Overheard a telco guy say fiber splices fail more from dirt than bad technique

I was at a supply house picking up some RG6 and heard this old timer telling a new guy that he's seen perfect cleaves fail because someone touched the fiber end with their finger. Made me think about how much time I spend making sure connectors are clean on coax jobs. Has anyone else switched to those little lint free wipes for every termination?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant.felix16d ago

Ngl though, coax and fiber are totally different animals when it comes to cleanliness.

taylorellis16d ago

Yeah 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths in single mode fiber will show you every microscopic speck of dust like it's a planet. Coax at 5-1000 MHz just doesn't care about a little grime on the connector face. I've cleaned fiber ends with a one-click cleaner and still had a 2dB loss because of a tiny smudge I could barely see. Coax you can pretty much wipe with your shirt and it'll pass fine in most cases. Different physics entirely when you're dealing with light vs electrical signals.

theagibson16d ago

Oh man, the "tiny smudge I could barely see" thing hit me right in the feels. I've been there too, cleaning and re-cleaning a fiber end while the loss meter barely budges. It's so frustrating when you can't even see what's wrong but the equipment knows.