non-nadin primitives report on San Diego outage

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1906294

Oh my.

These primitives better be careful; they're intruding on nadin's turf.

sfpcjock  (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 09:39 AM
Original message

Our Cell phones quit Immediately in the San Diego power outage: 

Don't expect yours to work. A landline usually will, BTW. You need to have drinking water in your house.

after which a photograph of a tower

Cell Tower Backup Power

"Verizon reminds investors that the FCC imposes "specific mandates" on wireless carriers including "backup electric power at most cell sites." Therefore, cell towers typically have battery backup arrangements that support operations for two to four hours, depending upon call traffic.

In 2008 the FCC wanted to order an eight-hour minimum, but the Bush administration asked for more study.
In critical service areas, battery backup is enhanced by generators that automatically start when the batteries cannot provide enough power."

Huh?

cdsilv (872 posts)      Fri Sep-09-11 09:55 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. billing computers probably went offline, so they shut the system down - gotta vacuum them $$$ ....

sfpcjock  (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 10:04 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
2. lol 

Our cell tower looks just like pictured. It may even have a battery backup as it says the FCC requires. I'm guessing that because the 2 Megawatt San Onofre nuclear power plant tripped offline due to a severe voltage drop from the Yuma line going down, that some large cell phone switching station also went down at that time. Still, in an earthquake, tsunami, etc. type disaster I guess we can't expect our phones to work. This seems surprising.

Our house no longer has a land line, and I will call the cops today and remind them of what happened.

begin_within (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-09-11 10:07 AM
Response to Original message

3. Mine worked the whole time.

T-mobile. But it was a bit crackly, not as clear as usual.

Sirveri  (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 10:15 AM
Response to Original message
 
4. Land lines have batteries in the boxes and maintain power for days.

I would love it if I had a real land line again, the wife ordered a bundle plan for the internet and tv and put us on VOIP and I didn't have the heart to yell at her about it. Now whenever the power and internet goes down, so does our home phone. Thank god I have a cell phone and don't live in a spotty coverage area.

jemsan (235 posts)      Fri Sep-09-11 10:59 AM
Response to Reply #4
 
5. My landline worked intermittently as did my cell phone..texting and email worked great most of the time. Charged my phone and ipad batteries in my Prius in the driveway while I ate my dinner. All in all not a bad evening. The moon and the stars were awesome.

Renew Deal   (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #5

11. Had a similar experience in NY after the earthquake.

It was pretty much impossible to make a voice call from a cell phone. But text and email worked well.

NNN0LHI  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-09-11 11:02 AM
Response to Original message
 
6. Bet it had more to do with the lines being overloaded than lack of electricity

Same think happened to my cell phone right after 9/11 and I am in Illinois. Wasn't due to losing electricity.

Don

Donnachaidh  (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 11:47 AM
Response to Original message
 
7. guess those smartphones ain't so smart, eh?

I loves me some landlines.

Wait till a huge quake hits and the only calls getting out will be on landlines.

Shagbark Hickory (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-09-11 11:49 AM
Response to Original message
 
8. ._.. ... ._..

Ham radio.

Hmmmmm.

Does anybody do ham radio any more?

Renew Deal   (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 11:53 AM
Response to Original message
 
9. You need every part of the infrastructure to work in a power outage.

You can't have 1 single up-link outage for the system to work. That's doubtful. Besides that, most home phones are connected to an IP service instead of a hard wired telephone line. That means if the power goes out, you need the network infrastructure to work including the routers and switches IN YOUR HOUSE.

Another issue is that everyone is going to rush to mobile phones in an major event. We saw this in NY with the earthquake. It was impossible to make a voice call to or from a cell phone. The cell infrastructure was beyond capacity.

So battery backup on the towers is nice, but what about further up the line?

Broderick  (1000+ posts)       Fri Sep-09-11 11:54 AM
Response to Original message
 
10. Power outages can be deadly

Especially to those on home oxygen, etc.

sarcasmo (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 11:56 AM
Response to Original message
 
12. Call and ask your cell company to refund you for that day missed.

They would sure let you know if you were a day late with your bill.

JayhawkSD (50 posts)      Fri Sep-09-11 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
 
14. My phones worked fine

My Cox landline was never down at all.

Verizon worked fine, but on one attempt failed to connect for collecting messages.

Of course the cordless phones were dead. Heh. That's why I have one which is not cordless.

nadin's not going to like this--she's not going to like it at all, no way--the other primitives intruding on her turf.

[JakeStyle]

My cell phone worked just fine during the catastrophic 3 hours of darkness, I used it to read the obama speech live thread at FR then I listened to a local AM radio station on it for a while.  I also used it as a flashlight when I misplaced my real flashlight and my truck keys.

[Skul]

sfpcjock  (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 10:04 AM
>snip<
Our house no longer has a land line, and I will call the cops today and remind them of what happened.

