# What is this?



## BBQ

Locator wire.


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## Dash Dingo

BBQ said:


> Locator wire.


Thank you


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## MTW

BBQ said:


> Locator wire.



That deserves a :nerd: :laughing:


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## BBQ

MTW said:


> That deserves a :nerd:  :laughing:


:furious:













:laughing:


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## ponyboy

MTW said:


> That deserves a :nerd: :laughing:


That's common knowledge lol


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## LARMGUY

ponyboy said:


> That's common knowledge lol


Yep, ever try to find fiber optic cable without one? ADT did at the Tulsa airport. They were installing new cameras and kept cutting the fiber laid down by the airport without a locator wire. I'm glad THEY won the bid!


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## RIVETER

Dash Dingo said:


> What is the purpose of this red wire the poco runs along with its underground secondary conductors?
> 
> 
> View attachment 28925
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 28926


I would think that it is a iron based conductor to possibly find in the future.


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## MadDawg

To prevent this.


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## BBQ

ponyboy said:


> That's common knowledge lol


Common knowledge for people that work with it.

Not so common if you have only worked inside.


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## Big John

MadDawg said:


> To prevent this.


 :laughing: I like to think that the transformer on the other end of that just got sucked right into the ground like an old-timey cartoon. 

Maybe they make different types, but as far as I know the wire itself isn't designed to be detectable, they just use it to hook the transmitter to. The reason it has steel in it is for pulling strength.


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## Cl906um

Oh. That's funny. Worked on a pumping station a while back. The owner was in charge of ripping out old 13.8 feeds from the xmfr. When they pulled on them, the 138 to 13.8 xmfr was rocking on the old timbers it was set on. Little did we know that the as builds were wrong and somewhere in time they added a box and spliced the secondaries. Just like the cartoon, they tried pulling the xmfr through the 4" conduit with a crane. Pretty funny.


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## Ty Wrapp

MadDawg said:


> View attachment 28967
> 
> 
> To prevent this.


Seen that before....bore rig snagged a phone cable and pulled the cable out of 6 pedestals before they realized it.


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## TOOL_5150

here, we call it a tracer wire.


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## don_resqcapt19

The only utility around here that uses a locate wire is the gas company.


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## wildleg

don_resqcapt19 said:


> The only utility around here that uses a locate wire is the gas company.


yep. helps prevent this


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## Shock-Therapy

wildleg said:


> yep. helps prevent this


Holy jeebus!


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## chewy

I was in a server room and heard a fibre tray make a funny noise then the cable dissapeared down the stub up slowly. Went outside and an excavator was pulling a conduit along hooked onto its blade with a guy in a truck honking his horn trying to get his attention haha.


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## banzai

Is any current put on this Tracer cable ? what is the theory behind it ?


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## don_resqcapt19

banzai said:


> Is any current put on this Tracer cable ? what is the theory behind it ?


You connect the transmitter of your locater to the wire. The receiver lets you track the path of the wire.


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## Brodieman

We use tracer a lot in traffic signal construction when we can't finish a conduit run. Especially awesome when the conduit is buried under asphalt in the middle of the road and we need to reopen the road ASAP No messing around, just locate and dig:thumbsup: I was taught how to use the locator when I first started my apprenticeship to locate fibre & phone on a few jobs which makes me feel cool:laughing:

We also used the locator to help find a sewer line blockage by hooking onto the 'snake'. Also helped a well driller locate a pipe using the pumps cable as the tracer.


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## Big John

I've always wondered how the Dig Safe guys do it? They can't possibly be connecting a transmitter to every conceivable utility, so is that device they're using actually a form of radar?


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## MTW

wildleg said:


> yep. helps prevent this


Somebody found a high pressure gas pipeline by accident.


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## cdnelectrician

Big John said:


> I've always wondered how the Dig Safe guys do it? They can't possibly be connecting a transmitter to every conceivable utility, so is that device they're using actually a form of radar?


I always wondered the same thing. ..


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## Brodieman

Not sure about "Dig Safe" but I would imagine they are using the same Radiodetection units I have used and seen on jobs by various services. You either need to "clamp" a cable or connect directly to a tracer. On the jobs I have been on, each service would have a "locator" guy but, as is inevitable with any construction, their makings and flags would be long gone by the time we came in to trench. Plus, trust no one right Open up the nearest pedestal, clamp on the detector and take a walk with the wand. For tracer wire, alligator clamp onto it, stake a ground reference rod and take a walk. 

Our Radiodetection unit came in very handy on a trailer park job. Located all the buried secondary & Bell and used it to find water line connections by running a fish tape in and tracing off of it. Saved the operators a huge amount of time.


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## chewy

We have dowsers here, Ive posted about them before locating water pipes. Im really amazed by that.


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## CADPoint

PSNC is now doing that with their gas lines! They use yellow...


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## piperunner

*Call 1 - 800 -Sunshine*

Well I guess there still in the stone age with the tracer wire but today when we tie in a new service downtown with tons of utillities we call for a locate . You cant dig legally before 3 days pass . The locate guy uses a device which can detect high voltage gas water sewer and also fiber . He can tell us how deep it is and within 2 foot centered any direction and what it is . Its the law here if you don't your company pays for damages . Which if you shut down the local courthouse or lets say a large office building you pay for the hours lost of all time it takes to get it back online power water or the internet .

So your going to pay if you need to trace do it but there is a easyer way today and its free at least in our state . We call every week on our job site they give us a locate ticket number so if I hit something they didn't mark they pay not my company .:thumbup:


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## ponyboy

piperunner said:


> Well I guess there still in the stone age with the tracer wire but today when we tie in a new service downtown with tons of utillities we call for a locate . You cant dig legally before 3 days pass . The locate guy uses a device which can detect high voltage gas water sewer and also fiber . He can tell us how deep it is and within 2 foot centered any direction and what it is . Its the law here if you don't your company pays for damages . Which if you shut down the local courthouse or lets say a large office building you pay for the hours lost of all time it takes to get it back online power water or the internet . So your going to pay if you need to trace do it but there is a easyer way today and its free at least in our state . We call every week on our job site they give us a locate ticket number so if I hit something they didn't mark they pay not my company .:thumbup:


Same here. We have a one call locate requirement. But they only sight utilities. We have a ton of UG mv and gas that is owned by the plant. We need to run locate wires with our stuff because there's 30 years of junk down there


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## piperunner

Well I think GPRS is the stuff they use today you can see the image on the screen . Plus they download it and we get a print out for the field .


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## KDC

Big John said:


> I've always wondered how the Dig Safe guys do it? They can't possibly be connecting a transmitter to every conceivable utility, so is that device they're using actually a form of radar?


Some of the kits will put out a signal that gets induced on the lines without requiring a direct connection/clamp. 

Doesn't work nearly as well however.


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## LARMGUY

chewy said:


> I was in a server room and heard a fibre tray make a funny noise then the cable dissapeared down the stub up slowly. Went outside and an excavator was pulling a conduit along hooked onto its blade with a guy in a truck honking his horn trying to get his attention haha.


 
Reminds me of the time in Kansas City I was watching an electrician bring in the underground cables. He was just about to grab the #2 cable to strip it back when ZIP! It disappeared down the conduit. We both ran outside and watched as a guy in a Jeep was driving down the road with a log chain and #2 cable flailing everything behind him.


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