Running Fiber Optic through a building

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I'm getting ready to run a fiber optic line between the computer room in my building and the radio tower on the roof. The goal is to isolate the tower electrically from the computers inside so that a lightning strike at the tower can't take everything out through the network.

Has anyone run fiber optic inside a building before? Any tips as to equipment?

I have run thousands of miles of fiber. I recommend you hire a cabling company. Otherwise you might break it. Check your PM.
http://www.circaent.com/telecom/product ... 92--4-cat6

Last edited by Mudboy on 04 Mar 2018, 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Considering it's a single run of maybe 60 feet through conduit, I figure that if I break it, it's cheaper to just get another cable.

It has been a while but I had to pull a fiber run from one side of the house to the other to avoid cat6 distance limits. Went from router to router.

My hints are

Buy the cable with the ends already installed.
Buy the cable with a pulling harness already installed.
Buy cable assembly with extra fibers in case of damage or other problems.
If any of the run is exposed to elements, buy exterior cable even if in conduit. With age, conduit leaks.

I'm not sure where you're located OP. It's worth checking the legalities in your state/country regarding doing this before proceeding. Where I am (Australia) you must get a Registered Cabler to do this, unqualified people leave themselves open to huge fines for running cable/fibre through walls.

I haven't heard of any state here that requires a license to run fiber optic cable in a building. There are some states that require licenses to install ethernet cables. I think Florida is one.

In my state, you don't need a license for low voltage wiring. I've never even thought of checking for licenses for fiber optic cable.

You are fine running data and security cables in your state. Fiber included.

Good stuff, your profile doesn't state where in the world you're located.
Australia is a bit of a nanny country with a multitude of regulations, soon you'll need a licence to cross the road or scratch your behind.

I read once that in some US state (I think in the northeast), you even have to have a license to be a projectionist at a movie theater. That never did make sense.

The fire hazard from pre-xenon bulbs with the old cellulose films was very real. There were many deaths from theater fires and projection booths started to be set up like bunkers to prevent the fire from spreading.

Licensing made sense back then but not so much now. Once a license requirement exists, it almost never goes away.

The reason I brought up movie projectionists is that while in college some friends of mine worked at the local movie theater and when I was free I would often go to the theater and hang out at the projection booth and the area behind it.

Sometimes we talked, sometimes we played cards. Sometimes we read. Sometimes we studied. Occasionally we would even watch the movie.

The theater showed a strange mix of movies. It was kind of rundown and they hadn't shown first run movies in years --
they did show some recent movies (of the last ten years) as well as some rather mild adult movies. Some of the movies I watched from the projection booth included The Graduate, The Party, and Kentucky Fried Movie.

The owner of the theater also owned a couple of other theaters downtown. He offered me a job as a movie projectionist downtown but I already had a job. I was also concerned about whether or not my car was dependable enough to get me there and back without a breakdown. The job downtown would have been to be the projectionist at two theaters across the street from each other. One theater showed regular first-run family movies and the other showed movies in Spanish.