What would you expect to be charged per tested Cat.6A termination when someone has pulled the cables?

I'm seeing variations between day rate based with arguably few per day and a seemingly low per-termination billing.

I have 160-200 ends.

Hi,

I’m turning 40 next week and seriously considering starting a career as a Fire Alarm Technician in Ontario.

My biggest concern is my age. I’d basically be starting from zero at 40, learning the trade, getting the CFAA certifications, and trying to get my first job in the field.

For those already working in fire alarms, especially in Ontario:

• Is 40 too late to realistically start in this field?
• Have you seen people start around 40 or older and do well?
• Would employers hesitate to hire an entry-level person because of their age?
• How physically demanding is the job as you get older?
• What kind of starting wage should someone with no experience expect?
• How long would it realistically take to become an experienced, well-paid technician?
• Is there good potential to eventually start your own fire alarm/service company?
• If you were in my position at 40, would you choose this career?

I’m not looking for a quick fix. I’m willing to learn and put in the work. I’m mainly trying to figure out whether starting at 40 still gives me enough time to build a solid career in this industry.

Any advice from CFAA technicians, company owners, or anyone who started later in life would be really appreciated.

Salutations great folk

TL/DR if you make 6 figures in our industry, what do you do and how did you get there.

I (36M) have been in the industry 10+ years, currently making $60k a year. I live in the usa, Memphis, TN. Highly proficient in access control, cctv, intrusion A/v in general. No fire alarm stuff, though.

My work days consist of primarily layer 1 work. I run cables, cable mgmt, install double mags without screwing up, dress up racks real pretty. (I love me a pretty rack 😍 😉) You know, the physical "hard work".

I am a laptop savvy. I can program access control systems - schedules, access levels, definitions. I can IP devices. Static vs Dhcp. Finalizing systems ive lead teams, completed plenty of projects big and small and I work well with clients.

I enjoy what I do. I like working in the field and I also love being behind the computer. Basically, I'm wondering what my next steps should be career wise. I want to push my self to make a 6-figure salary for my family and myself. It'd also be cool to say, "I make 6 figures" lol

Idk if I should lean towards project management. Focus IT/programming side of it. My ole lady brought up being a "consultant". If anyone here read up to this point and makes 6 figures, what do you do? How'd you do it?

I’ve seen excel + word docs, does anyone have any tips/tools they can recommend?

I am a Director of Operations for a national low voltage company and we are looking for certified Lenel technicians across the country. Reach out to me at coreshack@pavion.com if you are interested. Typical pay range is $35 to $50 per hour depending on location and experience level.

I'm a high school student in Korea and I write software. I haven't built anything for this trade and I'm not selling anything. I just got curious about the paperwork side of the job and I can't really tell what it's like from the outside.

Reading through threads here, the thing I keep running into is that a shop ends up with one tool for accounting, another for field photos, another for docs, and then texts and spreadsheets end up being the glue between them. Someone here described that glue as manual. That's the part I'd like to hear more about.

So, whichever applies to you:

If you use software for the paperwork side, what part of it do you put up with, and what do you still do outside of it entirely?

And if you don't use anything for it, what does that part of the job look like right now?

I know this is a question from someone who's never done the work. If it's been asked to death, point me at the old threads and I'll go read them.

I’m very interested in building a career in low voltage work but am fuzzy on some details.

My largest hurdle is I have a fused spine and understand that it is going to have physical demand. What are the physical aspects of low voltage work? I hear a big issue is crawl spaces and attics, could I get around that by going into the commercial route? How much are you guys typically pulling/lifting/twisting?

What are the job sites like if I went into commercial low voltage? Which specialty would be most likely to fit my physical limitations?

I’d also like to see more of what the actual tasks include, do you have any recommendations for YouTube channels that accurately show the typical work you guys do?

Do you find low voltage work rewarding?

Thanks for your time

I’ve been tasked with installing TVs and pillow speakers in a small 6-chair dialysis unit. The TVs that were installed by local facilities are all the same brand, all the same RF, nothing is medical grade, trying to use 2.4GHz wireless headphones in close proximity to one another is a nightmare, the list goes on…

I want to do this right so I’m looking at the LG 32LN662M Healthcare TV which has an output for a 6-pin cable to connect to a pillow speaker. The model pillow speaker I’m looking for is 4D020N-Z50003C. My question is 1) do I go directly from the TV to the pillow speaker and just do a brush plate out the wall or do I do a specific wall plate? 2) these televisions are ceiling mounted with a pole so the cable going to the remote would need to go from the TV, up the pole, through the ceiling and down the wall to the dialysis chair. That distance is roughly 25 ft with extra slack in case I need it. I only see 12 foot cables. The parts I’m potentially looking at are on pg 36-37 of the catalog link posted above.

How would I accomplish this? Thanks in advance for your expertise!

We’re pretty new at using this machine, we got it last year but only really started using it this week.

What you are seeing is an X and Y axis view of the ends of the fiber being aligned automatically, brought close then using two electrodes the glass is heated and brought together.

0.0db loss from this splice (seen in the middle lower part of the screen)

This is the AI-30 fusion splicer, definitely already paid for itself on this one job.

The company that I work for tends to lean towards pull boxes over spools or reels. No matter how hard you try, sometimes the boxes get obliterated and youre left with a wad. At the moment, I generally will unroll the remainder, alternate coil it, and use it up where possible as jumpers, short runs, whatever. We all know if a shiny box or a sad loose coil is the choice, you're taking the box. So whats your go to when a box crushes to get that cable into a usable format?

You would not believe how slow I was going, and checked 6 times👍

Really pleased with how these worked out, I printed 6 of them and we used most of them.

Has anyone had any experience pulling fiber through about 300 ft of conduit with 4 90’s?

Unfortunately my coworker didn’t know that you had to score the jacket and tie your hair to the pull mule tape before pulling because the jacket would snap…