ijk@violin.att.com (Ihor J Kinal) (10/18/89)
Watching the news reports, it was interesting to note that ABC managed to have power and communciations sufficient to broadcast out. It was obvious that power was out, since the blimp shots showed no lights, except for autos on the highways, so it wasn't unexpected that most phone lines were down or overloaded. One of the networks called the CHiP, and they stated that they had lost phone communications with most of their sites in the area, so they were unable to give damage estimates. I WAS SURPRISED THAT THE STATE POLICE DON'T HAVE BACKUP COMMUNICATIONS. Something on the nature of meteor-bounce communications [I've read recent articles that even trucks on their cross-country trips can communicate back to their base with something like this]. It's low band-width, so you store a message, and the equipment waits for a short time period until a meteor shower occurs, but aparently the wait is never long. It would appear to be the ultimate backup, as long as the radio itself is not buried. Speaking of communications, ABC constantly showed us the same picture from the blimp that was there to cover the ball game. My wife asked a very good question - why not send the blimp south towards the epicenter, to give a direct report??? Given the state of highways, etc, it would obviously get there quicker than anything except a helicopter, and presumably most of those were engaged in local disaster relief. Ihor Kinal att!cbnews!ijk <include standard disclaimers>
illgen@hq.af.mil (Keneth..Illgen) (10/19/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0459m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> ijk@violin.att.com (Ihor J Kinal) writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 459, message 1 of 10 >One of the networks called the CHiP, and they stated that they had >lost phone communications with most of their sites in the area, so >they were unable to give damage estimates. >I WAS SURPRISED THAT THE STATE POLICE DON'T HAVE BACKUP COMMUNICATIONS. I can't speak for CHiP but in most instances emergency services backup communications systems are prioritized. Radio traffic is initialy used for determining injuries and hospiital space. While the networks are rightfully interested in physically damaged areas the police, fire and medical departments have to use their limited frequency range to coordinate rescue efforts. >Speaking of communications, ABC constantly showed us the same picture >from the blimp that was there to cover the ball game. My wife asked a >very good question - why not send the blimp south towards the >epicenter, to give a direct report??? I was very frustrated with all the network coverage being focused on S.F. and Oakland. My loved ones are in San Jose and Palo Alto. I understand that S.F. is the major media center and naturally the best base of operations. Regarding the blimp; it's a slow moving craft and would not have made it far enough south before darkness set it. I think ABC and/or Goodyear made the right decision to keep it in the S.F/Oakland area.
jim@eda.com (Jim Budler) (10/19/89)
ijk@violin.att.com (Ihor J Kinal) writes: } One of the networks called the CHiP, and they stated that they had } lost phone communications with most of their sites in the area, so } they were unable to give damage estimates. } I WAS SURPRISED THAT THE STATE POLICE DON'T HAVE BACKUP COMMUNICATIONS. I don't know about the CHP themselves, but the general emergency services backup system for the area was based on cellular telephones. It didn't work. Ref: Two local TV interviews with members of the Emergency Services. Jim Budler jim@eda.com ...!{decwrl,uunet}!eda!jim compuserve: 72415,1200 applelink: D4619 voice: +1 408 986-9585 fax: +1 408 748-1032
brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor) (10/20/89)
There is a statewide police radio service in California, but it can get congested easily and I recall seeing bulletins asking that it not be used for anything but the highest-priority traffic in times of emergency. Much of it piggybacks on microwave circuits, some of which were not in operation because of fallen or twisted towers and power problems. The CERFnet, BARRNet, Calinet, and associated computer networks mostly kept running throughout much of this, although there were some outages due to power failures at a few key points, and coincidently a circuit between Stanford and Berkeley had failed a couple of hours before the quake hit. We had communications from San Diego to Stanford and UC Santa Barbara at all times; UC Santa Cruz came back online in a couple of hours once they had their emergency power up, and UC Davis and UC Berkeley were back early in the morning. UC San Francisco was back on-line before noon the following day. The UC Office of the President in Oakland was never offline. Most of this network is T1, much of it over PacBell and MCI fiber, with a few microwave links. None of it is dialup, so this traffic did not impact congested voice circuits. The E-mail community was passing "health and welfare" sort of traffic using electronic mail for much of the night, and I know that many families slept easier that night because of the electronic mail capabilities of the various computer networks. Although I handled little of this traffic myself, I certainly saw lots of it go through to the quake area. In the last day or so, we've seen a peak of more than 20% over our normal E-mail load, and we're as far south in California as you can get - more than 400 miles away from the quake. I expect that's because we're well-connected and much of the normal E-mail routing into the Bay Area is still in the process of coming back online. - Brian
tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) (10/23/89)
Ihor Kahal asked why ABC didn't send the blimp south to survey damage. I'll be that the blimp had to be line-of-site with a stationary truck with a dish that could not track it over the horizon. Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP MCI Mail: 328-8544 KT7H @ N7HFZ