Berk-Tek makes a shielded cable, type CMX (ETL) C(ETL) TIA/EIA 568-A5 CAT5E & ISO/IEC 11801
 
Shielded Outside Service Plant (OSP) cable is required to meet the National Electrical Code in the USA. When properly grounded and surge protected, it protects the inner conductors from lightning/surge-induced overvoltage and accidental contact with power lines (overcurrent).
 
I have tried using the Superior-Essex OSP cable #04-001-34 type BBDN with a great deal of difficulty making reliable RJ45 terminations. The cable conductor jackets are a little too large to easily fit the LCom shielded RJ45 connectors I have tried. In some cases, I could see that all eight wires were properly touching the end of the connectoer housing, but the insulation displacement knives in the connector still did not contact all of the wires reliably. I found that a 10X jeweler's loop magnifier is a very useful tool for verifying that the wires are all properly inserted into the RJ45 prior to crimping the $1.50 connector. My conclusion, which was verified by Superior-Essex engineers, is that this cable is not really suitable for RJ45 connectors.
 
The manufacturer recommends using 110 style punch-down connectors instead. That is a nice luxury, but most wireless radios use an RJ45. I would gladly use a surge protector with 110 punch-down connectors, rather than the Motorola Canopy surge protector. Recently, I struggled with a Trango SU installation, only to find that the Motorola surge protector was defective. It tested good, but the Ethernet connection through it was unreliable.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: [smartBridges] Outdoor Cat5 UV Cable

What I am most amazed about is how hard it was to find the proper cable.
Should be:
-Cat5 or higher
-UV Resistant (and preferrably Oil resistant which repels water better and since we're dealing on rooftops, any leaky A/C units, greasy fingers, etc won't be a problem)
-Foil Shielded with a Drain Wire for grounding
-Not too thick like those that are gel-filled.
 
The thick gel filled cables suck because they are stiff and hard to pull, and hard to crimp ends onto. And, hard to squeeze through the rubber compression fittings if not impossible.
 
Belden 7929A is the answer. Its all of these, and not thick.
Nobody seems to stock this except for just a few places :-(
===
Rick Kosick
StarLinX Internet Service

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