Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Don Y Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Subject: Re: CAT5e cable Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2025 10:53:25 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 48 Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2025 19:53:30 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="251b029133f8e966231c458d828a98d9"; logging-data="268987"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18JpDJ70KH6FCWzrPCtAOEV" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/102.2.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:DwUvjhqUxA5qsV9ebmtqdrzBvaI= In-Reply-To: Content-Language: en-US Les, > 1)    The Durometer of the plastic coating on the wire and the sheath. >     Range is 0 -100 and the higher the number the harder the >     material.  I doubt that you will find that in the specs, but. This (the "more desirable") seems to be *thicker* than the other. The inferior product almost looks/feels like "shrink wrap over 4 pairs". I.e., you can FEEL the pairs under the jacket. The nicer (in terms of routing) cable has a more substantial feel to it (though not as if the jacket was a *tube* with loose conductors within). > 2)    CCA  Copper Coated or Clad Aluminum  I was always careful >     when buying CAT-5 or CAT-6 cable.  Always wanted Solid Copper! >     Look for that on the cable box or on the cable itself. Yes. I am also wondering if stranded would have been a better choice (too late now) despite being "premises wiring" (not patch cables). > 3)    Cable Gauge. 22 AWG vs 24 AWG vs 26 AWG vs 28 AWG  The higher >     the number the thinner the wire. I've always used #24AWG. > Hope that help with your challenge!! My concern is mainly to know how to specify the type of cable that should be used in future installations (in which I won't likely be involved). Other than naming a specific vendor and model number (whose manufacture could also change, over time) Both (all?) cables seem electrically similar and have the same stated pull strength. But, I noticed feeding several cables through the EMT, conduit bodies, els, etc. there was a definite difference in how the "flimsier" one handled the bends that you encounter in those situations. As I suspect "paid help" would be less meticulous than I, it would be wise to specify materials that they would be less likely to abuse. Thanks!