Does anyone here have experience in working with fiber optic cable? There is a ton of information out there, but I still haven't been able to answer my basic question: without spending thousands of dollars on equipment and training, can I "do it myself", especially in the field? Theoretically, I think I can, but I'd like to hear others' stories before buying equipment. So, your experience and/or anecdotal evidence is very welcome.
Background: as somewhat of a hobby, I've been providing wireless internet services to people in remote rural areas, and often "the last mile" is between a tower I set up high on a hilltop (to have line of sight with another tower tens of miles away) and a house in the valley. The sites are usually heavily wooded, making wireless transmission of the signal difficult. The distance is way too far to use Cat5/Cat6 cable. So, fiber is ideal, except it may need repair. It's a lot of work stringing cable through steep wooded mountainsides, so it has to be repairable in the field. The problem is in doing good splices (joining two pieces of cable together) and terminations (putting a plug on an end) while I'm out in the field. There are two primary types of fiber: multimode, which has lower transmission rate and shorter maximum workable length, but which is larger diameter and easier to work with; and single mode, which is faster and longer, but is smaller and much harder to work with. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