Say, WHAT??
...and they can do what, about it?
The stupidity burns.

sarcasmo (1000+ posts)        Fri Sep-09-11 11:56 AM
Response to Original message
 
12. Call and ask your cell company to refund you for that day missed.

They would sure let you know if you were a day late with your bill.

Go ahead, DUmbass.
I'd like to know the actual response to that.

[GOBUCKS]

It was funny last week during the East Coast rain, when Apocalypse Nad told us she knew better than to try calling into "the zone".

[beefeater]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1906294

Oh my.

These primitives better be careful; they're intruding on nadin's turf.

Hmmmmm.

Does anybody do ham radio any more?

nadin's not going to like this--she's not going to like it at all, no way--the other primitives intruding on her turf.

Lady NaDa must going even more crazy to not be able to expound on this calamity to the unwashed in the DUmp. All of her supposed preparedness admonishments seem to have failed.

[franksolich]

Lady NaDa must going even more crazy to not be able to expound on this calamity to the unwashed in the DUmp. All of her supposed preparedness admonishments seem to have failed.

That reminds me of something.

nadin lives in one of those complexes, complexes that are pretty much generic all over the country, all of them pretty much the same.  I used to live in one such place myself, actually two times.

When considering their floor plans and square footage, I don't think it's convenient for people who live in complexes to have and use a gasoline- or diesel-powered generator.

[delilahmused]

My cell phone worked just fine during the catastrophic 3 hours of darkness, I used it to read the obama speech live thread at FR then I listened to a local AM radio station on it for a while.  I also used it as a flashlight when I misplaced my real flashlight and my truck keys.

When it first happened my son couldn't call me on his phone. Probably everyone and their brother trying to call in or out clogged the cell towers or something (have no idea how the whole thing works). Chow hall was closed before he got dinner though. He said that's not necessarily a bad thing, lol.

Cindie

[TVDOC]

Does anybody do ham radio any more?

Yes....

doc

[franksolich]

Yes....

doc

It seems like it would be an interesting hobby, but one wonders how many still do it, as compared with in the past.

[JohnnyReb]

It seems like it would be an interesting hobby, but one wonders how many still do it, as compared with in the past.

With the advent of CB radio, interest in HAM around here dropped off. There are a few old heads still doing it. ....and a few years ago they did away with the requirement that you must first learn Morse Code to get a beginners lincense. I think they were hoping with that requirement gone, interest in HAM would pick back up.

[TVDOC]

It seems like it would be an interesting hobby, but one wonders how many still do it, as compared with in the past.

http://www.hamdata.com/fccinfo.html

Presently about three quarters of a million active licenses in the US.

doc

[franksolich]

http://www.hamdata.com/fccinfo.html

Presently about three quarters of a million active licenses in the US.

doc

They seem to be growing in numbers too.  Not rapidly, but ever-growing.

I had no idea there were that many; I'd figured with all the other stuff in life, ham radio had fallen by the wayside.

But apparently not.

[TVDOC]

They seem to be growing in numbers too.  Not rapidly, but ever-growing.

I had no idea there were that many; I'd figured with all the other stuff in life, ham radio had fallen by the wayside.

But apparently not.

Interestingly Frank, there are many ham operators that are stone deaf.  they all communicate using Morse (CW)........back in early days, a simple circuit was rigged to the receivers audio output that turned on a small light bulb when it sensed an audible tone.  The audible dots and dashes became long and short "flashes" of the light. 

As technology has evolved we now have interfaces between a computer and the radio tranceiver so that software translates the incoming morse signal into words displayed on the monitor, and transmitting is done inversely by simply typing the words on the keyboard of the same computer.

doc

[franksolich]

Interestingly Frank, there are many ham operators that are stone deaf.  they all communicate using Morse (CW)........back in early days, a simple circuit was rigged to the receivers audio output that turned on a small light bulb when it sensed an audible tone.  The audible dots and dashes became long and short "flashes" of the light. 

As technology has evolved we now have interfaces between a computer and the radio tranceiver so that software translates the incoming morse signal into words displayed on the monitor, and transmitting is done inversely by simply typing the words on the keyboard of the same computer.

doc

Whoa.

I'm going to research that tonight.

Maybe it's something I should be doing.

I had no idea.

[TVDOC]

Whoa.

I'm going to research that tonight.

Maybe it's something I should be doing.

I had no idea.

Here's a link to some of the simple technology:

http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Software/Morse_Code_Decoders/

Basically it is open source (free) software that you load on any Windows computer with a sound card.  You connect a cable:

http://radioarena.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=2555

between the radio tranceiver and the computer, load the software, and you're in business.

Getting a license is a whole different topic, however, anyone with some technical skills can pass the test for most of the basic classes of license.

doc

[Skul]

I can just see, Coach's next post.

---  ....    --  -.--

 

[JohnnyReb]

Whoa.

I'm going to research that tonight.

Maybe it's something I should be doing.

I had no idea.

That is very interesting.

