David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu> (06/23/91)
Macy and I drove by that underground site (outside of Medina, OH)
recently. That's the one for the #5 Transcontinental Coaxial Cable.
Medina Underground is where calls for Cleveland (to the north) and
Akron and other points south are stripped out of the main flow.
In any case, Macy mentioned having heard rumors of a study Bell Labs
was doing/did do. The #5 consisted of {istm} 11 coax tubes headed
east, with 11 more carrying westbound traffic. Each tube is about
thumb diameter, with the center conductor suspended by dielectric
spacers every few inches. There are repeaters every 5000 ft or so,
buried for protection. The whole mess is deep, by buried cables
standards.
Ma wanted to dig up each repeater, and pull the center conductor out,
and fibre optic cable in. This would, of course, give them about 3E8
times the available bandwidth. While not cheap, digging one hole/mile
is a far cry from a mile trench, especially thru areas that now are
built up.
Anyone ever hear of this, and if so, what became of it?
wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (305) 255-RTFM