I had mentioned my transformer was rusted, and I would post pictures of it. It took me a bit to get to it, and in that time somebody tried to paint the transformer with some black spray paint, but apparently the paint ran out before they finished, so you can still see some of the rust. Also they stenciled on a number for the transformer, which may or may not relate to the actual size of the transformer. Following will be pictures of my transformer, followed by by well-painted, relatively new-looking transformer, which looks like every other transformer on my road, except mine. After that, I will include the comm lines off the two polls on each corner of the property, first, the one pole for my house on one corner, and then the one for the neighbors. I blacked out some stuff from the neighbor’s house which might have been useful to locating the poles in some of those photos. Finally, I will include something installed on the comm line as it passes in front of my house. I would disregard it, but as you will see it is held together by electrical tape, and one thing I have noted about surveillance pole guys is their work is often half-assed, compared to the Utility pole guys. Where a union utility pole guy will just take overtime to properly waterproof something, or link things together, surveillance pole guys seem to want to just get in and out, so one sign of surveillance may be stuff which is waterproofed by wrapping a garbage bag around it and duct taping it, or a router in which the wires going into it first form a massive birdsnest, before somehow emerging from the birdsnest to find their proper position in the router.
First, my transformer, freshly painted, apparently, though with the wrong color:
Now a neighbor’s transformer, which basically looks like all the other transformers on the road, which is quite a few:
Now the comm devices on my pole on one side of the property:
The neighbor’s comm hookups on the opposite property line. Interestingly they also have a small satellite dish on their house, which does not appear to be a regular Viasat, DISH, or DirectTV dish. I am not sure what Hughes looks like:
The pipe and wires which go down the pole and into the ground:
And finally, the thing in the middle of my property which is held together by electrical tape:
I am not a specialist in this stuff, and even if I was, I am sure surveillance tries to make it look like legitimate equipment. But if anyone knows about it and something looks weird, please leave a comment.
Hi AC,
The thing on the cable looks like a splice box (what you’d put if the cables needed fixin’ or if you needed to take some out locally). In the past they were waterproof boxes (looking like plastic cylinders) but I wouldn’t be surprised it they use now some big shrinkwrap tubing for cost savings… But like you said, you can make anything look like the real thing.
Thanks,
Bob
Thank you!
splice box
It does look like that but there’s something wrong with it. Look on the right and the left there’s a flange. Like a L shape that the bottom of the L points down on top and upo on bottom. That’s not right. If you have a flange…it’s supposed to fit into something. Other wise what’s the point of it? Notice the way the flange is on this it doesn’t do a damn thing. So either they left something off or maybe…whatever they have in there is too big for the junction they have so they just left parts off. That, what looks like a fiberglass bar, held with two stainless metal clips…what the hell is that. It doesn’t really seem to be mechanically that useful. Sure it seems to hold…something but there appears to be some really off about it.
Stop and think. If you wanted to support a junction box you would use clamps on the cable going into the box on each side. That way the connections would be stable even if you took the box off. “If” you had it on the box, then the clamps would be on the top and it would be a hard shell box Otherwise how to work on the cables or fiber inside? It just looks freakish. I wonder if that fiberglass looking bar and the metal clamps are…something. I know it looks like supports but the way they are done is foolish if all you wanted was support.
Once again I would make up something, say it’s coming apart and you think it will knockout your internet, anything. What are they going to do, beam you. Complain. Call them from a pay phone, tell them your phone quit, or something they can;t check. Maybe you can get a real, not fake tech out there and watch him see if he starts scratching his head and looking weird at this monstrosity.
My company used to do the boxes and switched to
the cheap stuff, I wonder it they left the supports from the
boxes still on. However, those boxes are nothing more than electronic connections, so in the morning (no sun to hit them out all day long) they shouldn’t register any heat signature. Also with the RF and the EMF meter you should see no changes. I would do that before messing with it and getting a tech up there on the line for half a day to fix it!
Interesting, thank you for this.
Longtime lurker AC,
Also a longtime electric line worker. From your pictures it looks like you have the Sure Fine or Best Choice of utility providers. Both transformers are old time CSP transformers. Without getting into the weeds too much, that just means that the switch to energize them is inside of the tub. It’s that little ring handle on the side.
Most utilities no longer use them because you have no visual open when you are working on them. We use a standard fused cutout that mounts to the pole above the tube. That way when you have a fault, it can easily be seen from the ground.
All of the connections are old time split bolts covered with tape.. Nothing really fishy there as a lot of utilities still use them. But very unprofessional having them up where the wind can beat them against the transformer case. They will eventually wear through the tape and cause a fault.
Also, spray painting an energized tub is a no no. Especially black. The mist of paint in the air is highly conductive and can start an arc instantaneously. And the painter with a pressurized, flammable bomb in his hand. This is weapons grade stupid. If I saw one of my guys doing this, the ass chewing would be long and loud.
As far as black, as electrical equipment heats up, it’s efficiency declines. Why paint one black? Doesn’t make sense. And why the half assed job that is guaranteed to piss off your superiors ?
