Don McCarty

  Issue
 Article Title
  MARCH 2010 Noise Mitigation in the Bandwidth Business
  My last few columns have touched on AC influence on customer service because it's a subject that keeps people awake at night, and solutions aren't well understood. Little attention has been paid to unacceptable power influence on copper cable pairs over the last decade by reactive telcos who often chose to ignore the problem unless it was so severe that the customer couldn't talk over the hum on the line.
  FEBRUARY 2010 The Longitudinal Balance Test
  I received a question from a reader about my December 2009 column, "Outside Plant Fault Locating the Triple Play Service", and thought that some of you other readers may wonder about this. Here you go:
  JANUARY 2010 Noise Mitigation
  The many factors which contribute to noise can cause substantial confusion in the analysis of noise problems. It is essential that a systematic course of action be followed and specific tests made in the proper sequence.
  DECEMBER 2009 Outside Plant Fault Locating the Triple Play Service
  This step-by-step process identifies faults that affect all aspects of the Triple Play service. Then, and only then, sync up to the DSLAM with your test set or testing the bandwidth portion of the service.
  NOVEMBER 2009 Change in the Communication Business
  In my 45 years in the telephone business I have witnessed change from paper and pulp cables to Plastic Insulated Conductors to fiber, operators to dial pulses, to touch tone dialing, mechanical central offices (COs) to digital COs to CO soft switches, fax machines, Caller ID, dial-up modems, and Plain Old Telephone service (POTS) to xDSL to IPTV. In today’s environment change in the communications industry is exponential.
  OCTOBER 2009 Have Changed - Or Have They?
  It's almost 100 years ago that these rules were first published in a memorandum. Read on, reminisce some (for us old enough!), and shake your head, as I did. For those of you too young to remember the early 1900s, believe me, the importance of how we treat our customers, our job, and our horse, hasn't changed a bit....
  SEPTEMBER 2009 Maintaining Aerial vs. Buried Outside Plant
  Due to the demand to restore service, most telephone companies are reactive instead of proactive in their maintenance procedures. That's their biggest problem. But here are a few other ideas on their fault-locating procedures that cause problems...
  AUGUST 2009 Slow Upload Speeds
  While the typical response to a complaint of slow upload speed is "when in doubt, dispatch out," it's an expensive and often unnecessary response. You can not only troubleshoot this effectively without a truck roll, while you are there you can do some proactive maintenance to quality circuits for both POTS and bandwidth.
  JULY 2009 Losing Customers to Your Competitor
  Customers change service providers for different reasons in their search for quality service. ...But what they want isn't usually what they get.
  JUNE 2009 An Introduction to the Time Domain Reflectometer
  We have been using Time Domain Reflectometers (TDRs) on telephone cables since the late 1960s, but only the best technicians know how to truly capitalize on the advanced capabilities offered by the TDR. This one piece of equipment can triple your efficiency and reduce call backs.
  MAY 2009 What Does It Take to Get a Cable Replaced?
  In all of the years that I have been writing for OSP® and training field technicians, this is the most-often-asked question from our maintenance forces. This one issue alone costs telephone companies more money than Mother Nature ever could.
  APRIL 2009 Even Outside Plant Techs Can Contribute to Greening
  How do the OSP managers and technicians contribute to a company's Green goals? It's really not hard: simply implement a proactive maintenance program that includes an efficient electronic isolation process.
  MARCH 2009 Craft Maintenance Training: Blueprint for Success
  Telephone companies are downsizing because of the economy. That means fewer people do more work and often do jobs they haven’t been doing. That means training. Training is a big investment in time and money, whether you do it in-house or through a third party. Here are my thoughts on knowing when to train and how you can maximize your training dollars.
  FEBRUARY 2009 To the Incumbent Service Provider
  JANUARY 2009 Underground Cable Locating
  DECEMBER 2008 The Field Technician and The Triple Play
  NOVEMBER 2008 Change – Good or Bad
  OCTOBER 2008 How to Save a Section of Telephone Cable...
  SEPTEMBER 2008 A Noise Mitigation Guru Speaks Out
  AUGUST 2008 The Inductive Cross
  JULY 2008 Foreign Battery on Vacant Cable Pairs
  JUNE 2008 Noise Mitigation a Problem?
  MAY 2008 Grinding to a Halt
  APRIL 2008 Diving Deep
  MARCH 2008 Do You Know What You Own?
  FEBRUARY 2008 Readers Questions
  JANUARY 2008 Section Analysis: Digging in the Wrong Spot
  DECEMBER 2007 The Journey From POTS to IPTV
  NOVEMBER 2007 Conditioning a 30-Year-Old Infrastructure for FTTN
  OCTOBER 2007 Safety
  SEPTEMBER 2007 Network Interface Ground
  AUGUST 2007 Identifying the Presence of Water in a Section of Air-Core PIC Cable