I once had a friend (teenage years) that worked HAM but only used Morse code. He had a General license but just always used code. He could send and receive an astronomical number of words per minute. It all went so fast it sounded like a blur to me. He was right handed but when on the radio, he keyed with the right hand and copied with the left.

[TVDOC]

That is very interesting.

I once had a friend (teenage years) that worked HAM but only used Morse code. He had a General license but just always used code. He could send and receive an astronomical number of words per minute. It all went so fast it sounded like a blur to me. He was right handed but when on the radio, he keyed with the right hand and copied with the left.

My closest friend is that way......he was a shipboard radio operator in the Navy back in the late 50's.  He can send and receive Morse nearly as fast as the average person can speak.  I can do 20 WPM (on a good day), but he can do at least twice that.

doc

[Mr Mannn]

Yep. I'm shore glad I listened to Nadin.
Those cans of milk shore came in durn handy when the power went out, like there was nuthin else ta drink! (all the coke went bad or radioactive real quick. So its been vodka and canned milk for me!)

 Who woulda thunk Irene would knock out power on the west coast? Only Nadin that's who!

 

[franksolich]

Amateur radio (also called ham radio) is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication.

The term "amateur" is used to specify persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest, and to differentiate it from commercial broadcasting, public safety (such as police and fire) or professional two-way radio services (such as taxis, etc).

Amateur radio operation is coordinated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and licensed by the individual national governments that regulate technical and operational characteristics of transmissions and issue individual stations with an identifying call sign.

Prospective amateur operators are tested for their understanding of key concepts in electronics and the host government's radio regulations. Amateurs use a variety of voice, text, image and data communications modes and have access to frequency allocations throughout the RF spectrum to enable communication across a city, a region, a country, a continent or the whole world. An estimated two million people throughout the world are regularly involved with amateur radio.

Amateur radio operators use various modes of transmission to communicate. The two most common modes for voice transmissions are frequency modulation (FM) and single sideband (SSB). FM offers high quality audio signals, while SSB is better at long distance communication when bandwidth is restricted.

Demonstrating a proficiency in Morse code was for many years a requirement to obtain amateur licenses for the high frequency bands (frequencies below 30 MHz). Following changes in international regulations in 2003 countries are no longer required to demand proficiency.[9] The United States Federal Communications Commission, for example, phased out this requirement for all license classes on February 23, 2007.

Amateur radio operators use their amateur radio station to make contacts with individual hams as well as participating in round table discussion groups or "rag chew sessions" on the air. Some join in regularly scheduled on-air meetings with other amateur radio operators, called "nets" (as in "networks") which are moderated by a station referred to as "Net Control".[19] Nets can allow operators to learn procedures for emergencies, be an informal round table or be topical, covering specific interests shared by a group.

Many people start their involvement in amateur radio by finding a local club. Clubs often provide information about licensing, local operating practices, and technical advice. Newcomers also often study independently by purchasing books or other materials, sometimes with the help of a mentor, teacher, or friend. Established amateurs who help newcomers are often referred to as "Elmers" within the ham community.

Okay, now I have to stop right there, the last paragraph above.

This is obviously something I'd have to check out in real life.

How does one find a "local club"?

I'm assuming they proliferate in rural Nebraska, because of communications difficulties.

[JohnnyReb]

Okay, now I have to stop right there, the last paragraph above.

This is obviously something I'd have to check out in real life.

How does one find a "local club"?

I'm assuming they proliferate in rural Nebraska, because of communications difficulties.

MARS...Military Auxillary Radio Service...or system.

I'd suggest asking the nearest National Guard unit for information....or some emergency response agency.

[Skul]

MARS...Military Auxillary Radio Service...or system.

I'd suggest asking the nearest National Guard unit for information....or some emergency response agency.

Oh, crap.  I forgot all about that.
We used MARS in Nam, to connect with folks back home.
Still remember some of the call-signs.. AB8AP and K7USA

[franksolich]

MARS...Military Auxillary Radio Service...or system.

I'd suggest asking the nearest National Guard unit for information....or some emergency response agency.

Actually, John, sir, TVDOC sent me some information which was immediately useful.

In fact, the nearest next meeting is September 10, at 8:30 a.m.

Tomorrow morning.

And it's just a hop, skip, and jump away from me (at a supermarket, though; I dunno why).

I'll give a report on it, what I learn how a deaf person can use ham radio.

[JohnnyReb]

Oh, crap.  I forgot all about that.
We used MARS in Nam, to connect with folks back home.
Still remember some of the call-signs.. AB8AP and K7USA

He's dead and gone but K4WTF was way ahead of his time.

CQ, CQ this is K4 whiskey Tango Foxtrot... ...Hope I remembered correctly.

[GOBUCKS]

The 2009 DUmmy of the Year, Wichita Pammie ("I live to teach"), her husband, and even the now-always-absent Holli, are amateur radio operators with a ginormous antenna on their palatial 5-story tract home in north Wichita. I doubt Pammie is very Morse-fluent. She has enough trouble with the English.