Jim wrote:
> We have overhead fiber. Today we have freezing rain, which we brought down an
> old pine tree, which in turn brought down the the main power distribution
> line and the neutral, as well as the fiber. Power is restored, but fiber will
> take a bit longer. No TV or internet except for iPhone.
The majority of our fiber is underground, but that yields a whole
nuther set of problems. "Backhoe Fade" is the most common. Ice is less
of a problem for our aerial fiber than bird shot. Last year, we had
one fiber cut that was a first for me. Somebody was cooking meth in a
winnebago in the city and it blew up. The fire destroyed the
fiber-optic cable that was above the parked rv. We usually have aerial
fiber where we cross active fault lines. Where the pipeline crosses
the fault lines, we actually have the fiber cable strapped to the
pipe. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is designed to move something like 100
feet or so at the crossings. You can tell how seismicity active an
area is by how wide the H-frame is the pipe is attached to with
sliders. (Several spots allow the pipe to move both horizontally and
vertically). We also have thousands of miles of subsea fiber. That's
another set of challenges, for sure. Last year, we had an ice flow
destroy a fiber cable! Usually it's earthquake triggered underwater
slide events though.
Out west, we have a massive microwave network. The tower sites near
the Bering Sea are subject to extreme icing conditions. It's scary
when you look at a 150' tall microwave tower that is iced up so much
that it has turned into a single solid block of ice with a couple of
microwave dishes imbedded deep inside. When that ice melts and comes
crashing down, it destroys the cross-bracing and everything below. We
have only a few weeks where we can repair the tower before the next
winter sets in. The ice melting off the tower lasts until just before
snow flies again.
We're nice and toasty up here. We're actually quite a bit warmer than
in Texas today. HAH!
AK Schnozz
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