Did you ever catch how much signal you were losing on those scored jackets? I read somewhere that even a tiny slice into the braid can mess with the shielding, and that matches what you saw with those intermittent drops. Most guys I know learned from whoever trained them first, and that sticks hard. My buddy still twists ends with pliers like his old foreman did, even though he knows better. It's wild how a little tool can save your hands and your work quality, but pride gets in the way.

Hell @victor_butler50, you're overthinking soup scraps.

Honestly I mapped mine out on graph paper before I even placed the first sprinkler cause I got sick of wasting whole days on that. Took like 20 minutes with a pencil and saved me so much back and forth, maybe worth a shot if you're still fiddling with it.