[RFI] An entire village lost its broadband at the same time every day for 18 months

[Hare, Ed W1RFI]

What may help this in the relatively short run is that the IEEE EMC Society is developing an IEEE Recommended Practice that describes the steps that a power utility should take in response to complaints about radio or television interference from its lines and equipment.  This is expected to be in IEEE ballot by mid year of 2021 and probably published around the end of the year.  The IEEE Working Group developing it has 90% of its membership from the utility, many with amateur licenses, and is looking to achieve 100% agreement on process and language as the standard is developed.  Among the things discussed is setting up information for the utility Call Centers to use to properly dispatch complaints.

Ed, W1RFI



-----Original Message-----
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+w1rfi=arrl.org at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Don Kirk
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2020 10:22 AM
To: EDWARDS, EDDIE J <eedwards at oppd.com>
Cc: Rfi List <RFI at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] An entire village lost its broadband at the same time every day for 18 months

 Hi Ed,

Yep, for Duke Energy in my area it is indeed their "power quality"
department (but that has even changed over the years), but for IPL (Indianapolis Power and Light now part of AES) it is their "radio group".
The big problem I have with Duke Energy in my area is that only one guy handles RFI related complaints and the person keeps changing every few years so I lose my direct contact with him (cell phone where I can text him, etc.) and have to start all over.

Also most utility companies will not put you in direct contact with these groups when you first call in.  They usually send out a field technician who looks at the pole and says he visually saw no problems, and it's not until I follow up with them numerous times that I'm able to convince them that their field technician normally does not have the appropriate troubleshooting tools or knowledge to deal with the problem and that's why we need to pass the issue onto their power quality department, etc.  (this is a very common problem with Duke Energy and especially with IPL).

73,
Don (wd8dsb)

On Wed, Sep 23, 2020 at 9:59 AM EDWARDS, EDDIE J <eedwards at oppd.com> wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: RFI On Behalf Of Don Kirk
> Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 8:08 PM
>
> If RFI is power line noise the biggest problem I have had is getting 
> in contact with the correct person that deals with RFI issues as 
> customer service operators have no clue what I’m talking about or what 
> department they should forward me to.
>
> ---------------------------------
> Don,
>
> It varies with each power company, but for power-line RFI I recommend 
> asking for a contact in their telecomm department or whoever maintains 
> their radio and telephone systems.  This is sometimes under their IT 
> division.  If they're not responsible for tracking RFI they'll know 
> who is their group for that.
>
> Smaller utilities may out-source these issues.  Another group that may 
> handle RFI complaints is Power Quality.  Our customer service people 
> who are new usually send RFI complaints thru our power quality team, 
> and one or two of those guys know to send them on to our telecomm team.
>
> 73, de ed K0iL
>
>
_______________________________________________
RFI mailing list
RFI at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi