June 1, 2003 Previous Issues: March 15, 2003, October, 2002 , August, 2002, May, 2002


The FOA Office Has moved.

Please use our new phone, fax and mailing address.

To Contact The FOA:
 
The Fiber Optic Association
1119 S Mission Road, # 355
Fallbrook, CA 92028
 
Office Hours 10AM-5 PM Pacific Time
Telephone: 760-451-3655
Fax: 781-207-2421
info@thefoa.org

 


Big News! FOA certifies 10,000th CFOT. Details Next Issue.


Become a Certified Fiber Optic Instructor

The Fiber Optic Association (FOA) is offering again this summer theTrain-the-Trainer program for teachers and instructors that leads to a new FOA CFOS/I Instructor Certification. This "first in the industry" program brings all the expertise of the Fiber Optic Association to the process of training and certifying fiber optic instructors, both in industry and in the academic world. In addition, those coming to the course will receive the FOA's complete training program for teaching a CFOT course.

 
 
Dates & Places
July 21-25, Gateway Community College, Highland Heights, KY (Cincinnati, Ohio)
A west coast session and one in New England are being planned. Return the application form to show your interest
 
Full information of the 2003 Train-the-Trainer TTT program.

Download the Train-The-Trainer Application (PDF file, 56kB)

For information or questions, contact Jim Hayes at jeh@jimhayes.com or call him at 1-760-451-3655.

 


Two New Members Elected To FOA Board of Directors

At a recent meeting of the FOA Board of Directors, the Board voted to expand the Board to 7 members and elected two new members. The new members, Tom Collins of Gateway Community and Technical College and Van Ewert of Aviation and Electronic Schools of America, were chosen for their experience in the education field and contributions to the FOA in its train the trainer program.

"With the importance of education to the FOA, it was appropriate that we add two experienced educators to our Board," said FOA President Jim Hayes in making the announcement. " Tom and Van are professionals in the field, and they understand the importance of education and certification to the fiber optic field. Their experience and knowledge will be appreciated as the FOA continues its growth."


New Fiber Optic Association (FOA) Board Member Honored For Accomplishments With Voice-Data Course

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) has honored several of its top faculty and staff for performing exemplary work on its college campuses including a new member of the FOA Board of Directors. Professor Tom Collins has been selected as a recipient of the New Horizons award for his voice and data wiring program at Gateway Community and Technical College.
Professor Collins was host of the first Fiber Optic Association (FOA) "Train-The-Trainer" program last summer, working with John Highhouse of Lincoln Trail College in developing the program and offering his state-of-the-art labs for use in the FOA TTT sessions. Gateway will host another of the FOA TTT courses this summer, July 21-25.
"All of the credit for this award goes to past and present students and staff who worked so hard to create the Voice and Data Wiring Program. Without these individuals efforts, this innovative program would not have been created for our region," said Collins.


What's The Best Reason To Go Fiber In The LAN? Copper Probably Won't Meet Specs!

Is that too strong a statement? Maybe not. The weak link in Cat 5e and Cat 6 systems is the patchcords. Some vendors will only guarantee systems if you use their special patchcords and even the Cat 6 literature hedges on interoperability.

But the big "bad news" for Cat 5e and Cat 6 is a recent announcement from Quabbin Wire and Cable and Fluke Networks about a blind test of patchcords bought from a variety of sources. Quabbin and Fluke found that 70% of all Cat 5e patchcords and 83% of all Cat 6 patchcords failed testing with Fluke's new patchcord tester. With a patchcord on each end, that indicates that virtually every link has a patchcord that makes the link fail!

There are positive reasons to use fiber too. The FOA's Board member Eric Pearson has been doing fiber/copper models for the TIA Fiber Optic LAN Section that indicates that fiber can be much less expensive. See http://FOLS.org/news/061202.html


New Washington, DC Convention Center Cables With Air-Blown Fiber

The new DC Convention Center is the largest building in DC, and that's saying something! At 2.3 million square feet, it's designed to handle larger conventions than it's predecessor down the street. But today's convention centers must be ready to serve the communicatons needs of big conventions, where exibitors need phone, Internet and wireless connections. If you ever get the chance for a "backstage tour" of a major convention center, you will be amaxed at the hundreds of miles of cabling necessary to support these services. And each convention has unique needs, requiring a small army of installers to create appropriate new services for each one.

