ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Violation Photo Forum CATV power unit with a gas line?

I used to repair cable TV equipment, so I know the answer to this one. Cable TV operators inject 60Hz AC voltage onto the feeder cables that are on the poles. This voltage is then filtered with 60Hz chokes before being sent into homes. The AC is used to power boosters to keep the cable signal strong as it runs the distance of the wire. A new power source is added every so often - so one AC source isn't supplying the whole town.

Back up sources (batteries or small generators) are added so a local power problems don't kill the signal for the entire town.

This may also be a telecom site, where fiber optic signals are regenerated - yes, that needs to happen too, about every 50 to 100 miles. Cables that span the country need to be boosted to keep the light signal strong.

Hope this helps.

Hi guys, have been reading this forum for a few days and wanted to make a comment on this subject. Here in Louisville, ky the local cable company has just finished installing several thousand of these CATV emgy backup repeaters. Seems like one on every corner and everywhere in subdivisons. The reason they have to do this is they are offering cable tv, broadband and AT&T telephone service over the existing coaxial cable distribution system. With the telephone service now on the same system the FCC required that the customers could not have down time like the exsitng system, due to 911 and emgy calls. I thought we were way behind the times but maybe this is one service that we are a step ahead on.

Andrew

Interesting!

Here in N. NJ, (according to a few Verizon workers) the fiber in the residential areas is to be removed and replaced by...copper

Seems that the fiber is costing too much to maintain, and when the electricity goes out, so does the fiber and thus the telephone service. I would venture a guess that lack of access to DSL is also a big reason (no DSL if your phones are on the fiber diet, at least around here). When this is supposed to happen, I don't know. The fiber was installed about 10 years ago!

If you look closely at a drop wire here, there is a coaxial cable along with the usual telephone cable. That was supposed to be part of the telco-served video-on-demand, etc. Every single house around here had a new demarc box installed on the outside, so that telco access was not an issue. Now the Verizon guys are saying that any new demarcs are going to be indoors as they always were, regular copper drop wire, no coax.

I can't complain too much--NJ has the lowest local phone rates in the USA. (At least that was the case 2 years ago...)

[This message has been edited by ThinkGood (edited 01-31-2003).]

They look like the cble power supplies you see on the utility poles. (Either few poles usually.) Except these are much bigger.
As for the gas line, I'll go with NJWirenut on that one.

Andrew, you are exactly right!

I now have CATV, high speed internet, and my telephone service all supplied by Comcast. In the case of Comcast, they are using batteries for their backup instead of gas. It seems weird to have VoIP (voice over internet protocol) for my phone service.

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Charlie Eldridge, Indianapolis, Utility Power Guy