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

[Don Kirk]

 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
>
>