What is this thing

**GroundScope** · July 3rd, 2011, 02:20 AM

Can any of you 'viners tell me what this is, I found it in with a locator shipped from Texas that I bought on fleabay . Its about 10" long & got an eye on it like you can pull it through a duct, a Sonde of some sort or a Transducer for Optic Fiber perhaps, Its got T&B written on it but can find zilch on Google.

**nrp3** · July 3rd, 2011, 07:53 AM

T&B stands for Thomas and Betts. They are a manufacturer of electrical supplies. I looked through some of their catalogs online and couldn't find it, but they make a lot of stuff.

**orangeboots** · July 3rd, 2011, 10:07 AM

its a em electronic marker they use it in the old days to mark buried splices hand hole anything that was buried that needed pinpoint locating at later date some receivers a a em setting that picks up this up. I ve never used them much so jm sure wing or pro can add lots more info

**Anthony** · July 4th, 2011, 05:21 AM

Its a transponder common name is cable marker or utilty marker Telstra Australia use it to mark a change of direction on there direct buried optical fibre routes this one is orange therefore works on 101.4 khz for comms other colors eg green,red and blue are for other services they all conform to an international standard so you can pick up these things with a subsite,3M ,Metrotech rd or just about any marker locater

**Wingfoot** · July 7th, 2011, 01:15 AM

Originally Posted by GroundScope

Can any of you 'viners tell me what this is?

We call it a "carrot stick" and it is SWEEEEEET! The Kansas City area is loaded with buried AT&T splices. The splice finders we use just SCREAM when one of these "carrot sticks" are buried with a splice. They had a short time frame of usage, so we don't see many of them around.

The "carrot stick" splice markers replaced the older style "toilet lid" markers." The "toilet lids" worked very well, but were huge and shaped like a toilet lid. The "carrot sticks" were then replaced by the "wagon wheel" splice markers. Today, it's the floating disc inside the orange ball. It's strange that with each new generation of splice markers introduced, the signal strength gets weaker.

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**orangeboots** · July 8th, 2011, 04:28 PM

too bad wing i bet i threw away a couple truckloads of the carrot sticks in the last 20 years. we never had receivers that would pick them up til a few years ago

**GroundScope** · July 9th, 2011, 04:10 AM

Thanks for all your help. What sort of RX do you need to turn these on to enable location ??

**nrp3** · July 9th, 2011, 08:11 AM

Dumb question, but how do they orient those is the ground, lengthwise with the splice or vertical? I know my 2273 will find markers, but not sure if it will only do 3m or others.

**Wingfoot** · July 9th, 2011, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by GroundScope

Thanks for all your help. What sort of RX do you need to turn these on to enable location ??

Hey GroundScope - All the above mentioned splice markers are always emitting a signal. There is no on/off switch on any splice marker.

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**paintitnow** · July 9th, 2011, 11:25 PM

my first rd 400 RX had a splice loop on it

**Wingfoot** · July 10th, 2011, 03:04 AM

Originally Posted by Wingfoot

Originally Posted by GroundScope

What sort of RX do you need to turn these on to enable location ??

Hey GroundScope - All the above mentioned splice markers are always emitting a signal. There is no on/off switch on any splice marker.

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Hey GroundScope - I think I misunderstood your question. The equipment I use to locate all buried splice markers is the Rycom 8890-MP Passive Utility Marker Pinpointer:

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I have also used the 3M APC 1264 EMS II Marker Locator:

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**Wingfoot** · July 10th, 2011, 03:13 AM

Originally Posted by nrp3

Dumb question, but how do they orient those is the ground, lengthwise with the splice or vertical? I know my 2273 will find markers, but not sure if it will only do 3m or others.

Hey nrp - Good question. I don't think it makes a lot of difference how the carrot is placed at the splice so the signal can be picked up with any of the above mentioned pinpointers. 99.9% of the time the carrot will be found with the pointed end, with the ring, down and the flat top facing up.

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