Posted: 7/12/2008 12:04:00 PM EDT
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I have a few spools of CAT 5 cable that I came across a few years back. aside from doing some extra cable runs for the computers in the house. what else can I use this cable for. There's gotta be some other SHTF type uses. any ideas. Thanks Peter |
Comms is the only real use Maybe emergency tie down 
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any ideas if this could be wired into some sort of switchboard and used like the old military wired phones for BOL comms I'm sure you'd have to figure some way to power it. otherwise, after i'm through with running network set-ups for the computers I might trade some of it off. Thanks |
Actually you could probally use it for IP Phones, I belive you can get a set up for relatively cheap and it would ne secure unless someone was on your phone network |
You can run COAX for longer distances but I belive you can get 100 meters out of cat5 before the signal is to weak |
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The 100m limitation of a CAT-5 Ethernet run is due to the IEEE standards defined in 802.3. If you aren't pushing 10/100/1000BASE-T signaling over the cable then the distance limitation may not apply. The distance limitation of the BASEband signaling used in Ethernet over copper is a function of the twists per inch in the cable and the length of the run. The twists in the cable are there to reduce cross talk between the pairs (but this is dependent on the termination scheme used i.e. EIA/TIA 568 A/B) and yes you can run power over the cable. It's just 4 twisted pairs of copper cable, each about 24 gage in diameter and could be used for a lot of impromptu purposes...but I think this is far enough OT for the subject at hand |
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It's copper wire, it should work fine for any low power electrical use. I forget what size the wire is, but charts available online could be used as a guidline for determining how much current would be prudent. Using multiple conductors in parallel would allow slightly higher currents. One thing that comes to mind is for wiring low power leds for an efficient emergency lighting system. Might want to use multiple conductors to limit loss in longer runs. |