, a senior guy showed me the over-under method on a 500 foot spool of RG6. Night and day, no more kinks or signal issues. Has anyone else had that moment where you realized you'd been doing a basic thing wrong for years?

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beth_ward80•1mo ago

Can we talk about how I finally ditched those screw-on coax connectors for compression fittings?

After 3 years of fighting signal loss and loose connections on installs, I borrowed a compression tool from a guy in Denver and saw my return rate drop to zero in one month, has anyone else made the switch and noticed a difference?

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lindareed•1mo ago

Switched from compression to hydro crimping for RG6 last month

I used to fight with compression fittings on outdoor drops until a buddy at the supply house let me try his hydro crimper on a 200-foot run in Austin. Now I'm wondering why I didn't make the switch sooner has anyone else had trouble with compression connectors pulling loose in heat?

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