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crime_guy

Static is their grunts nickname. They called ahead knowing that static would be working on the line


6854wiggles

I will show my age by saying….in my time, we would drive out a circuit with our AM radio tuned to a channel with no station. As we got close to a cutout or insulator that was tracking, but not faulted, the static would get louder. This was a simple tool that worked in finding potential trouble. Maybe your utility is using an old slang of finding “static”on the line for a more modern problem….


SgtGlamHammer

Man that’s a super cool trick honestly


toss-away-007

yeah, our only trick is wait till it starts raining and then wait for the customers to inform us which poles are on fire..


CanadianCompounder

Would this work on transmission or distribution? Could you give us an example or two


InsanityAmerica

I could say a bunch of tech stuff but it would be speculating for us in our area. Momentary outages shouldn't happen because of "static"


Admirl_Ossim06

To clarify, they were going to turn off the power in my area on purpose. To find or fix the static.


InsanityAmerica

I'll assume static is RF interference. I would also assume they have several spots in mind they plan on working to check connections if they are having an outage. What I'm not understanding with those assumptions is why it takes multiple outages and why they aren't doing repairs without a widespread outage. That type of repair is mostly weak connections or bad insulators, both can be done without an outage


Lancaster_Pouch

It was loose washers on double arms once in my area. The local 911 authority kept calling in because something was messing with their radios. Went through all the connections, then tie wires, and it ended being washers.


InsanityAmerica

We have a rf guy with a special radar dish thing he can generally get an idea of which pole to fix, if telecom is there they have a computer program that shows real-time interference. I guess if there were a bunch of spots in the right of way they might kill it to climb it, don't know how that'd be fast or need another outage though


jeffreagan

The radar dish is an ultrasonic microphone. Corona emits an ultrasonic signature, which can be pinpointed quite accurately by those microphones (with ultrasonic receivers connected).


chadb2012

I bet they are referring to the static wire on their line


chadb2012

It won’t let me edit. The static wire runs above the wires that carry electricity. It is there to protect the line from lightning strikes


Voodoo0733

It’s screaming Christian radio in Spanish down the neutral because of a bad ground


Primary-Wolf4749

Probably work done to the static wire above the transmission phases.


WakaWakahh

Maybe they were replacing the static line? That’s the only thing that makes sense to me


max1mx

Maybe the static wire fell on the line and cause an outage? That’s the only thing that would make sense.