Ever Wonder…What the RG stands for in coax cable names?

The “RG” in coax cable descriptions, like RG6 or RG59, comes from an obsolete military specification manual. Years ago, the US Army classified different types of coaxial cables for radio antenna applications according to various performance characteristics, and gave each cable a “Radio Guide” or “RG” number.

Today, the RG designation doesn’t officially tell us anything about the cable, but most manufacturers still use them as a rough guideline that describes features such as impedance, wire gauge, and loss characteristics.

Have you ever thought this?

“I need to place my WiFi access point in an area where there is no interference with it or the antenna.”

If so, this this 2′ x 2′ access point ceiling box is designed to fit into any suspended ceiling environment. It easily fits into the grid with frame attachment points for greater support. Whether used for a wireless router or as part of a large RFID system, the WiFi box allows for simple mounting of the equipment with a rotating center panel to allow for directional focusing of antenna.

I think you will find this access point enclosure a secure and unique solution to your location problem.

Do you have a unique product that solves a connectivity problem? If so let me know!

The Cabling community is abuzz with excitement of the pending releases of ANSI/EIA/TIA-568-C standards. Most specifically “C.0”, a generic telecommunications cabling for customer premises.

The excitement is due to the fact that this new revision looks to simplify, and de-mystify standard cabling practices. They are creating the document as a default standard rather than a mass of generic information. This allows adopters to focus on their exceptions, rather than start from scratch and follow every rule from the ground up.

ANSI (American National Standards Institute) requires the standards to be re-written every five years. This was a perfect time to streamline how these documents are set up. In short, the name of the standard says it all.

Generic telecommunications cabling for customer premises standard. This document can serve as a default standard, and allows those who adapt this standard to focus on their unique exceptions rather than reconstruct a mass of generic information.

C.0 is scheduled to be available in December ’08. I think this is a giant step forward for the TIA. They have recognized how cumbersome and inflexible the standards have been for the “common people”. It is my hopes that this new standard will be more widely used, and further advance the industry towards future opportunities and challenges.

* submitted by Josh Taylor – Product Manager, CABLExpress

Recently I went in search of a glossery of Wireless terms to use in a class that I was teaching and ran accross this simplified listing published in eWeek.

Additionally, the article discussed news about cracks in the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) one of the most popular wireless security standards. While the crack was acomplished by researchers and not a killer it affected the version of WPA and highlights that WPA was intended to be a stopgap standard.

I think you will find the article both interesting and a great reference tool.