Good afternoon everyone:
We have been without internet and E mail services for about two weeks, this was not the result of any health issues, or serious problems. It was the result of a severe thunderstorm hitting Henderson, Ky with lots of heavy lightning.
Tall structures such as towers belonging to radio, Television and Internet services were hit as many as two, or three times during the course of the storm.
Our internet provider Henderson Municipal Power and Light maintains a 350 foot tower about a 1/4 of mile from our house. My system is totally wireless, my data is sent via an airport card, to my router and then to HMPL’s modem. I have a small antenna at rooftop level aimed toward the main tower.
This structure in coverage has antennas on all four sides of the tower to provide users from all points internet services. For a town with a small population this is indeed a good service. It is very reasonable in charges and works very well.
In fact we use it for video streaming Netflix for the most part and our house phone as well, we indeed have a good service.
Two weeks ago that all ended when the tower took a direct hit and wiped out large amounts of equipment needed to provide services. First problem was securing a tower crew to remove damaged equipment on the tower, this took some time in securing one. Most tower companies are on the road for extended periods of time.
The second problem was to replace all the damaged equipment and get customers back on line, yesterday I was contacted by HMPL and told they would have to make some changes to my system since they virtually had to start from scratch. I scheduled a service call for this afternoon. As you can see the changes were made and finally we are back on line.
Of course this is no assurance that the same problem might not occur again, the heat has been high all day and evening Thunderstorms are the normal for our weather. Hopefully, the heat will break and we will have few instances of down time.
The big point in this mail is we have become so dependent on the internet that when it is off for extended periods we cannot imagine life without it. We do have that feeling we are cut off from the outside world, i normally e mail friends during the day, get daily news on the internet and may at times look up information we need for some project.
BTW I had no damage to my ham radio tower of 70 feet, nor did I take a lighting strike, all of my radio gear was disconnected from my antenna systems. In fact if I am going to leave the house for extended periods all gear is disconnected from any outside antennas.
We plan to resume our posting of ham radio articles on the W9OG forum once again and provide a daily report to those who are looking for distant contacts.
but
Good to be back on line.
Bill K4LRX
