August 2020

Sections

In This Issue

Note we have changed the format to place articles in sections on one topic and all articles are dated so you know if we repeat one - whcih we often do when we think it's very important!

Features

Newsletter Sections

FOA Certifications: 

See FOA Jobs Web Page and FOA on 

The FOA Jobs Web Page has been updated and a new page added on Using your FOA Training/Certification to Find the Right Job in Fiber Optics

 

  

Fiber Optic Safety Poster to download and print

FOA Videos on

The Archives: Past Issues.

Use these links to read past issues or use FOA's  Custom Search to look for specific topics on our website.

Time To Renew Your FOA Certifications?

You can now renew with PayPal or a credit card

 

   

 

FOA Newsletter - Features

1995-2020 - FOA's 25th Anniversary!

Updated And Expanded Fiber Optic Projects For STEM Teachers, Kids and Parents

Many people are now working from home or are attending online classes for their schools. Many parents are also helping their children with their schoolwork as well as doing their own work. We've heard from parents and teachers who are looking for projects that will keep their kids interested as well as help them learn.

FOA has always had free esources for STEM teachers in the K-12 range as well as our certification curriculum for technical colleges and professional training. The current need for more online information for students has led us to make some major changes recently to our support programs for teachers.



Several of our fiber optic classroom projects  use plastic optical fiber (POF) like this one, which uses a regular laser pointer and a sample of POF available from FOA to show how fiber optics  communicates using pulses of light. To add to the technical aspects of fiber optics and help teachers create lesson plans that include more theory, including math, we've added sections on the speed of light (how long does a pulse take to go from New York to London?), wavelengths of light, total internal reflection and even wavelength division multiplexing.



While many of the projects we suggest for teachers are good for grades K-12, these new projects are mainly aimed at Grades 7-12 and some even require math like trig.

As always, FOA is glad to support teachers. They can contact us for samples of POF and a kit to help them use it for class projects. FOA also provides videos just for classroom use. We are also ready to help students with their science projects.

If you have kids at home, these projects may be perfect for parent/student projects and/or recommending to your kids teachers.

Time To Talk About Winter Installations

We know it's midsummer, but a FOA newsletter reader inquired about a plan for installation of fiber optic cable in a far North region. The area involved was around the Arctic Circle in Canada, so we called upon FOA Director Bill Graham from Canada who has extensive experience training in the cold regions. He often sends us photos of his travels to the North. Doesn't this look cold?

Mystery Connectors No Mystery At All

Twice in the last month, FOA received calls from puzzled contractors wondering what a type of connector was the ones they were being asked to repair. Coincidentally, both were working on wind farms where fiber optic cables were used up the towers of the windmills. One described it as having a screw-on nut like an FC but the ferrule was too large to fit in a 2.5mm ferrule adapter. Another installer sent us this photo:



Do you recognize this connector? It's a SMA, a fiber optic connector design from 40+ years ago developed by Amphenol and still in production and use. The SMA name comes from the nut, the same as a microwave connector called "Sub-Miniature A," a coax connector developed in the 1960s and perhaps the most widely used microwave connector.

SMA's are one of the oldest connector designs and are still widely used in military, high reliability and high power applications, The all metal design is really reliable and handles high power easily since the design is all metal and can withstand high temperatures. It is still used in many process control applications where a rugged  all-metal connector is preferred, like in the equipment used with wind power generation controllers.



Two styles of SMA ferrules were available, SMA 905 with a straight ferrule and SMA 906 with a smaller diameter at the end that used nylon alignment bushings to get more precise alignment.

The SMA locking nut has a small 1/4-36 UNS thread. Nuts with hex or knurled forms have been available and hex versions are available drilled for safety wires for use in high vibration environments like military platforms (aircraft, helicopters, ships.) Military connectors also have available a special torque wrench to tighten the SMA nut precisely.



The SMA design is not a keyed connector, so the ferrules can rotate in a mating adapter , shown above. As a result, the ferrule length must be tightly controlled to prevent the two mated ferrules from touching, rotating against each other and scuffing the fibers. As a result, the SMA is an "air gap" connector with resulting higher loss and reflectance than ceramic ferrule PC (physical contact) connectors. The SMA therefore is not considered an acceptable connector for most singlemode applications.

