Phil Kane wrote:

On Wed, 09 Jul 2003 03:02:43 GMT, Jim Hampton wrote:

Phil, I doubt you're kidding, but a single wire with a ground return? That
is going to have a ton of problems even *without* putting broadband on it.

That amazed me too - but there's only one insulator on the pole pig
and one wire crossing the street to same. Three phase primary is
three wire, so there isn't even a Wye Neutral for return.

I first saw this system along the Trans-Canada highway in Alberta in
1970 and I put it down to the rural-ness of the area. But suburban
Portland in the 21st Century?

Isn't that putting a lot of faith in the quality of the ground? I still
remember
years ago when I serviced a repeater out in the national forest that appeared to
be working normally until some remote user keyed it up while I had my VM probes
in the AC socket- the primary voltage suddenly dropped from 118 to about 50
volts.

It was instantly obvious what was wrong- the neutral return was open and the
keydown load on the AC now found the series resistance of the ground
return-actually earth now- was such that it dropped the primary voltage that
much. And the pole pig was only a few feet away.

I gotta wonder how in the world a utilitly could reliably use earth for a
return
when they have no idea what load the consumer will place on it. I've never seen
earth with resistance as low as copper! :^)

Dick