I was on the gas pressure crew in San Jose in the early 70's. I discovered a few section leaks between manholes in the lead cables. I would use a probe with a microphone on the tip and push it up the duct along side the cable and find the distance to the leak. Then we had West Valley construction come out and dig it up and I would repair the leak which was caused by electrolysis from nearby water mains. Problem was, the electrolysis cause many leaks, as soon as you fixed one leak another would show up 5 feet away. Twenty years later we used helium to find leaks. Because helium would rise, we would put helium tanks on the cable with the lowest pressure and use a helium sniffer to find the leaks. We didn't even have to open the MH we just put the sniffer probe in the hole where the MH hook went.
Back in the day, I cracked an iron case while putting it back together, the very next day our PPM dept was there putting up a waffle case due to the air alarm. Today sadly there is little to no air pressure on our cables exept for right outside the co.
Squirrels. A cable maintenance man's money maker. 25 years in the San Jose, CA area. Work multiplex systems and air pressure systems and everything in between.
Fascinating. I was aware of Nitrogen (or Bell/Communications people called it "air") being pressurized on lead cables, but once the ANTW cables with a plastic sheath were introduced and the lead cables came down, this became less and less of a problem. I wasn't familiar with the injection of material into the cable where the puncture occurred. I assumed splicers would create a new lead seal. They called it "wiping" the cable. The old BKTS was a problem. Squirrels also liked C-Rural Wire. I cannot tell you how many open wire leads were removed to modernization (and never touched by squirrel problems) until C-Rural Wire replaced it. The squirrels were "c-r-a-z-y" about C-Rural Wire. Nawed on it and loved to chew it. 109 or 104 steel strand was impervious to squirrel knock-outs.
Back in the 80s and 90s you'd often see a nitrogen tank chained up to a telephone pole, at least in this former Contel/GTE area. (Contel always seemed to run their outside plant on a shoestring budget, and many of their service areas seemed to be the sort of place you only move to if you can't afford better, like, for example, Manasas, Virginia).
In our area at Verizon we have one "air guy" who basically does nothing but keep the air driers running in the CO. I've never once seen him in the field where he needs to be. We've lost a lot of cables due to negligence and the company doesn't care at all. It's truly sad to watch.
I remember losing a T1 line in a rainstorm. Called Verizon to find out what happened, they had a cable failure. T1 was down for 48 hours. This was in Northern Virginia. I got another experience of how little Verizon cares when their FIOS conduit installation contractor hit a 200 pair cable in my yard on Friday. Verizon didn't show up to fix it till Tuesday, and they screwed up the drainage ditch in the process. Now the water doesn't drain. I'm not a Verizon customer and I never will be. The company runs like a government agency.
and if you want to go back even further, AT&T was owned by the bell telephone company, so AT&T was the small one, so they bought bell. so the same thing happened to AT&T in 2005.
the CGI animation is informative but I'm sorry to say that unfortunately it's incredibly nauseating due to how quick and constant moving the transitions are
Once upon a time, AT&T stood for American telephone and Telegraph. When SBC acquired AT&T (pretty much just for the name) We were told by brass that "AT&T" " didn't stand for anything". We chuckled, but if we only knew how true that statement was!
Different companies! The A.T.&T. After divestiture wasn't the same animal. And the name was chosen by sbc ( a scab company) to wield influence in the dying telecommunications industry.
I was on the gas pressure crew in San Jose in the early 70's. I discovered a few section leaks between manholes in the lead cables. I would use a probe with a microphone on the tip and push it up the duct along side the cable and find the distance to the leak. Then we had West Valley construction come out and dig it up and I would repair the leak which was caused by electrolysis from nearby water mains. Problem was, the electrolysis cause many leaks, as soon as you fixed one leak another would show up 5 feet away. Twenty years later we used helium to find leaks. Because helium would rise, we would put helium tanks on the cable with the lowest pressure and use a helium sniffer to find the leaks. We didn't even have to open the MH we just put the sniffer probe in the hole where the MH hook went.
Back in the day, I cracked an iron case while putting it back together, the very next day our PPM dept was there putting up a waffle case due to the air alarm. Today sadly there is little to no air pressure on our cables exept for right outside the co.
Awesome! I was brought here because I've been looking for the reason why I see gas tanks attached to boxes and poles sometimes
Squirrels. A cable maintenance man's money maker. 25 years in the San Jose, CA area. Work multiplex systems and air pressure systems and everything in between.
Blue-Orange-Green-Brown-Slate
White-Red-Black-Yellow-Violet
We still have a lot of pressurized cables in Ontario and work on them every day
Fascinating. I was aware of Nitrogen (or Bell/Communications people called it "air") being pressurized on lead cables, but once the ANTW cables with a plastic sheath were introduced and the lead cables came down, this became less and less of a problem. I wasn't familiar with the injection of material into the cable where the puncture occurred. I assumed splicers would create a new lead seal. They called it "wiping" the cable. The old BKTS was a problem. Squirrels also liked C-Rural Wire. I cannot tell you how many open wire leads were removed to modernization (and never touched by squirrel problems) until C-Rural Wire replaced it. The squirrels were "c-r-a-z-y" about C-Rural Wire. Nawed on it and loved to chew it. 109 or 104 steel strand was impervious to squirrel knock-outs.
Back in the 80s and 90s you'd often see a nitrogen tank chained up to a telephone pole, at least in this former Contel/GTE area. (Contel always seemed to run their outside plant on a shoestring budget, and many of their service areas seemed to be the sort of place you only move to if you can't afford better, like, for example, Manasas, Virginia).
Legendary Fred Jackson
Great video.Thanks!
In our area at Verizon we have one "air guy" who basically does nothing but keep the air driers running in the CO. I've never once seen him in the field where he needs to be. We've lost a lot of cables due to negligence and the company doesn't care at all. It's truly sad to watch.
I remember losing a T1 line in a rainstorm. Called Verizon to find out what happened, they had a cable failure. T1 was down for 48 hours. This was in Northern Virginia. I got another experience of how little Verizon cares when their FIOS conduit installation contractor hit a 200 pair cable in my yard on Friday. Verizon didn't show up to fix it till Tuesday, and they screwed up the drainage ditch in the process. Now the water doesn't drain. I'm not a Verizon customer and I never will be. The company runs like a government agency.
and if you want to go back even further, AT&T was owned by the bell telephone company, so AT&T was the small one, so they bought bell. so the same thing happened to AT&T in 2005.
the CGI animation is informative but I'm sorry to say that unfortunately it's incredibly nauseating due to how quick and constant moving the transitions are
Doug Bird do better
SBC bought AT&T in 2005, therefore AT&T is no longer the original AT&T
Once upon a time, AT&T stood for American telephone and Telegraph. When SBC acquired AT&T (pretty much just for the name) We were told by brass that "AT&T" " didn't stand for anything". We chuckled, but if we only knew how true that statement was!
its funny how AT&T used to own SBC, then SBC bought AT&T that used to own them lol
Different companies! The A.T.&T. After divestiture wasn't the same animal. And the name was chosen by sbc ( a scab company) to wield influence in the dying telecommunications industry.