- Joined
- 27 Jan 2008
- Messages
- 24,996
- Reaction score
- 2,894
- Location
- Llanfair Caereinion, Nr Welshpool
- Country
The old 50 volt telephone had no requirement for power from any other source. We had railway huts with a telephone, but no 230 volt power, OK today no longer used, we have a repeater and PMR radios, but we have for many years, relied on the telephone to work, even with a power cut.
One friend tells me his fibre telephone has a back-up battery, but the cabinet it comes from does not, so with an area power failure, he has no telephone, his only option is to drive around 2 miles to where he has a mobile signal.
I do remember the floods in Prestatyn, and how the telephone exchange failed, and RAYNET provided the links, so the other emergency services could know where they were required, but these were rare, and today there are far fewer radio hams, so not sure if that could be done any more.
My own RAYNET disbanded some 10 years ago, and I no longer have a ruck sack with all my radio gear, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice, to respond to an event like Prestatyn, we as a group relied on donations and practice with events like cycle events, fun runs etc, to both train us, and pay for equipment, the mobile phone and cheap PMR466 radios, have resulted in these events doing their own communications, so we now rely on our phones.
So phones which stop working in high winds, either due to mast damage, or lost of mains electric power, worries me.
One friend tells me his fibre telephone has a back-up battery, but the cabinet it comes from does not, so with an area power failure, he has no telephone, his only option is to drive around 2 miles to where he has a mobile signal.
I do remember the floods in Prestatyn, and how the telephone exchange failed, and RAYNET provided the links, so the other emergency services could know where they were required, but these were rare, and today there are far fewer radio hams, so not sure if that could be done any more.
My own RAYNET disbanded some 10 years ago, and I no longer have a ruck sack with all my radio gear, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice, to respond to an event like Prestatyn, we as a group relied on donations and practice with events like cycle events, fun runs etc, to both train us, and pay for equipment, the mobile phone and cheap PMR466 radios, have resulted in these events doing their own communications, so we now rely on our phones.
So phones which stop working in high winds, either due to mast damage, or lost of mains electric power, worries me.
