larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (07/18/90)
In article <9793@accuvax.nwu.edu> npl@mozart.att.com (Nickolas Landsberg) writes: > The voltage applied during testing has nothing to do with "cleaning > pulses" or to "fuse shorts on the line." About the only thing I saw > which would "fuse shorts" is a "630" set. (630 Volts DC applied to the > line.) P.S. Does anyone know if these are still in use? It's been > years since I left the Outside Plant Dept. Ah, yes the KS-14103 Breakdown Test Set. These beasts are still around, but are rarely used today. Such breakdown procedures only worked with paper and pulp insulated cable. While quite a bit of pulp cable still exists today, other test procedures employing electronic capacitance measurement or a TDR seem to have largely replaced this rather extreme measure for localizing high-resistance faults. Another disadvantage was that operation of this breakdown test set on a working cable would introduce a tremendous amount of noise on working pairs, despite the later addition of a large filter inductor. Definitely not great for any data being transmitted on working pairs. The KS-14103 was nothing to trifle with since a fresh set of batteries (it used something like 14 45-volt batteries) would put out 630 volts at almost three amperes. That is a serious amount of energy which can really knock someone on their ass (or worse). Some, er, idle plant personnel in years past have been known to, ah, investigate the effects of the breakdown test set on various telephone components. Most interesting was its effect on the neon glow lamps used in ANI-C, which could be overdriven to the point of explosive decomposition, replete with flying shards of glass. :-) Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. "Have you hugged your cat today?" {boulder||decvax||rutgers||watmath}!acsu.buffalo.edu!kitty!larry VOICE: 716/688-1231 || FAX: 716/741-9635 {utzoo||uunet}!/ \aerion!larry