SMA connectors were originally used with epoxy/polish terminations, but crimp/polish, crimp/cleave and a unique swaged termination have been offered. The swaged version in quite unique. A

You can find photos and descriptions of many fiber optic connector types on the FOA Guide page "Connector Identifier."

The Cost of Connectivity 2020 (Worldwide)

• Across North America, Europe, and Asia, we find the highest average monthly prices in the United States. Fiber plans are the most expensive option in all three markets, with the United States being the most expensive.
• We find substantial evidence of an affordability crisis in the United States.  Based on our dataset, the most affordable average monthly prices are in Asian and European cities.
• Consumers must navigate a maze of additional fees and hidden costs to determine the total price of internet service. These ancillary fees create complicated pricing structures that make it difficult for consumers to compare plans and understand the total price they can expect to pay.
• Municipal networks appear to offer some of the best value in the United States. A growing body of evidence indicates that these locally-owned networks yield significant cost savings for consumers, yet at least 20 states restrict or outright prohibit these networks from existing.
• The U.S. market suffers from a lack of competition. This lack of choice directly affects the cost and quality of internet service.
• ISPs are not transparent with consumers, the government, or researchers.  ISPs do not disclose accurate data about their networks, so it is difficult for researchers to determine where service is even available.

How Many Cranes/Bucket Trucks Does It Take To Replace A Utility Pole?

   

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We've published a lot of photos in this Newsletter from the work we've seen being done here in Santa Monica, but last week had some really interesting work being done in the alleys. Workers from Southern California Edison were replacing old wooden utility poles with new, bigger ones.

We first discovered this by hearing noise and seeing the top of a pole being lifted by a crane, shown in the photo on the left above, viewed between two apartment buildings looking toward the alley. Needless to say, the alley was blocked off so we circled the block to get a better view. From one end of the alley, we could see 3 booms. The one in the center was a bucket but with brackets to grab the high voltage lines on top of the pole and support them while the pole was replaced. The wires can be seen by the orange insulation around the wires  to protect the workers - they did not turn the HV off !(~14KV)

In the photo on the right, you can see the new pole waiting for installation with all the hardware already installed.

   

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Here on the left you can see the worker using a chain saw to cut the next section of the pole off. All the hardware has been disconnected from the pole and a crane is holding it from the top ready to haul it away. In the middle photo you can see the three booms - the top one suspending the high voltage wires, the middle one supporting the next section of the pole being cut off and the third one folted to get the worker with the chain saw near the pole. This was a very crowded alley!

The photo on the right shows the really delicate part of the operation - removing the middle section of the pole. The crane has to avoid the HV lines and the bucket supporting them, the numerous low voltage (copper and fiber) cables in the telecom space, the buildings and the trucks and workers.

   

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After all the sections of the old pole are removed, the new pole is set into the ground - quite a delicate operation - and all the hardware - including a transformer - reattached. The entire process takes about 6-8 hours. While this one was done in daylight, they replaced a pole in the alley behind us in the middle of the night!

FOA Newsletter Sections

News

Classroom Training Is Adapting To The Pandemic 8/2020

Utopia Fiber Creates Wildfire Monitor System in Rural Utah 8/2020

What Does This Mean?  

Google Fiber is Coming to Millcreek, UT 8/2020

"Provo was one of the earliest Google Fiber cities — there, we built great relationships grounded in the city’s vision to connect an entire community to high-speed internet. That experience led us north to Salt Lake City, where we’ve been building, in the more traditional sense, a from-scratch fiber network to deliver gigabit internet to homes and businesses across Utah’s capital city."

"As we finally near completion of construction in Salt Lake City, we’re not ready to stop growing in Utah. So, we’re excited to announce that we’ll continue to build our network into the neighboring city of Millcreek."

From the Google Fiber Blog

Google Fiber To Expand - First New City In 4 years - 7/2020

Google Fiber is in the news again, agreeing to become a user of West Des Moines, Iowa's conduit system to install a FTTH system. This will be the first system GF has announced in 4 years after some difficulties in other cities. There should be fewer problems with installation here since fiber ill be pulled in the conduits owned by the city but not yet built. GF will cover part of the construction cost and be the first tenant but others may use the conduits also, paying the city a leasing fee. The city estimates it will take 2.5 years to install all the conduits.

Read more from the City of West Des Moines.

You Knew This Was Coming!   7/2020

What Were They Thinking?   7/2020

Technical

On fiber optic technology, standards, equipment, installation, etc.

Try The FOA's New Online Loss Budget Calculator

How Fiber Works - Total Internal Reflection - For Math Lovers  8/2020

FOA has always had information on how fiber works using total internal reflection, but we've recently updated our web page on the subject to include a more complete explanation using Snell's Law and the math that allows you to calculate the parameters of the fiber including NA - numerical Aperture.

dB or not dB, that is the question (8/2020)

dBm - Evidence 8/2020 -

Here is an example of a power meter measuring in dBm and microwatts (a microwatt is 0.001 or 1/1000th of a milliwatt.)

dB Update - Mystery Solved!   7/2020

Executive Summary: IEC changed the definition of attenuation to make it a positive number in defiance of mathematical and metrological standards, centuries of mathematical history and common sense.

To Change The Negative Sign For Loss, Just Change The Definition! Who Cares If Everybody Else Does It Differently....

Just recently FOA was reviewing a new proposed update for FOTP-78 IEC 60793-1-40 Optical Fibres - Part 1-40: Measurement Methods and Test Procedures - Attenuation. This FOTP might be the most-referenced FOTP since it deals with measuring attenuation, something that dozens of FOTPs use in their testing of components. I started reviewing this document by skimming the Terms And Definitions, where I was stopped by Section 3.1 which defined attenuation.

The classic attenuation equation was different.

where (quoting from the standard)

• A is the attenuation, in dB
• P1 is the optical power traversing cross-section 1 (e.g. before the attenuation you are measuring - what we would call the "0dB" reference in testing cables)
• P2 is the optical power traversing cross-section 2. (e.g. after the attenuation you are measuring - what we would call the measurement of loss in testing cables)
  

Second: There are several reasons to object to this from a mathematical and measurement standpoint. When you measure something against a reference, it's common to divide the measured value by the reference - like we do defining dBm where the reference is 1mw.


We checked and the TIA and IEC standards for measuring power, FOTP-95, still defines dBm this way. That's good, because we're used to negative dBm being power smaller than 1mW and positive dBm being power larger than 1mW.

However if one makes an attenuation measurement using a fiber optic power meter calibrated in dB and you used the "Zero" control to set the reference

Ever Wonder What Splices For OPGW Look Like?    7/2020

Splice-On Connector Manufacturers and Tradenames   7/2020

Worth Reading

Each month we read hundreds of newsletters and online articles. These are the ones we think you will find "worth reading."

Worth Reading: 8/2020

• More than 210 cooperatives across the country offer gigabit Internet access to residents and businesses.
• 82% of North Dakota and 53% of South Dakota landmass is served by fiber from cooperatives, and residents enjoy some of the fastest Internet access speeds in the nation.
• Since 2017, some states have eased restrictions on cooperative broadband networks, while others have gone even further by enacting legislation to facilitate the deployment of cooperative broadband networks. 
• A series of local stories highlights how broadband has changed lives by improving access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. 
• Cooperatives have proven that this is a model that works. With increased support from federal and state governments, they will continue to connect Americans in rural areas to economic and educational opportunities otherwise denied to them.

Worth Reading - News Summary - Past Links Worth Repeating

Next Generation PoE (Nexans) The New Power over Ethernet Standards Deliver More Power, Speed, and Efficiency

Demystifying 5G (Corning):  Do you know 5G’s 3 major benefits, 8 technical goals that deliver those benefits, and 4 technology building blocks that meet the technical goals?

Pentagon official: FCC decision on 5G threatens GPS, national security

Internet Statistics and Facts, 2020: Interesting, easy to get lost here!

