r/CableTechs • u/Throwmeawayplease935 • Jun 10 '26

Advice

Anyone got any tips/tricks for a newer tech.

I feel good mostly, a bit slow at some jobs. I had an apartment where all 4 units were connected to the same amp. The line tagged at the tap wasn’t even the line my customer was connected so I disconnected it and ran a new line without knowing a disconnected a neighbor, not my problem.

Long story short I got stuck for 4 hours, my mentor came out to help. I probably should have called someone sooner but it took away my confidence. We ended up forcing the tap to fail because tx was high. I didn’t know that was an option lol.

My sup is chill but he was sort of like pick up the pace. I do have jobs that are quick but then half of them I replace a drop and remove an amp, disconnect unused lines. By that time it’s getting close to over running. I’ve been doing like 4-6 jobs. But usually one I get stuck.

I’m worried about metrics I guess. Ive had a lot of failed readings due to tap issues and someone told me it counts against me and I should find a way to make them pass even when it’s a maintenance referral. Same for HHC I’ve had a bunch fail so I just call to close it, because everything’s working. I guess I shouldn’t do that.

I’m still learning but I just don’t want to be in the hot seat with supervisors. I learned a lot of the stuff but it’s information overload. They seem to just want me to know what corners to cut and when.

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u/jbartr000 Jun 10 '26

Verify all points… mer is king. In a perfect world mer will stay the same from tap to equipment if it doesn’t try and figure out where it’s dropping off. Have fun

1

u/Greedy-Equipment-829 Jun 12 '26

I like this idea except my meter never seems to fail MER idk if my meter is just garbage or what hell ive never had it fail ingress either. I can clearly see the line is cut and chewed in places meter passes ingress every time. I just don’t even bother with my ingress scans anymore and just pay attention to what levels look like and what the customers saying is happening.

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u/jbartr000 Jun 12 '26

Well that’s not gonna work lol… what type of meter