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From: covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert  14-Jan-1991 1723)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Service Outages, Fiber, etc.
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Date: 14 Jan 91 22:21:59 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 39, Message 2 of 9


  From: Dale Neiburg, NPR Engineering
  Date: 14 January 1991, 14:40 EST
 
On 10 January, John Stanley wrote: 
 
>   Tuesday evening, about 4:10, the local PBS station lost the feed
>for a program called "Fresh Air". After a few minutes, they came back,
>using a poor quality phone feed.
 
>   At the end of the show, we were told that the problem was caused by
>a break in a fiber cable between New York and Philly. I don't know if
>they get the feed in real time, but would guess that they must if they
>put up with the poor feed just to carry the show.
 
>   YACC (Yet Another Cable Cut)?

First of all, FRESH AIR isn't on PBS, but rather on NPR.  PBS does
television.  NPR does radio.  Radio is very much like television, only
the pictures are better.

In fact, I was working in satellite control when the failure occurred,
so was one of the mini-throng trying to get service back up.
According to the best information we have, the problem wasn't a cable
cut but a failure in the telco office serving the fiber-optic carrier
that delivers the program from the producing station in Philadelphia
to the satellite uplink in Washington.

I didn't think the phone feed was so bad.  The hum was AT LEAST 8 dB
below signal ;).

Disclaimer: I keep NPR on the air; I don't speak for them.


Dale Neiburg    Vox: 202-822-2402


[Moderator's Note: And let me tell you, Mr. Neiburg, I don't know what
we would do in this household without NPR, via WBEZ.  When Mr. Covert
first began passing along messages from folks at NPR to the Digest,
some of them were *so good* I questioned him thinking the messages had
actually been radio commentaries. (I did not want to use them and
violate copyright.) Most of NPR's stuff is excellent, and when you are
trying to raise a small child as we are here, NPR fills a big void in
a home where the television is deliberatly kept unplugged.   PAT]