Understanding The True State Of Connectivity In America - 65% of US counties receive broadband speeds below industry reports.

Why Businesses Need Fiber Connectivity, from Spectrum CATV. Yes, it's a sales pitch, but they make good points and it indicates they are serious.

Want a White-Collar Career Without College Debt? Become an Apprentice (NYTimes)
Apprenticeships probably began with the first jobs, where young people work under experienced craftspeople to learn a trade. In the last century, they became more organized under labor unions like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, one of the FOA's oldest and biggest approved school systems. Today, apprenticeships are expanding as young people look at viable alternatives to loading themselves with debt while attending college.

The job market is hot. So why are half of U.S. grads missing out?  

VIAVI Books On Fiber Optic Testing (2 volumes) - They're back!

Another Source Of Articles On Fiber

Q&A

Tech Questions/Comments From FOA Newsletter Readers Worth Repeating

The FOA Fiber FAQs Page (FAQs = frequently asked questions) gathers up questions readers have asked us (which first ran in this newsletter) and adds tech topics of general interest.

Good Question!

The FOA Fiber FAQs Page (FAQ s = frequently asked questions) gathers up questions readers have asked us and adds tech topics of general interest.

ANSI/NECA/FOA-301 is available free from FOA.



Download your free copy of

Welcome To A New International School

Natech Training, Tunisia, FOA Approved School #771

Training Is Back - Made Safer (6/2020)

FOA schools are starting to offer classes at their facilities again to provide the personal interaction with an instructor and hands-on labs, but some things have changed to provide social distancing. Serge Rodrigue at Fibre Zone in Quebec, Canada sent photos of his new lab setup that includes individual lab stations with plexiglass barriers.



Students are following safe working protocols - masks and gloves - to make classes safe and meet local government requirements for social distancing.



Contact

 for more information on their classes.

FiberNext in New Hampshire has also rearranged classrooms for safer classes and has begun training in their facilities in Concord, NH.



Contact FiberNext in Concord, NH, USA

Fiber Optic Training Online - Simulations and Do-It-Yourself Hands-On Training (6/20)

Simulating Optical Loss Testing
FOA has been experimenting with simulations, especially for testing since test equipment is generally not inexpensive and requires a selection of cables for reference test cables and cables to test. We have had an OTDR Simulator based on the software for an OTDR and a selection of traces for analysis. Now we've created an optical loss simulator that uses some web programming to allow stepping through the process of setting up and testing a cable with a light source and power meter.



The simulation provides virtual meter and source, inspection microscope, cleaners and a selection of cables needed for testing. In the animation above you can see one of the user interactions - the student must use the proper button to set the "0dB" reference.

The loss simulator also requires the student use the FOA Loss Budget Calculator to calculate the expected loss of a cable under test, compare it to the measured loss and make a Go/NoGo decision.

We even provide two versions of the simulator - singlemode and multimode. The singlemode version tests an OSP cable and then has the student compare OTDR traces to troubleshoot problems. The multimode version shows the effects of modal conditioning on multimode measurements.

At the end, we've even added a wrap-up of the techniques of loss testing and a quiz.

We added the loss simulator in the new Fiber U DIY Basic Skills Lab for a virtual hands-on testing lab.

Check out the FOA Insertion Loss Simulator here.

If you do not have tools or equipment and want to purchase them, there is a new Fiber U DIY Basic Skills Lab lesson with directions on how to purchase inexpensive tools online and use them to learn basic fiber optic skills. Those tools and components are what we describe here.

For example, you need a fiber cleaver for splices and prepolished/splice connectors. A good cleave is essential for a good splice or termination with a splice-type connection. Good cleavers are now available online at prices in the US starting at $20US. 

 

FOA Guide "Basics Of Fiber Optics" Now Available in Portuguese (6/2020)

Here is the FOA Guide in Portuguese, Spanish and French translations.

Time To Learn - Online - (Update 4/5/6/8 2020)

And Fiber U has the new Fiber U DIY Basic Skills Lab lesson with directions on how to purchase inexpensive tools online and use them to learn basic fiber optic skills. Videoconferencing allows the instructor to remotely monitor their work and provide help as needed. Contact the FOA for more information.


