What happens after copper cables have become wet?

 Indoor copper cables shall not become wet. However it can happen that a cable drum accidentially stands in the rain or cables get wet by accident inside of a building. What impact does that have on the cable’s transmission performance?

Answer: Indoor cables with LSZH jacked have no water protection. When they get wet, water enters the cable resulting in worse return loss values which can cause problems in data transmission. The only help is to let the cable is completely dry again and test the link with a field tester. If you are lucky, the return loss is acceptable then. If not, the cable has to be replaced.

Nobody knows everything. A comprehensive topic like IT cabling inevitably raises questions. This column gives answers to questions which reached Telegärtner’s Technical Helpdesk and which we consider interesting for everyone. Please do not hesitate to send us your questions, we will be happy to answer them. The questions will be published anonymously, of course.