Fiber optics safety is a crucial part of successfully completing a fiber optic installation or repair. Safety can often be overlooked when working with fiber as it is an extremely safe working material. Although this is true, safety should still be a top priority when doing an installation or performing maintenance on a fiber system. In today’s blog post we will review some of the most important safety concerns when performing your job. Today we…
What is OTDR?
An OTDR is an extremely valuable tool when you are trying to characterize optical fibers. OTDR (optical time domain reflectometers) units are used to locate any events in your fiber cable and the amount of attenuation of the fiber. An OTDR uses the effects of Rayleigh Scattering and Fresnel Reflections to measure characteristics in your fiber. The OTDR will send a light pulse down your fiber and by measuring the time it takes for…
Fiber Connector Types
Often times when installing a fiber, you find yourself trying to select the most efficient fiber connector types for the application you are dealing with. JM Test Systems is here to ensure that you select the connector that will perform best for your needs. This blog post will break down the most common fiber connector types and explain their pros/cons, so that you can properly determine your selection of which connector you would like…
Fiber Optic Testing
Fiber optics is the core of today’s datacom networks. Optical fiber is the predominant media type for mission-critical datacenter links, backbone within buildings, and longer distances for campus networks. As network speeds and bandwidth demands increase, distance and loss limitations have decreased, making fiber optic testing more important than ever. Inspecting Fiber Optic Cable for Light Loss For decades, optics have been inspected and cleaned to ensure the proper passage of light. While…
Understanding Cable & Antenna Analysis Part 2
Cable Loss Effect on System Return Loss The insertion loss of the cable needs to be taken into consideration when making system return loss measurements using portable cable and antenna analyzers. The picture below(picture 4) illustrates how the cable loss changes the perceived antenna performance. The antenna itself has a return loss of 15 dB but the 5 dB insertion loss improves the perceived system return loss by 10 dB (5 dB *2). Even…
CALIBRATION TECH BRIEF: BK Precision 4010A – VCG Out of Tolerance
The Out of Tolerance Solution We had two BK4010A generators in for calibration in the JM Test Alexandria Lab recently, and all parameters except one were well in tolerance. The out of tolerance condition was the Voltage Controlled Generator(VCG) frequency section of the verification. Briefly, the verification consists of the following: Set the Frequency Range to 200 kHz, and the dial to 2 (setting the frequency to 200 kHz). Apply…
