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The Telecom Digest for October 31, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 253 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Arc Flash (Thad Floryan)
Re: Arc Flash (Robert Bonomi)
Re: Feeding Frenzy (Mike Spencer)
Re: Feeding Frenzy (Bill Horne)

====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2012 19:59:26 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Arc Flash 
Message-ID: <508F428E.5070908@thadlabs.com>

On 10/29/2012 4:12 PM, Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:
> I've seen the safety films.
> 
> I've seen the Utube videos. 
> 
> I've seen the demonstrations. 
> 
> Nothing compares to what I saw tonight. 
> 
> Right after I last wrote, I went out to get some more gas, just to
> have it on hand. On the way home after a trip to the gas station and
> the supermarket (which was nearly deserted, btw), I was taken aback by
> a "Detour" sign blocking the road: a tree had fallen across it while I
> was shopping. I started to make the turn onto the alternate route.
> 
> The sky lit up like God's own welding torch. It was an hv arc flash,
> which lasted over thirty seconds. I went down the road, and saw some
> smoke coming across, but no wires, so I kept going, but when I got up
> to the smoke I realized that the hv line was lying across someone's
> lawn, burning the grass. 
> 
> I told the fire department. 
> 
> I'm back on the generator just for long enough that my wife could cook
> dinner. I'll stop now.
> 
> Stay safe!

Good advice ('Stay Safe!") but I doubt it compares to this, the most
active lightning location on Earth with over 8,000 lightning strikes
a night:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyWkLsdJjPI
1:15

http://www.stormchaser.ca/Lightning/Catatumbo/Catatumbo.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/venezuela-lightning-el-nino

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN0b91egVag
1:49

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpcOZrfSKp4
5:45

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-video/video-catatumbo-lightning-the-largest-light-show-on-earth/1722976077001

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-south-americas-everlasting-lighting-storm

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/world_of_wonders/2011/02/an_everlasting_lightning_storm.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghc1LqZIdik
2:01

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXTAW6mWvk0
2:43

http://www.oddee.com/item_91568.aspx

:-)




Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:58:24 -0500
From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Arc Flash 
Message-ID: <e6ydnUCiruNNLxLNnZ2dnUVZ_uidnZ2d@posted.nuvoxcommunications>

In article <20121029231212.GA26707@telecom.csail.mit.edu>,
Telecom Digest Moderator  <redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu> wrote:
>
>The sky lit up like God's own welding torch. It was an hv arc flash,
>which lasted over thirty seconds.

Yowch!!  

Many years ago, I saw, from 3 blocks away, a crane swing its boom into a 
HV feeder line (10s of KV, between a 141kv step-down station and a 'local'
substation), about 500 ft outside the step-down station perimeter fence.
A sheet of flame 100+ ft wide, and 30-40 ft tall -- nearly blinding in
broad daylight.   5+ seconds later, two 'somethings' blew (explosively!!) 
inside the step-down station and the whole territory went dark.  Don't
know if it was a safety device or something self-detracting from the 'short'.

Biggest 'arc' I ever saw was a lightning bolt that struck a wooden utility pole
about 50 ft away from me.  Spilt the pole from the top about halfway to the
ground.  This was at night, so it was truly blinding.




Date: 30 Oct 2012 14:54:25 -0300
From: Mike Spencer <mds@not-valid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Feeding Frenzy 
Message-ID: <87txtblub2.fsf@nudel.nodomain.nowhere>

Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> writes:

> The problem with nasty storms is that the power company sometimes
> turns off power as a precaution: they're afraid of getting sued if
> someone drives over a downed line, not to mention the zillions of TV
> sets and computers that can be damaged by power surges when wires
> cross. Some electric utility companies won't endure the risks: a
> little lost revenue is nothing compared to what a high-powered
> attorney could get in a contributory negligence tort.

This strikes me as being of the same moral calibre as the advice I
received from a cow orker when I was a foreign car mechanic in the
60s.  He opined:

   If I run over a kid, I'm going to back up and run over him again.
   They can ding me real bad for wrongful death but but a crippled kid
   will be getting everything I make  for the rest of my life.

A little drizzly rain here in Nova Scotia. At the expense of y'all in
NJ, we lucked out when Sandy took a sharp left.

-- 
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada




Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:41:25 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Feeding Frenzy 
Message-ID: <20121030194125.GA6727@telecom.csail.mit.edu>

On Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 02:54:25PM -0300, Mike Spencer wrote:
> Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> writes:
> 
> > The problem with nasty storms is that the power company sometimes
> > turns off power as a precaution: they're afraid of getting sued if
> > someone drives over a downed line, not to mention the zillions of TV
> > sets and computers that can be damaged by power surges when wires
> > cross. Some electric utility companies won't endure the risks: a
> > little lost revenue is nothing compared to what a high-powered
> > attorney could get in a contributory negligence tort.
> 
> This strikes me as being of the same moral calibre as the advice I
> received from a cow orker when I was a foreign car mechanic in the
> 60s.  He opined:
> 
>    If I run over a kid, I'm going to back up and run over him again.
>    They can ding me real bad for wrongful death but a crippled kid
>    will be getting everything I make  for the rest of my life.

Well, there's saying it, and then there's doing it. I'd bet that
your cow-orker would stop and do what he could, just like the rest of
us, because that's what decent people do.

A lot of American industry, however, has been taken over by amoral
opportunists who think that not being caught in a lie is the same
thing as telling the truth: witness the fines that Duke Energy paid
when they were caught creating "shortages" of power in California.

> A little drizzly rain here in Nova Scotia. At the expense of y'all in
> NJ, we lucked out when Sandy took a sharp left.

Not sharp enough: although I was very amused at how hard the TV
reporters were working to make a few whitecaps look like the end of
the world, the wind did pick up to the point where we had a lot of
downed trees here. I lost one of the pines that line my back yard: it
went so quietly that I didn't even notice until my wife pointed it out
this morning. Not as dramatic as the arc flash I saw last night, but
(pun intended) it hit a lot closer to home.

As luck would have it, it only took out a section of chain-link fence,
so I'm good, but I'm going to call up an insurance agent and find out
what would happen if one of the other trees hits my house next time.

Bill

-- 
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)






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