| Home |
| Search |
| Today's Posts |
|
#1
September 9th 04, 11:06 PM
|
|||
|
|||
Frances Lessons Off the Grid
"Aaron" wrote in message t...
September 2004 LESSONS OFF THE GRID A HURRICANE ALLEY STORY Sean Steele Hurricanes Charley and Frances blew threw our homestead in central Florida over the past there weeks. From them we learned quite a few things I would like to share with you. If you live in other parts of the country and have never experienced significant loss of infrastructure, some of this may be eye opening. We had been warned of these things before the Y2K scare and had made many preparations, but we had never actually seen disaster come about in real time. We were prepared for many of the surprises but still, there was a learning curve. This story describes a hurricane event. The same scenario will develop in other local or regional events such as bioterrorism, nuke terrorism or loss of civil control for ANY reason, but along a much more extended timeline. What follows is a step-wise discussion developed for quick reading. Please note that this story relates to only a partial loss of infrastructure of less than a week! snip COMMUNICATIONS: We held onto our telephone land line signal until well after the hurricane had past. We lost cell phone during the hurricane, probably due to loss of local power to the cell phone tower. Soon after the storm was over, the cell signal came back. Then; inexplicably, the land line went dead for around 72 hours under clear skies (as I write it is still dead). When the land line went dead, everyone immediately loaded up the cell phone towers to the point that calling out or receiving was impossible. For over a day we were totally locked out of cell phone AND land line communications. Not even the local pay phones were operational. We had a 12V portable television so that we could receive storm reports with unbroken reliability using its rabbit ear antenna. Cable was gone nearly everywhere. Direct TV (satellite) and XM Radio was fully functional with power from the battery bank or the generator. The land line phone system is "usually" more robust and reliable in "most" areas than the power grid. And the simpler the phone, the more reliable it is. A cheap, direct plug phone will usually (not always) work when the power is lost and there is still a phone signal. An advanced, portable or other powered phone will appear dead even though it is receiving phone signal! My strong advice is to have a cheap $5.00 phone ready to bypass the fancy, hi-tech phone. If it doesn't work, you can "usually" be sure there is no signal to your house. snip Hmmm? |
| Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads
|
||||
| Thread | Forum | |||
| Grid Dip Meters | Equipment | |||
| Grid Dip Meters | Equipment | |||
| Grid Dip Meters | Equipment | |||
| Collins 75A3 High grid bias | Boatanchors | |||
Threaded Mode
