I worked for ATC in Rochester (actual city limits) when the first cable went into the air back around 1981-2. This was before the suburbs (Peoples Cablevision) were acquired and became Greater Rochester Cablevision (GRC) many years later. The original headend was located off of St. Paul Street across from the Genesee Beer Brewery...we all cashed our paychecks at Ralph's Tavern on the corner and many of the ATC Mile High veterans that later went to Denver passed through those doors.
The winters were so brutal on the lake that I remember seeing icicles that were the size of corn stalks horizontal on the majority of the poles along Lake Ontario. We did not have bucket trucks back then...you either hooked or used a ladder. Had to use lay-up sticks and a rope with a bitch-clamp/rams head attached to the end to wrap and/or break the ice so it wouldn't end up as a spear. On poles south of the lake, you still needed to use a baseball bat or bell wrench to smash the 2" plus ice off the poles so you could get up it if a ladder was not an option.
ATC built the feeder with .500 P3 (new at the time) with ALL Gilbert feed-thru connectors and the old Magnavox horseshoe 450MHz taps and 330MHz SA suitcase amps. The system was built in the summer and the first winter sub-zero cold snap we saw a high percentage of suckouts. Amps were usually OK due to having PIN connectors Thank God! After working in Rochester a few winters, I decided to continue my career in Southern California....that was back in the early '80!
Anyone who has worked cable on or around the Great Lakes can relate to those stories. You need to be a different type of individual to adapt to those conditions...and it is not easy!
Re:...and How COLD is it?? Rochester, NY
Member #: 7190
Registered: 1996-2001
Posted:
483
Name:
Greg Tobin
Name:
Greg Tobin
Company:
Interactive Broadband Technical Services
Occupation:
HFC Engineer/Consultant
Location:
www.interactive-broadband.com
Personal:
Experience:
~45 years
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