In <telecom24.446.12@telecom-digest.org> Daniel AJ Sokolov
<sokolov@gmx.netnetnet.invalid> writes:
> First, the effort to make it happen is big. You have to lay fibre to
> the transformation substation closest to the user.
Which is _already_ in the cards. Utilities want/need better remote
control options for their distributed network of transformers, in
addition to billing and other functions, so many of them are (hoping
to ...) extend(ing) fiber-carrying SCADA [a] to them. Once that glass
is in place, you're within a few thousand feet (or less) of ninety
something percent of the proposed end users.
[a] SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple things I do not understand
about voice communication over electrical power lines: Some say it
will not work; others say it is okay. My own experience has been that
(a) Chicago Transit Authority for many years (has?) used the third-
rail for telephone conversations between control towers/trains/station
agents. (b) I personally have tried so-called 'wireless intercoms'
between different locations nearby; sometimes they worked (although in
a rather piss-poor way; other times not at all. I have no personal
experience with (a) but have been told the connections are very
'noisy' many times, and (b) when they worked, they seemed to have a
lot of 'hum' in the background. When they did not work (all I got
was hum with no audible voice at all) I am told this was because the
two intercom stations involved were on opposite 'legs' of the
transfomer. Can anyone explain this better to me? I know that the
third-rail seems like an awful way to transmit voice communications.
On the one occassion I had to see the CTA system in action, I called
into the CTA main headquarters phone number (MOHawk 4-7200) and the
operator switched me to a supervisor in one of the control towers
several miles away for whom I had a question. The connection, frankly,
was not all that good. Once I also called Grand Central Station in
downtown Chicago to the Lost and Found; she switched me to the Lost
and Found in Baltimore, OH, also via the trackside phone lines. That
connection sounded pretty bad also. PAT]
Danny Burstein (dannyb@panix.com)