911 doesn't work, try a FAX

Mon Jul 5 09:59:43 UTC 1999

On Mon, 5 Jul 1999, John Fraizer wrote:

> 
> At 02:22 AM 7/4/99 -0500, Joe Shaw wrote:
> >
> >
> >This is why HAM radios and the appropriate licenses can come in very
> >handy, especially in cases of emergency or natural disaster.  Does anyone
> >in the business use RF for backup communications?

	Well, there tend to be at least one HAM on shift here at any
time.

	My network my not be the scale of many here, but due to the
local we have an active recovery plan.  We see high winds (gusts
clocked at 100+mph during a *normal* winter storm), etc often.  We can
expect power failures > 30 min at least twice a month during the
winter.  Broken lines due to water contamination in the cables and
snowplows eating those little green boxes are common.  Summer is not
so bad, but the other 7 months are not fun.

	Standard setup for all our network facilities includes, onsite
cell phone, onsite direct analog phone, 2 hrs minimum UPS power, in
most cases an onsite battery bank/inverter setup and/or standby
generator. All contact numbers are posted in multiple places on
hardcopy.

	At the first floor locations we have gone so far as to rig a
external charging option, to allow the battery bank to be charged by a
vehicle.  (Have had several issues with generatore, including a
generator shack getting buried in drifted snow, and a block cracking
when autostart kicked in at -50F)

----
First Law of System Requirements:
     "Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking about..."