The DC center looked for a flexible fiber optic cabling solution and chose Sumitomo's FutureFLEX Air-Blown fiber systems. Blown fiber involves installing a network of ducts into which one "blows" special fibers. The flexibility of Air-Blown fiber, according to Sumitomo, allows the convention center to add fibers as necessary instead of installing lots of dark fibers to meet expected needs.


Infineon Announces 1310 VCSEL

Infineon Technologies AG (Germany) claims to be able to produce high volumes of a 1310 nm VCSEL in a SFF package that will alow data links to operate over SM fiber up to 10 km. The 1310 VCSEL is a long awaited product. The 850 VCSEL dominates high-speed multimode links (GbE and Fibre Channel) due to its high bandwidth, high power and low cost. The industry has been waiting for a 1310 VCSEL - hoping for a large pricing advantage over 1310 Fabr-Perot lasers. The VCSEL offers easier testing and packaging than a F-P laser, but the development has been stymied by difficulty in the solid-state physics of 1310 nm emission. Redy availability of low cost 1310 VCSELs could make longer GbE network links feasible and SM fiber more popular in LANs and campus networks.


SONY Enters Component Market For GbE

In another related announcement, SONY announced that it was using technology develped in creating the Playstation 2 to make 850 nm VCSEL transceivers for Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel. The technology involves a manufacturing process that eliminates the need for active alignment of the optoelectronic devices. Sony predicts a monthly demand of 300,000 units (that's 3.6 million 1000Base-SX transceivers per year!) and they are aiming at 20-30% of that market.


Corning Says Fiber Market Continues To Drag

According to recent Corning data published in Opto & Laser Europe, the overall fiber optic market in the US declined by 65% from 2001 to 2003. Western Europe was even worse, down 75%, while South America was in the middle at 70% decline. Asia fared better, down only 10% in Japan and 35% overall. Premises cabling holds its own and there seems to be some activity in fiber to the home.

Corning sees no recovery in 2003 for most markets. Even so, their stock continues to creep up, so things must be better than that!


Last Chance To Renew Your Membership !

This is your last chance to remain on the FOA mail list and retain your CFOT certification. If you have not responded to the last two newsletters or the last chance postcard, you will be dropped from our mail lists. It you forgot to renew, use the online application form or the FOA online store to renew NOW!


Want To Get FOA Email?
We have been asked if we could send the FOA newsletter by email or post it on the website. We are looking into that and will definitely get one started soon. When you renew, you will be asked if you are interested in email newsletters and if so, you will be asked to give your email address for us to use in a mailing list. If you want to get started now, send an email to info@thefoa.org with the subject "eMail List"
Note that The FOA never releases its mailing lists for any use! Your data is always safe with us.

Logo Merchandise
We are offering a select number of logo items including hats, t-shirts, jacket patches, etc. on our online store . New items we offer are going to be determined by the requests of our members, so let the FOA office know what you would like.


Contact Us:
info@thefoa.org



Officers and
Board of Directors
Jim Hayes, President, Treasurer
John Highhouse, Past President
Elias Awad, Clerk, Director of Education
Eric Pearson, Director of Certification
F. Douglas Elliott, Past President
Tom Collins, Gateway Comm. College
Van Ewert, AESA
 
FOA Staff:
Jim Hayes, newsletter, website editor

Administration:
The FOA is managed under contract by:
VDV Works LLC
1119 S Mission Road, # 355
Fallbrook, CA 92028
Telephone: 760-451-3655
Fax: 781-207-2421
email: info@vdvworks.com
FOA Board of Advisors
Elias Awad, Clerk, Director of Education
Tony Beam
Dave Chaney
F. Douglas Elliot, Past President
William H. Graham
Jim Hayes, President, Treasurer
John Highhouse, Past President
Danny S. Lyall
Eric Y. Loytty
Bob Mason
Eric Pearson
Paul Rosenberg, Past President
Dan Silver
Richard James Smith
Dominick Tamone
Tom Collins
Van Ewert



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