Loss of copper landlines, and how to call for help?

[ericmark]

It does seem some form of battery back-up is being considered, but for how long? BBC has done a report but it is not just the supply in the house, but also the supply at the exchange and any cabinets.

We use to see generators in telephone exchanges, but it seems not in the small on street boxes.

So we are seeing power losses for 24 hours, or more, it is not just the reporting of loss of power, but anything which happens in that time, like tripping over the cat when there is no light.

We have seen the demise of things like RAYNET used with Rhyl floods, and even the use of CB seems to be reduced, and when I went to local telephone boxes, one converted into a book swap, and the other has a defibrillator which you can't use unless you have a phone signal with ones mobile phone.

Is it time to dust off the old CB? Would their be anyone to talk to if one did?

 

[flameport]

It does seem some form of battery back-up is being considered, but for how long? BBC has done a report

That is already way out of date. The closure of the PTSN is over 90% completed, the final few bits are going in the next 3 months.
Most people do not have an analogue phone service any more.

We use to see generators in telephone exchanges,

Most of those exchanges are going away in the forthcoming decade. https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/products/the-all-ip-programme/exchange-exit-programme

Is it time to dust off the old CB?

Probably do better with this

unless you have a phone signal with ones mobile phone.

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[jj4091]

During stormy very cloudy weather our Freesat box will will not receive a signal so I presume satellite phones will have the same problem. During the last major power cut we had the only way to communicate with anyone was by using the emergency button on the mobile phone. Naturally you could only be put through to emergency services with that . ​

 

[Mottie]

My iPhone, along with many others, can connect by text to a satellite when there is no phone signal. Obviously, like a sat phone, you need a clear view to the sky but I presume that will still work in bad weather.

 

[ericmark]

I do have PMR 466, I would not use it in an illegal way, as don't want to put my amateur licence at risk, same with illegal CB.

I know there is a local repeater run by the local steam railway, and I could get the 8 miles to Welshpool using that, but I also know to use it is illegal, and it would only work when the stations are manned. The amateur radio repeater is out of range, and other than the local railway not heard anything on PMR 466, and I only know the sub-audible tone used by the railways for channels 1 to 8, they seem to normally use channel 14, so I can hear them, but they can't hear me.

I have never tried to open their repeater, so don't know if it would work, I do know tone and off-set.

I have already had my central heating fail due to loss of mobile phone signal, when a storm took out the local mast, and due to loss of phone signal my central heating geo-fencing thought I was not home, so turned off the heating, that system no longer used, but it does show mobile phones are no good with bad weather.

I have never tired CB living here, maybe that is the answer?

Clearly if I throw money at the problem, I can get a HF radio and talk around the world, but there is no guarantee that some one would hear me, and phone UK authorities. On the Falkland 144.550 was designated as the emergency frequency, so there was a fair change of getting help, but no such thing in this country.

I have held a VP8, VR2, but now only a GW7 licence, where I use to live, GB3MP would get help most of the time, using the Moel-y-parc repeater, but here I am not in range of any repeater that I am licenced to use.

 

[flameport]

During stormy very cloudy weather our Freesat box will will not receive a signal so I presume satellite phones will have the same problem

No, totally unrelated.

Satellites used for mobile phone signals are in low earth orbit at a distance of about 220 miles.
The Astra satellites used for TV broadcasting are geostationary and located 100x further away at approximately 22000 miles.

 

[jj4091]

No, totally unrelated.

Satellites used for mobile phone signals are in low earth orbit at a distance of about 220 miles.
The Astra satellites used for TV broadcasting are geostationary and located 100x further away at approximately 22000 miles.

So does that mean that the signal is much stronger for phones and doesn't get diffused or blocked by heavy clouds.
I was presuming that is what was happening with TV signal

 

[ericmark]

Most of the disruption is caused by isotropic inversion which is often only a few hundred feet up, in the days of coal fires you could sometimes see it, as the smoke went up, it would seem to fan out at one point, this was sometimes below the broadcast TV aerial on a mast, and so signals reflected up not down, but if above the aerial then the signal could go 1000s of mile further than normal. It was dependent on the angle the signal hit it at, so a satellite on the equator as most TV satellites are may have the signal bounced off the earth as it nears the poles, but a satellite which is not geo-stationary may not have the same problem. There is also sporadic E where the E layer has become thick enough to bounce signals, this is a lot higher up.

Of course the copper phones can fail, this happened in Rhyl in the floors think in the 70s, and RAYNET saved the day providing coms for the emergency services, but copper tends to fail less often, as telephone exchanges had massive battery rooms for the 50 volt DC they worked on and with a lot also generators.

But the fibre has to have power at the cabinets, and these either have less or no battery back-up, I have a friend already on fibre, like me he has solar and batteries, and in his house the phones run from the battery backed system, so do not fail in a power cut, but they in fact do, as the cabinet supplying the fibre does not have battery back-up, so with a power cut, no phones, the mobile never works where he lives.