[NCLUG] patch cables

[Mike Loseke]

Thus spake dad:
> 
> I have 6+ boxes (150+) of cat5 patch cables. Most are new, still in the =
> package. The cables have an end that can catch in the port but with a =
> little filing they work super. All the cables are flat, white and 7m in =
> length. If you are interested in some of them, let me know. Since I did =
> not pay for them they are free of charge but donation will be acepted.

 The cable is actually Belden MediaTwist (350 I think) which is a level 7
quality cable. Basically, CAT-5 plus some extras only EE's would really
find exciting. The end that is different than the normal RJ-45 connector is
a Krone Highband connector. It's design is mostly to compliment the Krone
jacks - they were trying to reduce signal loss - but has the unfortunate
side effect of being wider than normal (can't use them side-by-side in any
of my switches) and they are notched on the sides in such a way that some
interfaces hold on to them a little greedily. They *can* be removed but if
you aren't careful, or skilled at jimmying stuff free, you might break
something.

 Other than that, they carry bits just fine.

 For the detail hungry, the cable is pretty cool. The mediatwist stuff has
each of the 4 pairs bonded together (think of 18-guage wire bought from
radio shack) so that that pair always retains it's exact twist algorithm
for the length of the cable, and those algorithms are set for the specific
lengths the cable is cut to (in the patch cords, not so much for horizontal
pulls).  Each pair is also laid out in the cable in a channel - the top
and bottom half of the cable have ridges running the length of the cable
keeping the pairs apart from each other to minimize cross-talk and
attenuation.  Basically a way-over-engineered cable but still prety cool.
Plus it's flat like Todd said.

-- 
                  | A neutrino so rarely collides with an atom of
   Mike Loseke    | ordinary matter that a typical neutrino can
                  | easily penetrate a one-light-year thickness
 mike at verinet.com | of lead -- some six trillion miles -- without
                  | hindrance.