[TowerTalk] WSJ: Home copper thefts rise

Peter Chadwick g3rzp at g3rzp.wanadoo.co.uk
Fri Sep 8 01:13:47 EDT 2006


In the UK, some of them have tried stealing the copper overhead catenary from the railways - even when it's live at 25kV! Some learnt and now they short the line to ground first.....
A guy I worked with at the old Decca Navigator company many years ago told the tale of an airport in Argentina where an ILS system was installed in the mid 1960's. A few days later, at around 5 am, the alarm went off to indicate that the outer marker beacon had gone off the air, as had the standby. Investigation showed that thieves had pulled the armoured buried mains supply cable out of the ground for the copper - about a mile of it!
So there's nothing new.
73
Peter G3RZP


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