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When I was doing it, we used a little white crimp-ons affectionately called "beanies". :-) Depending on the job it could go fast or slow. If it was new cable being spliced you merely took bundles (those big cables are broken down into bundles 25 pair each separated by wrappers with the same color code as the cables themselves) and spliced them through. If you were repairing a camaged active cable it took much longer and more people as you had to sound out the cable in either direction and match up the pairs. The first method is what was sped up by the 3M splicing system. You raked out all the cables, laid them over a splice (on cable on either side) and then used a hydaulic press to clamp the splice. Realy got to be boring in a very short time. And when you figure you were usually either hanging high on a pole or working down in a dirty cramped manhole, it's not one of the jobs I really miss. (It was also the job that made me anti-union, but that's another story.)

bill

-- Bill Gunshannon de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves University of Scranton