Jim Hampton wrote:


Few take into account how fragile that infrastructure of cell phones,
telephones, and internet can be when a large area is affected. That nasty
ice storm in the North East (was it 1997?) affected areas for hundreds of
miles. There were no cell phones as the cell phone towers went silent after
power had been out for days. No electricty, no heat, no telephones for
hundreds of miles. A relative of mine in Gouverneur, NY, had no heat,
power, or telephone for two *weeks*!!!

Surley you jest, according to witless willie cell phones will be there
for emergencies.

One amateur repeater was pressed into service for the police. I do not know
if the repeater was reprogrammed or they simply moved the police repeater to
the amateur site. The amateur site withstood the ice and they had generator
backup with a *lot* of fuel available.

You mean that Amateur Radio withstood the ravages of the storm and the
cell network did not! Looks like Amateur Radio was there when needed
again, but the cell network just couldn't hack it.


BTW, during that ice storm, the calls were going out for batteries,
flashlights, generators, blankets, food, coffee, and mobile amateur
operators with HF capabilities. If you have nothing working for well over
100 miles in the N.E. U.S. and Canada, you will likely not get it done on
VHF/UHF or cb.

I guess the batteries for the cell network hadn't been charged up in
prep for an emergency.

Sure, the cell phone towers have batteries. They're likely fine for a
number of hours of outage - but Gouverneur had no power for over two weeks.
Those batteries aren't designed to last for weeks of drain without recharge.
In this country, an engineer could well be fired for overdesigning something
(that costs money). Likewise, those batteries are there to keep things
working for a *short* power outage. It would cost too much to design those
cell towers to run on batteries for weeks on end with no recharging in that
period. It probably wouldn't have mattered much anyways as the conventional
phone lines were out too - and cell phones are wireless only between the
user and the tower. BTW, unless you had your own generator and were on
two-way satellite internet, you wouldn't have the internet either. No
telephone, no dial-up, no DSL. I have no idea how well any cable systems
made out, but with the telephone system down I don't know if they had any
way to get information out of the area.


73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA


"JJ" wrote in message
...
You mean that Amateur Radio withstood the ravages of the storm and the
cell network did not! Looks like Amateur Radio was there when needed
again, but the cell network just couldn't hack it.


I guess the batteries for the cell network hadn't been charged up in
prep for an emergency.




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In article , "Jim Hampton"
writes:

Sure, the cell phone towers have batteries. They're likely fine for a
number of hours of outage - but Gouverneur had no power for over two weeks.
Those batteries aren't designed to last for weeks of drain without recharge.
In this country, an engineer could well be fired for overdesigning something
(that costs money).

Right, those darn engineers are the cause of all the problems!

Likewise, those batteries are there to keep things
working for a *short* power outage. It would cost too much to design those
cell towers to run on batteries for weeks on end with no recharging in that
period. It probably wouldn't have mattered much anyways as the conventional
phone lines were out too - and cell phones are wireless only between the
user and the tower. BTW, unless you had your own generator and were on
two-way satellite internet, you wouldn't have the internet either.

You don't have a motor-generator set for emergency power?!?

Gosh and golly, aren't all radio amateurs "emergency minutemen,"
ready to leap in and save the day with ham radio?

I've been told that...

LHA / WMD

On Sat, 20 Mar 2004 22:52:45 GMT, Jim Hampton wrote:

Sure, the cell phone towers have batteries. They're likely fine for a
number of hours of outage - but Gouverneur had no power for over two weeks.
Those batteries aren't designed to last for weeks of drain without recharge.
In this country, an engineer could well be fired for overdesigning something
(that costs money). Likewise, those batteries are there to keep things
working for a *short* power outage. It would cost too much to design those
cell towers to run on batteries for weeks on end with no recharging in that
period.

UPS float-charged batteries are designed to keep the equipment on
line until the backup generator gets up to speed/voltage. This
assumes that the latter is tested regularly. Pac*Bell learned that
the hard way when one of their gas turbine backup generators
literally tore itself to pieces when it attempted to start after
the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake - it had not been serviced or
tested for four years. Any garage mechanic can service a diesel
genset - it takes an aviation A&P qualified mechanic to service the
gas turbine....and their services cost money.

It probably wouldn't have mattered much anyways as the conventional
phone lines were out too - and cell phones are wireless only between the
user and the tower.

Survivable microwave and fiber are the downlinks of choice nowadays.

The engineering firm that I consult for is in the business of
designing such facilities for the public safety amd land
transportation sector. Seismic Class 4 - storm and earthquake
survivable - is now required for all new or upgraded critical (i.e.
public safety) radio installations in California and we recommend it
for everyone.

What the make-it-cheaply phone companies do would make ol' Ma Bell
spin in her grave.

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon