Another stupid but true cable TV story with an interference theme.
One of our "brighter" techs noticed interference in the picture of his test monitor which was really just a regular TV and cable box in the back of the service van. He chased the problem all day, all over the system and couldn't figure where it was coming from. It seemed to always be the same everywhere.
Late in the afternoon he mentioned his frustration to me. I didn't remember any reports of subscribers calling about interference, surely if it was as widespread as he says someone would complain. What was he talking about?
Show me I said, and we take a ride down the block to a pole with a tap on it. He puts the ladder up, connects a piece of cable to the a port and connects the other end to the cable box on the TV in the truck.
Now, at this point I need to point out that in those days there weren't many battery powered TVs, particularly color. We either used an inverter to power the TV and cable box or a generator. Many trucks carried a generator anyway to provide emergency power to pole mounted power supplies in the event of a power outage and that was the case with this truck.
So, he drags the generator out of the truck and runs an extension cord to power everything. He starts the thing up and says lets have a look. Sure enough there was interference- coming from the generator!
-Hal
