Fluke Certified Cable Test Technician Training
Almost two decades ago, I met and was impressed by a man who knew so much more than I about all things packet analysis. I attended a course way back in Networld/Interop days from Mr. Mike Pennacchi.
Fast forward to last week. I again had a chance to sit at his feet, though virtually this time around as he taught the CCTT Copper and CCTT Fiber courses.
Mike’s Twitter handle is @mpennac and his website is http://nps-llc.com
You can also learn more about Fluke’s CCTT programs and resources at https://www.cctttraining.com/
These two one-day training courses were taught remotely via Zoom – but all students had access to remotely control their own Fluke Versiv cable test tool via a ‘guacamole server’ session, so you only needed a web browser.
It is quite obvious Mike knows his way around networks, network protocols and network test equipment. He’s built a studio to facilitate teaching remotely and feels very comfortable in this style of instruction.
After you register for the course(s), they send you a physical paper course manual to work from, take notes in, and you are able to refer to it at the end of the day when you take your certification exam(s).
I opted for both the Copper course, as well as the Fiber course. I’ve personally used many Fluke products for testing cables over the last 20-years or so. But since I’ve been focusing my career more on the Wireless side, have not stayed as current as I should have in the developments in the wired arena.
These two courses reminded me of why I’m sticking to Wireless! – Though they were very effective at reminding me of the importance of testing, validating, and making sure your physical layer is doing what is expected, I realized I don’t personally enjoy doing cable testing.
On the other hand, these two courses were fantastic to remind me to stay more on top of the cable folks we hire to prepare the cable plants for our Access Points and Switches to use. Especially as we are moving more to M-Gig and more Fiber – I needed a refresher course on how and what to put in our statement of work documents, and what to contractually request from our layer one sub-contractors.
I enjoyed learning at the feet of a master – learned a ton about things I thought I knew already – and experienced controlling a big expensive Versiv cable tester. These classes will help make me better able to design Wi-Fi networks in the future.
The exams were open book, and if you took good notes, listened to the lectures, and practiced with the remote access labs, you should be able to pass these online exams offered at the end of each day.
Now, part of the real reason for taking these courses was to notch up two more certifications on my goal to hit 100 before I retire… so here’s to numbers 86 and 87!
If you have a chance, I highly recommend taking these or any other courses from Mike Pennacchi. He also teaches on the NetAlly family of products like AirCheck G2, LinkRunner G2, and Etherscope nXG.
You can sign up for Mike’s complimentary ‘Quick Start’ sessions here: https://www.nps-llc.com/quick-starts