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[Frank DeWitt]

There is a story.  I don't know what it is.

Frank

[Bill Harvey]

There is a story.  I don't know what it is.

Frank

Looks like somebody's trying to keep the cable distribution up during snowy weather, but seriously? Individual generators per node? And how many trucks running around with gas cans will be needed for this?  lmao

At least they used a cable-lock on the generator to keep it from walking away...

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

DOH!!!

THAT's where I left it!!!

[Stephen Kirby]

Somebody didn't pay their electric bill?

[Rob Spence]

Looks like somebody's trying to keep the cable distribution up during snowy weather, but seriously? Individual generators per node? And how many trucks running around with gas cans will be needed for this?  lmao

At least they used a cable-lock on the generator to keep it from walking away...

During major outages the cable company and the phone guys often stick generators at boxes on poles. Ever notice that practically every Verizon truck gas a generator on it?

With voip, if the cable goes down, no phones. With Fios, power is needed for basic phone service (unlike good ol wires).



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[Stephen Swaffer]

Seems like an industrial UPS would make more sense?  Far quicker response time.  Or even a built in battery backup to elimiinate the conversion to AC since the electronics actually need DC.

[Jonathan Johnson]

Seems like an industrial UPS would make more sense?  Far quicker response time.  Or even a built in battery backup to elimiinate the conversion to AC since the electronics actually need DC.

Most of those probably do have battery backup (UPS), but that's only good for a few hours. For extended outages (days) you'll need something more reliable.

[Tim McCulloch]

Seems like an industrial UPS would make more sense?  Far quicker response time.  Or even a built in battery backup to elimiinate the conversion to AC since the electronics actually need DC.

That Honda will idle for many more hours than a UPS battery would stay up, and taking it down for a few minutes to refuel would be a minor inconvenience for cable/internet customers (presuming they had power in their homes to start with, but that's another thing).

[Jonathan Johnson]

That Honda will idle for many more hours than a UPS battery would stay up, and taking it down for a few minutes to refuel would be a minor inconvenience for cable/internet customers (presuming they had power in their homes to start with, but that's another thing).

If the node already has a battery backup, taking down the generator for refueling won't be an inconvenience at all. The node will keep running.

To put it another way, the node always runs off batteries. The line power keeps the batteries charged. When line power is down, a generator does the job. True carrier-grade equipment uses doesn't even use what we think of as a UPS; it runs DC directly off the battery bank.

Back in the old days of the central office, there was a big bank of batteries (and a big generator for line power outages) that powered everything. But also with the central office setup, phones were often at the end of several miles of copper wire. Internet connectivity requires higher frequency, higher bandwidth service than analog voice, and the state of technology limits the distance from node to node, so that means installing a distributed system. The distributed system means you have to power those nodes some way, and when the line power goes down you have to keep them up. It's rather expensive to install a permanent genset at each node. Since it's unlikely that every node in the region will be down at the same time, you can stock a few portable gensets (at less than $1000 each) to service dozens of nodes. The Honda gensets might seem overkill -- after all, the power is converted to DC, and the power supply can probably handle some degree of line noise -- but the neighbors will appreciate the quiet operation, and their efficiency means they don't need to be refueled as often. The cost savings of sending someone out to refuel the genset fewer times means that the Honda will likely pay for itself in a day or two of use.

[David Buckley]

Back in 2013 we had a storm that knocked over a bunch of power poles, and out in the country these things take time to get fixed.  So the same sort of thing was done to keep the telephones up, portable genny wedged between two cabinets at road level.  The batteries in these things are only good for 24 hours or so.

[Steve M Smith]

During major outages the cable company and the phone guys often stick generators at boxes on poles

They do that here but they use large truck mounted generators to power a whole region rather than little Hondas.


Steve.

[David Buckley]

The truck gennys come out when they do something like convert an area from 11KV to 22KV and a whole load of places need temporary power for a while.  If, on the other hand, a weather event takes out the juice, well, hell, you're out in the country: deal with it   Big gennys are also no good when poles have blown over and thus the distribution is screwed.

I'm particularly fond of this pic; a pole split into three...

[ProSoundWeb Community]