And why no weatherhead on the top of the conduit ? Very amateurish
As for the numbers on the case, just means that this is a 5 KVA tub. Supplies 5 kilovolt amps on the secondary or load side. Have no idea what the primary voltage is but gonna guess 2400 or 7200.
I have no knowledge of the communications equipment. and won’t even venture a guess.
The only thing that I can deduce from your pictures is that this is some really piss poor line work.
Thank you for that!
You should report it as vandalism.
Agree, piss poor line work.
Agreed this is one of the worst outside plant installations I have ever seen. The low voltage side (comms) being open allows for easy bridging. Think tapping the comms lines whenever your away and wiring it to a listening post in the neighborhood. Surveillance is gonna get what they deserve…. Christ Is King!
And pray tell me the power company doesn’t have gray paint??? I bet they have cases of this stuff.
Of course I could be wrong and it’s just old stuff maintained by jack legs.
I cannot answer much about the transformers although the black paint looks like the type used to extend plant life as a preventative.
The comm lines are a subject with which I can assist. The strand with orange roll labels are fiber cables. Below that is a suitcase closure for copper telephone cable. The drop going down appears to be a fiber although I’m surprised some sort of micro duct wasn’t used to protect the fiber line transition.
Now the bottom closure image is a Ready Access boot closure (RA) for copper cable. They’re typically secured with a metal clip at the bottom of the frame where the rubber boot ends. The clips are all missing and instead of being a good tech and placing a new closure like a SLiC, a lazy f*ck just wrapped it in thin vinyl and rolled. Even ties are better than vinyl and almost as quick.
Thank you!
AC, the transformers look normal though yours is worse for wear. They appear to be 25 kVA (kilo-volt-amperes) but could be as high as 45 though not likely. They are clearly single phase with a 7.62 kV primary and 120/240V secondary. This is very common and exactly what one would expect to see for a residential service. The thing on the top is a standard lightning arrestor. The non-insulated line is the ground wire. They are also oil filled, meaning the coils are immersed in mineral oil to keep them cool. These can be overloaded to 150% for several hours without damage on a routine basis so long as they have a several hour period of light loading to cool off afterwards. This is also normal utility practice. The lines will create a magnetic field through normal operation, and this field is how current meter work. The magnetic field will increase as the current increases, but the lines are not large enough to carry a current large enough to distort the magnetic field in your house. Using known physics/technology, your neighbor’s transformer can’t generate the magnetic fields you’ve observed nor can it power technology that will. By way of comparison a small MRI uses about 60 kVA three phase more than double what these units probably are. This means either the technology is very low power and they have a physics discovery that is not known outside their circles, or it is something other than tech, like demonic forces at play.
I don’t know a lot about the comm side, but nothing looks odd to me.
Why wouldn’t the transformers have the rating on the side? Even mine appears to not have a rating, except for the stenciled on 5, which either was done by somebody which did not know what it should have been (itself odd), or it was rated by somebody who knew it was 25, but they didn’t have a 2 stencil, so they just stenciled on a 5, and hoped somebody in the future would be able to decipher that was the wrong rating.
A part of me wonders if they are not rated because they are some kind of advanced unit used by surveillance to supply MRI-level current to an observation post without revealing they are supplying MRI-level current. Maybe they were afraid to mis-rate it on the surface for liability reasons or something.
Thank you for the analysis on it. Very interesting.
I never worked for a Telecommunications provider, but I have worked WITH them for awhile. For the transmission lines, it probably depends a bit on the age of your house/neighborhood/area. New drops should use fiber with some type of fiber to coax converter closer to where the houses are. Older systems might still use coax as the long haul carrier medium (trunk-feeder style), but those will probably need some sort of repeater as the signal will degrade over distance. There are some carriers that will drop fiber right into your home and then provide a fiber to copper media converter in your house.
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There will also be splices and maintenance loops (extra cable wound in multiple loops), as the others pointed out as well.
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This site may be of some assistance in identifying all of the parts and pieces.
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This site has a lot of other pictures of stuff on the poles (radar!).
https://www.prc68.com/I/TelephonePoles.shtml#Hybrid_Fibre-coaxial
Thank you!
The transformer is marked with a 5, which would normally mean 5 kVA, but that limits your electric current to 41 A at 120 V and only 20.5 A at 240 V. That won’t even power an electric range, so I suspect the other number was painted over. It’s probably 25 kVA but could be as low as 15 or as high as 45. Given their age and the rural setting, 25 is the best bet.
Thank you for the input. The house is running a lot, from surveillance systems to an electric hot tub.
Would it be useful to monitor the total current passing through your home’s AC wiring, at the time of an attack? There are inexpensive AC clamp meters.
That is a good idea.
Looks like typical fiber optic splice enclosures to me. “pipes” going into the ground are riser protectors, meaning covers for the aerial cables going underground to service homes. Cable, phone, and power use these. Nothing unusual.