Hi Mike. I used Krone blocks back in the mid 90s. I really liked them.

I'm afraid now your long-term options now are probably straight old 66 or 110 blocks. 66 blocks give some added flexibility. 110s are more efficient as far as space consumed compared to 66 blocks. Krone and 110s have a very similar profile.

Depending on how much copper you're terminating, you may want to plan the frame layout for cross-connect field space before building the frame. You don't want to end up with too much cross-connect wire volume in too small an area. That can get troublesome.

Happy to discuss specifics. Just ping me off-list.

On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 3:13 PM Mike Hammett <nanog@ics-il.net> wrote:
I know I'm discussing what some consider ancient technology. I counter that it meets or exceeds the needs of many, many people.

Currently, we use 100-pr Telect-style termination blocks. They don't offer much in terms of ease of use for testing and don't organize well on a 19" or 23" rack.

I was recommended to look at Krone blocks. They look just great. Easy to break into for testing with their "look both ways" plug as well as their preterminated blocks looked much easier to rack-mount.

Well, Krone was bought by ADC. ADC was bought by Tyco Electronics. TE was bought by Commscope. Commscope discontinued everything I found interesting with no replacements.


Some of the stuff is on eBay (even NIB), some not.

Any recommendations for places to get old telco blocks, testers, mounts, etc.?

Any recommendations for alternatives that are easier to source?




-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions
http://www.ics-il.com

Midwest-IX
http://www.midwest-ix.com