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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here

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To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (2711)1/12/1999 1:34:00 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio  Read Replies (2) of 12823
 
Slightly OT. You be the judge.

Some Last Mile Educational Stuff From the SCTE list.

Enjoy, Frank C.
===================================================================

<< The power companies (and military), in their pole climbing classes,
teach that to comply with OSHA (and military) regulations you are to
walk around a pole and strike it several times with a hammer weighing at
least 3 lbs. This is done to check for loose hardware prior to climbing
the pole. >>

Not a good idea:

1) I may be wrong, but I doubt that OSHA regulations specify clobbering a pole
with a sledgehammer.

2) If the power company (and military) wants to do this, fine. They own the
power poles and have been properly trained to maintain and operate high
voltage transmission equipment.

3) Anyone else smacking a pole with a sledgehammer risks causing damage to
facilities owned by someone else.

In the "old" days, it was a common trick to search for problem poles--that is,
those where something was causing arcing, corona discharges, etc. that
resulted in sparking interference--by using a portable radio and small
sledgehammer. An individual could walk along a suspect pole line listening to
a quiet spot on the radio in between stations, and "gently" smack the base of
each pole. The pole with the problem would generally make a ton of noise in
the radio when it was hit with the hammer.

Since then, this trick has been discouraged because of liability issues. One
is the possibility of damaging equipment on the pole, and the other is causing
the proverbial avalanche. In other words, if a problem pole has a cracked or
broken insulator that is causing the sparking problem, its condition could be
right on the edge of being able to safely hold up a high voltage line or other
piece of hardware. That last smack with the sledgehammer might be enough to
bring things tumbling to the ground.

There are other very effective and safe methods to detect and locate power
line interference without risking problems that might occur with the old
sledgehammer trick.
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