[BC] POTS reliability...

[Craig Bowman]

During the east cost blackout several years ago many radio and 
television stations found their phone service interrupted once the phone 
companies ups powering the fiber died.  Stations which still had copper 
lines to the CO ( I insist on that for request / hot lines and at least 
one fax machine) were the only dial tone in the building.  One (at 
least) emergency management center found themselves without phone lines 
for this same reason only hours into the crisis.  That outage was a 
wake-up call for most of us involved.  Having running water (spigot and 
hose) close to your generator to replenish the coolant after a hose 
rupture is another lesson which comes to mind.  Running an emergency 
generator for a couple days is a real stress test.

Craig Bowman
Bowman Engineering
989-277-8835

On 4/23/2010 9:27 AM, Burt I. Weiner wrote:
> I may be old fashioned, but I'm not ready to give up my copper (such
> as it's still copper) for VOIP.  Every once in a while my internot
> goes out but I still have my POTS connection to the C.O.  Well, there
> was the great wind of '92 that took down some poles, but that's what
> Ham Radio is all about.
>
> When the great wind of '92 took down the (telephone) poles in our
> neighborhood it pulled the wires right off the side of the house.  I
> found the wires about 200' up the street, ID'd my lines, hooked up a
> box of CAT-3 and extended it back to our protector.  It was about 4
> day's until the phone company replaced the (telephone) poles.
>
> Burt
>
>    
>> Tom Taggart wrote:
>>      
>>> They've got to be kidding??? Right???
>>>
>>> Do these clowns have any idea on how most people get broadband?
>>>
>>>
>>>        
>> Well, DSL is now delivered by fiber, to the neighborhood. Then to copper
>>      
> >from neighborhood box to home.
>    
>> Neighborhood box has limited battery life, no genset. NO power = no DSL
>> = no POTS either.
>>
>> Ask folks in Houston, after IKE took conventional power away for 2 weeks
>> in some areas.
>>      
>
>
>