FOA Zoom Exam Proctoring

FOA offers free online self-study programs at Fiber U. Many users are preparing for FOA certification programs - taking courses at our schools or using the "Work-to-Cert" program. Some of our schools are requiring Fiber U programs as prerequisites for their classroom courses so they can spend more time on hands-on activities.

New FOA Approved School: Central Electrical Training Center, FOA School #656.

FOA School Offers Toolkit With Online Training

Slayton Solutions (FOA Approved School #156) is offering a simple fiber optic tool kit that includes a 29-piece set of fiber optic tools and a power meter along with training videos and online instruction for only $499. 29 Piece Kit includes all tools and devices a technician needs to install fiber optic connectors and test optical power.  Information on the kit is available on YouTube. You can contact them for more information at  slaytonsolutions@sbcglobal.net or https://www.fiberopticsinstitute.com

FOA Loss Budget Calculator On A Web Page 5/2020

FOA has written many articles about loss budgets, something everyone involved in fiber optics needs to know and needs to know how to calculate. We recently discovered how to get a spreadsheet ported to a Web page, so we created this web page that calculates loss budgets. We have an iOS loss budget app, but with this web page, you can calculate loss budgets from any device, smart phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer that has web browsing capability.

 

Bookmark this page (especially on your smartphone): FOA Loss Budget Calculator Online

We are continually updating the Online Reference Guide to keep up with changes in the industry and adding lots of new pages of technical information. When you go to the FOA Guide Table of Contents to see the latest updates - look for .

Recent updates:

 

  

Fiber Optic Safety Poster to download and print

On Safety

There is a toll-free "call before you dig" number in the USA: Dial 811

See www.call811.com for more information

The Common Ground Alliance has an excellent "Best Practices Guide" online

The US Department of Transportation has a website called "National Pipeline Mapping System" that allows one to search for buried pipelines.   

Why We Warn You To Be Careful About Fiber Shards

Photo courtesy  Brian Brandstetter,  Mississauga Training Consultantcy

Safety Leader Magazine

Safety Leader, a new quarterly magazine, informs and educates electrical contractors on safety from various angles—electrical, workplace, PPE, regulations, leadership, line work, NFPA 70E, and more. Safety Leader is bundled with ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR in February, May, August and November. To receive Safety Leader subscribe to ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR magazine here or subscribe to the ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR newsletter here.

Global Excavation Safety Conference & Expo, the premiere international event in the damage prevention industry, was supposed to be March 24-26 but was cancelled due to the pandemic. 2021's program will be in Tampa.



The magazine, dp-Pro, sponsor of the conference, has also published it's latest issue with an article by FOA on "New Construction Techniques in Fiber Optics" and a overview of the FOA. You can read the magazine here.

Contact Us:  http://www.foa.org or email <info@foa.org>

FOA is 25 years old this July - read about FOA's history in this newsletter above.

Learn More About FOA's History.

Contact Us
The Fiber Optic Association Inc.
http://www.foa.org or email <info@foa.org>

       

 FOA Logo Merchandise

New FOA Swag! Shirts, Caps, Stickers, Cups, etc.

Your Name, CFOT® - It pays to advertise!

The FOA encourages CFOTs to use the logo on their business cards, letterhead, truck or van, etc. and provides logo files for that purpose. But we are also asked about how to use the CFOT or CFOS certifications. Easy, you can refer to yourself as "Your Name, CFOT" or "Your Name, CFOS/T" for example.

Feel free to use the logo and designations to promote your achievements and professionalism!

Privacy Policy (for the EU GDPR): The FOA does not use cookies or any other web tricks to gather information on visitors to our website, nor do we allow commercial advertising. Our website hosts may gather traffic statistics for the visitors to our website and our online testing service, ClassMarker, maintains statistics of test results. We do not release or misuse any information on any of our members except we will confirm FOA certifications and Fiber U certificates of completion when requested by appropriate persons such as employers or personnel services.
Read the complete FOA Privacy Policy here.