Timeline for Why do phone and cables companies leave their cables behind, and what to do about it?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
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| Jun 12, 2021 at 6:04 | comment | added | Raydot | @TooTea fair enough. I'll stay clear. | |
| Jun 10, 2021 at 7:11 | comment | added | TooTea | @DaveKanter The point is that even wires that were dead years ago might not be dead anymore. All it takes is a bit of a storm making a power line break off from a pole and sag to touch the phone cable, or a fallen branch bridging the two, or whatever else. As long as the disused cable isn't grounded, the reclosers on the power line won't ever notice something went wrong. Yes, not too likely, but still not impossible enough to bet your life on it. | |
| Jun 8, 2021 at 20:09 | comment | added | Raydot | They haven't popped up in recent months. I've just noticed them in recent months. But then when I think about it, some of them have been there for a long darn time. And no, my voltmeter doesn't go that high, but it does a great job of detecting whether or not I'm about to get zapped. | |
| Jun 8, 2021 at 19:30 | comment | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | @Dave Does your voltmeter go to 12KV? I guess I don't understand what your endgame is. Since they popped up all over town in recent months, it sounds like the CableCo is doing a major infrastructure project. My guess is, the concentrator module that will be up at the poletop is on backorder because of the chip shortage. | |
| Jun 8, 2021 at 19:22 | comment | added | Raydot | I also bring my multimeter with me. | |
| Jun 8, 2021 at 19:16 | comment | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | @Dave sure... but that doesn't guarantee you that any given one isn't live. If you went on a mission to cut them all off, you could well find a live one. Really for a town cleanup, politics is the best answer: either get the company to finish their project, or get them to tidy up, or get educated on why it's necessary. | |
| Jun 8, 2021 at 19:10 | comment | added | Raydot | So again, I agree with you in general, but I just don't think live wires are being left on the ground all over town for months at a time. If they were, I think there'd be more of a sense of urgency to address the problem. | |
| Jun 8, 2021 at 18:00 | comment | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | @DaveKanter That's the trouble with being "certain". It's like being certain the gun isn't loaded, that's why professionals are trained to never be "certain". They use lockout-tagout and also set ground jumpers to assure the wire is grounded. For all you know the house at the other end of this run has a lot neutral and is throwing 120V onto the shell of that cable, that's why they disconnected it. | |
| Jun 8, 2021 at 17:57 | history | edited | Harper - Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 8, 2021 at 14:53 | comment | added | Raydot | I agree with this in principle, but for the very reason of the golden rule you mention, I'm certain these are not live wires. | |
| May 27, 2021 at 3:19 | comment | added | Jasen | You can tell the power company that you think they are probably phone or CATV wires if you are overcome by honesty They will likely still be interested, perhaps mistrusting your judgement, perhaps for other reasons. | |
| May 26, 2021 at 23:39 | comment | added | Raydot | Whoa, haha...they're dead wires. They're left at ground level. Right near a school, for instance. I wonder if the power company would do what you say. Perhaps I'll make a call. | |
| May 26, 2021 at 21:39 | history | edited | Harper - Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 26, 2021 at 21:32 | history | edited | Harper - Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 26, 2021 at 21:27 | history | answered | Harper - Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |