BICSI Installer 1 cheat sheet

NEC Article 800 covers communications circuits; Article 770 covers optical fiber; Article 820 covers CATV and community antenna systems.

ANSI/TIA-568 defines commercial building cabling topology, media, and performance; 568.2 covers balanced twisted pair and 568.3 covers fiber.

ANSI/TIA-569 covers pathways and spaces; TIA-606 covers administration and labeling; TIA-607 covers bonding and grounding.

Horizontal channel = 90 m (295 ft) of horizontal cable + 10 m (33 ft) total patch cords = 100 m (328 ft).

Work area cord maximum length is 5 m (16 ft); total patch cord length in the channel is limited to 10 m.

CMP cable is required in environmental air spaces such as plenums; CMR is for risers; CM is general-purpose.

NEC Article 725 covers Class 2 and Class 3 circuits, often used for low-voltage control and signaling.

TIA-607 components include the TMGB, TGB, TBB, and bonding to the building grounding electrode system.

OSHA 29 CFR 1926 contains construction safety regulations; 29 CFR 1910 contains general industry regulations.

Ladder setup uses a 1-ft horizontal base for every 4 ft of vertical height, and the ladder extends 3 ft above the landing.

Fall protection is required at 6 ft in construction under OSHA 1926.501 and at 4 ft in general industry under OSHA 1910.

GFCI protection is required for 120-volt, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles on construction sites when not part of permanent wiring.

Eye protection conforms to ANSI Z87.1; head protection conforms to ANSI Z89.1.

Lockout/tagout is covered by OSHA 1910.147; permit-required confined spaces are covered by OSHA 1910.146.

Class C extinguishers are for energized electrical fires; Class A is for ordinary combustibles; Class B is for flammable liquids.

Category 5e is characterized to 100 MHz; Category 6 to 250 MHz; Category 6A to 500 MHz; Category 8 to 2000 MHz over a 30 m channel.

Balanced twisted-pair cabling has a nominal impedance of 100 ohms.

T568A assigns pins 1-2 green, 3-6 orange, 4-5 blue, 7-8 brown; T568B assigns 1-2 orange, 3-6 green, 4-5 blue, 7-8 brown.

The 8P8C modular connector, often called RJ-45, terminates four-pair balanced twisted-pair cable.

OM1 is 62.5/125 µm multimode; OM2, OM3, and OM4 are 50/125 µm multimode; OM5 is wideband multimode; OS1 and OS2 are singlemode.

75-ohm coaxial cable is used for video and CATV; 50-ohm coaxial cable is used for RF and radio systems.

Solid conductors are used for permanent horizontal cable; stranded conductors are used for flexible patch cords.

LC is a small-form-factor fiber connector; SC is square push-pull; ST is bayonet-style.

Horizontal cable is limited to 90 m (295 ft); slack is provided at the work area and telecommunications room as specified by design.

NEC Chapter 9 conduit fill limits are 53 percent for one conductor, 31 percent for two, and 40 percent for three or more.

A conduit run is limited to 360 degrees of total bends between pull points.

All fire-rated penetrations must be sealed with a listed firestop system per NEC 300.21.

TIA-569 UTP separation from power is typically 2 in below 2 kVA, 4 in for 2-5 kVA, and 12 in above 5 kVA.

Horizontal cable is generally supported at intervals not exceeding 5 ft (1.5 m) using J-hooks or listed supports.

Minimum bend radius is commonly 4 times the cable outside diameter for four-pair UTP and 10 times for fiber under no load, 20 times under tension.

Certification tests for twisted pair include wire map, length, insertion loss, NEXT, return loss, ACR-F, propagation delay, and delay skew.

A permanent link test is limited to 90 m (295 ft) and excludes patch cords; a channel test is limited to 100 m (328 ft) and includes them.

Wire map faults include opens, shorts, crossed or reversed pairs, and split pairs.

NEXT failures often occur at connectors or near the tester end; return loss failures indicate impedance mismatch such as a kink or poor termination.

Fiber Tier 1 testing uses an OLTS for insertion loss and length; Tier 2 testing uses an OTDR for event and distance analysis.

TIA-606 requires unique identifiers and records for cables, pathways, spaces, and grounding infrastructure.

A test report includes tester model, calibration date, date and time, operator, link identifier, test standard, and pass/fail result.