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Thread: Big Power Outage

  1. #1
    Pope Carlo l NQ6U's Avatar
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    Big Power Outage

    Posting via my phone because we have no mains power. Looks like a major transmission line went down and caused an instability that took down the entire system from Orange County south through northern Mexico. It could be down until late tonight.
    All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.

  2. #2
    Administrator N8YX's Avatar
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    Was in contact with one of our regional offices via Communicator about 3:45 this afternoon...and everybody dropped offline.

    Either the routers between our facilities got mis-configured somehow or the circuit got chopped at an intermediate point.

    Strange.
    "Everyone wants to be an AM Gangsta until it's time to start doing AM Gangsta shit."

  3. #3
    Pope Carlo l NQ6U's Avatar
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    That's about the time the power went out. Right now it's looking as if it will be down until late tonight or possibly even tomorrow. Mostly an inconvenience for me--no refrigerator and it's been hot here. Some real morons on the local repeaters spreading unfounded rumors about terrorist attacks and such. I just wish I had backup power for my HF rig so I could operate on the low bands without all the usual interference from power line noise.
    All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.

  4. #4
    Master Navigator KC9ECI's Avatar
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    No generator? Can you liberate the battery from your car? Manual transmission and a rolling start if you run it down too far? QRP doesn't take much battery. You're a ham, make something work.
    I am surprised at such a sudden deterioration in a woman whose only ailment was a lazy anus.

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    "Island Bartender" KG4CGC's Avatar
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    stationary bicycle portable

  6. #6
    Master Navigator KC9ECI's Avatar
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    Where's MacGyver when you need him?
    I am surprised at such a sudden deterioration in a woman whose only ailment was a lazy anus.

  7. #7
    Administrator N8YX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KC9ECI View Post
    Where's MacGyver when you need him?
    Where's all the wind and solar power when you need it?
    "Everyone wants to be an AM Gangsta until it's time to start doing AM Gangsta shit."

  8. #8
    La Rata Del Desierto K7SGJ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by N8YX View Post
    Where's all the wind and solar power when you need it?
    That's really an interesting question. What does happen with the power generated by all those wind farms?
    A clear conscience is usually a sign of a bad memory

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  9. #9
    "Island Bartender" KG4CGC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by K7SGJ View Post
    That's really an interesting question. What does happen with the power generated by all those wind farms?
    Along that same line of thought, sort of, when a town gets a bad hit from some type of storm/natural disaster, the rebuild should require at least 50% renewable energy sources back into the infrastructure. I know, many of the dunderheads will decry this as more government in our lives and too much regulation.

  10. #10
    Pope Carlo l NQ6U's Avatar
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    Turns out the whole thing was caused by a single utility worker in Arizona who managed to shut down the main east-west transmission line while doing some maintenance work.

    If it had happened on another day, it might not have been as big an issue but yesterday was hot and humid so everyone had their A/C running, meaning the load was too great for the only other high voltage transmission line into San Diego and Imperial Counties. Some breakers blew, resulting in a low voltage condition that cause several power generation stations (including the San Onofre nuke plant) to go into protection mode and go offline. One thing led to another and boom!—the power went down to more than four million people. It finally came on here on the Islets of Langerhans around 1:45 A.M., almost exactly ten hours after things went dark.

    It was actually kind of a cool thing, though—because it was too warm to stay indoors without A/C or at least a fan running, all the neighbors were out on the street and there was a party atmosphere. I dragged out my little telescope and we took advantage of the unusually dark night to look at the moon and a couple of planets. About the only casualty here was a container of vanilla ice cream.

    I'll bet that AZ utility worker got his pee-pee whacked this morning, though.
    All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.

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