A steel wire rope tensioned between poles and bonded to ground, to which aerial cable is lashed with a spinning lashing wire. The strand carries the mechanical load of wind and ice while the cable rides along it. Adding a new cable to an existing strand and cable bundle is called overlashing, and it needs the pole owner's approval and an engineering check of loading.
Strand's sagging in the middle of span 18, we need a down guy before anybody overlashes another cable on it.
Also heard as
- messenger
- messenger strand
- aerial strand
Do not mix it up with
- Glass: Strand on the pole line means the steel support wire, though people also say strand for a single fiber; context tells which.
Related terms
Snowshoe
An oval aerial bracket, shaped like a snowshoe, used to store slack loops of fiber cable on the strand.
Can
Outside plant slang for a splice closure, especially a cylindrical dome closure on a pole or in a vault.
Cable plant
All the passive fiber infrastructure of a network: cable, splices, connectors, panels and closures.
Service loop
Extra cable coiled and stored at a vault, pole or panel so the fiber can be re-spliced or moved later.