My favorite story concerns a problem I encountered a few years ago. A
quarter of a mile away, at a bend in the road, a side mounted residential high
voltage line insulator had broken and the high voltage line was laying
across the low voltage service entrance to a home. In addition to causing
RFI,
it didn't seem like a very safe condition. I reported it to my RFI
contact at the power company, but for several days nothing happened.
So I called back and got his voice mail. I left a message of "I sure hope
nothing happens, because it sure would be inconvenient if I had to take a
day off work to testify in court that I had reported the problem and
nothing had happened before the house burned down."
It was fixed the next day.
Obviously this approach is not to be used for your generic line noise.
73 - Jim K8MR
In a message dated 2/11/2010 12:54:37 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
jim@audiosystemsgroup.com writes:
On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:44:00 -0500, Pete Smith wrote:
>1. Always do your best to identify the source of the noise to a pole or
>two.
>2. Be flexible about scheduling the work - they have to put maintaining
>power delivery first.
>3. Make an effort to work with the guys who come out, treating them
>like human beings trying to do a good job.
>4. Recognize their limitations and, as necessary, tactfully use your
>technical knowledge to supplement theirs.
>5. DON'T assume an adversarial posture, particularly with the guys
>doing the work. They can either help or hinder you.
>This won't work for everyone - another nearby ham had to get the FCC to
>write Allegheny a letter to get his problem dealt with. A lot depends
>on the individuals involved, but it can work.
This is great advice for dealing with virtually ANY problem. As you've
noted, success will depend on the people involved and the conditions
under which they work. I take the same approach with the guys who come
out to work on the ancient telco wiring that serves our area, and often
fails when it gets really wet (as it did three weeks ago). Without
asking, I ended up with the private cell phone of the guy doing the work
and the desk phone of his supervisor. Good thing that I did -- two days
after he found and fixed one problem, bad splices at another location
took my lines down again. One phone call, and our job was on his schedule
for the next day. And fixed.
BTW -- one of the guys told me that if you're not getting action, mention
the Public Utilities Commission to the supervisor. They REALLY don't like
hearing from the CA PUC. Seems that there's enough direct oversight to
make their lives miserable. That might work for you, Kelly. Or not. :)
73,
Jim K9YC
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