This was posted on the RFI reflector on contesting.com earlier today and it
seemed like an excellent summary that might be of interest to people on
cq-contest as well.
-- Tom
>From: "Hare,Ed, W1RFI" <w1rfi@arrl.org>
>To: "'Tom Horton'" <k5iid@ntelos.net>, Pete Smith <n4zr@contesting.com>,
>rfi@contesting.com
>Cc: "Phillips, John K2QAI" <k2qai@arrl.org>
>Subject: RE: [RFI] WOW!!!!!!!
>X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)
>Sender: rfi-admin@contesting.com
>
>The basic procedures that I recommend hams follow with power line stuff is:
>
>1. Stay calm and courteous at all times. This is the HARDEST part!
>
>2. Download, print and read all of the ARRL information on electrical
>interference. This will make you smarter, and some of it may be of use to
>your power company people.
>
>3. First, try to resolve this directly with the power company. The
>printouts may be helpful, if you can get them into the right hands. If you
>can, try to talk to the service manager or RTVI troubleshooter directly.
>
>4. Unfortunately, be patient. In the best of circumstances, these things can
>take weeks to resolve, often weeks dragging into months. I won't write the
>list of the back and forth steps that are often necessary, but think of it
>this way -- there are things in a chain that can fail, from untrained
>customer-contact people to the lack of RFI troubleshooters (or almost as
>bad, one who is not well versed in troubleshooting.) Even if the
>troubleshooting is done correctly, the BUL may mess it up. (That is Big Ugly
>Lineman.) He may climb the pole and say "What are they talking about; I
>have seen cracked insulators last for years."
>
>5. Print and give them anything you think might be helpful, from the ARRL
>material and "FCC letter" to the entire electrical chapter of the RFI Book.
>See http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/rfi-elect.html and
>http://www.arrl.org/catalog/6834. The newest link is to RFI Services
>top-notch training program. Make sure you print
>http://www.qsl.net/k3rfi/workshop.htm and get it into the right hands.
>
>6. If you are not getting anywhere after a reasonable amount of time,
>document the reasonable steps you have taken, and do a bit of research to
>get the name of the utility Prez or Chief Operating Officer, or at least a
>Senior Vice President in charge of customer service or distribution, and the
>company mailing address. Get the summary to John Phillips, who will write
>the CEO a letter, under the wing of ARRL's agreements with the FCC. That has
>been about 60% effective in getting things moving ahead.
>
>7. Again, unfortunately, things take time, and as long as the utility is
>making some reasonable effort, the FCC has consistently made the decision to
>let things run their course. ARRL can help the utility staff understand
>what to do and how to find the problems, though not nearly as well as RFI
>Services course. If the utility decides that they "are not spending any more
>money on this," or just seem to have such a low priority that it will be
>fixed next Nevuary, the League then sends the case to Riley, with a summary
>of how every reasonable effort has been made to secure voluntary
>cooperation. So far, Riley has agreed with all of our decisions that an
>actual FCC letter is needed. We then send a draft of the letter, with all of
>the company contact info and mailing address to Riley, as a Word documented,
>formatted for his printer. :-) The FCC letter then goes out. ARRL
>continues to work with the utility after that, to the extent that we can.
>
>8. ARRL has a few cases that are about to go back to the Commission, for
>further action to be determined.
>
>Many of these steps are based on how the FCC wants to see these cases
>handled. When I consider that 5 years ago, there was almost no chance that
>the FCC would write a letter to a utility, I can live with the results.
>
>Both the FCC and ARRL have finite staff resources, so we cannot function as
>the first point of contact. In many cases, the ham makes the phone call,
>they fix the problem and no one needs to be involved. But when that doesn't
>work, the League takes a crack at it, then the FCC, leaving the FCC free to
>work on those pesty carriers on 14.313 MHz.
>
>Unfortunately, John may be out of the office for a day or two, though he may
>be working at home tomorrow, so email k2qai@arrl.org to start the process
>rolling. Right now, John is working about a hundred cases, involving about
>25 utilities, so bear with him. We are stretching the membership dollars
>about as thin as they can be stretched in this case!
>
>73,
>Ed Hare, W1RFI
>
>ARRL Lab
>225 Main St
>Newington, CT 06111
>Tel: 860-594-0318
>Internet: w1rfi@arrl.org
>Web: http://www.arrl.org/tis
>
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=====
e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444
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