CABL Forum - Re: OuTaGe CaLLs

When responding to an outage, the first thing you want to know is, where it's on, and where it's off. You can find this out without ever getting out of the vehichle. By using a leak detector you can pin point an outage pretty quick.

I've used this method since the mid 80's, and it's saved me a lot of time and effort. Make sure you have the intensity turned up as high as it will go. Then just drive by the addresses see if there are any leaks as you drive by. Then follow the system back to the next active, or until you find a leak. At this point, you know the system is on there. And you already know where it's off, so that's half the battle. If you happen to stumble on to a big leak, that's probably your outage.

It's probably a good idea to try this out before you have an actual outage. That way you know what kind of leakage exists in that system, and you'll know what to look for.

> You had mentioned an (HFC) world. I trust that telemetry (Status monitoring)doesn't exist. With powering problems I would hope that your maintenance crew document those event timers. With node operation I would hope that you've got racked spare transmitters with scalable attinuators to meet dynamic link-loss' etc. Headend automatic rerouting of devices are sweet.
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> A disciplined Sweep/Balance program will certainly help if you've got more than three amps deep in cascade. I know that the usual N/10+1 or 2 theory (Peak to Valley) takes a back seat but unless you've got fully deployed telemetry at your key points for example your power supplies and nodes, you'll have to rely on traditional means of gaining that documentation. Additionally, if you have already deployed High Speed Data why not pole specific return paths from pre-set units on their QPSK levels etc. They'll keep your return plant in check for you if you don't have the man-power to proactively maintain your plant. By the way, one of the many rules of thumbs for maintaining both forward and return path plant is one technician for each 150-200 miles of plant.
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> So, if you're just about to create your first preventative maintenance initiative you might consider going to your End of Lines and implode your sweep. Certain cascades may be aligned with good sweep response and your crew(s) can leap-frog backwards to the node or hub or whatever. At least this way you start with your EOL response and determine right then that a problem exists. If this is true, then "Halve" your backwards initiative so to triangulate your problems. Your problems may be bad cable, craped out fittings, wrong Pads/Eq's on your forward/return interstatge (depending on the manufacturer's design) etc.
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> Many years ago I inherited a 1,350 mile plant with five AML sites. I was hired to prepare the system for an eventual sale. By utilizing this reverse/imploading technique my crews worked phenominally fast in shoring up the entire system back to the AML hubs. And this was with a mid-split return.
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> Good luck,
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> > about to start running outage calls. Are there any quick checkpoints or does anyone have some good advice on how to quickly start finding outage problems? From what I'm told, I'll get the phonecall from the MSO's operations center, and they'll give me a handfull of addresses. I've done a good bit of everything in the HFC world, but never had to respond to outages and get them up in such a timely fashion. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Re: OuTaGe CaLLs