Talk:Overhead power line

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This article needs a lot of work. I don't even have enough understanding of what the article is supposed to be saying to correct the problems. Maybe somebody could look at the German version and try to get more accurate translation on some of this. Atomiktoaster 03:24, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

I agree with the merge proposal...I'd do it now if I had time. Text needs work, the history is redundant with the power transmission article and would be well merged there, and there's the usual Wikitis to clear up - the article isn't very authoritative sounding, and needs input from people with relevant experience. There's a good reason why mechanical translations aren't recommended on Wikipedia. --Wtshymanski 03:54, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I'm not so sure (but I'm new here, too). Content is slim right now, but needn't be. Overhead power lines are a big, big subject area if somebody wants to get technical with it; I'd like to add at least a little bit about modelling, etc. Maybe clean up a bit and leave for somebody to expand? John Fisher 03:36, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

I oppose the merge. There's a lot of information in this subject that can't be covered in the big electric power transmission article. However, there should be a link in the first sentence or two to the other article. Also, the article needs to be cleaned up. -- Kjkolb 10:23, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moved out telecomms portion

[edit] Telecommunication

Overhead powerline structures may also be used to support cables for telephone, communications, television, and other services. An overhead line in telecommunications is a line run on telephone poles, whose wires are not isolated. In order to fasten it to the poles; glass, ceramic or plastic insulators are used. Short-circuits between the wires are avoided by the fact that a minimum distance between them is kept. The telephone network in Germany was re-equipped at high cost to underground cable (and occasionally also overhead cable) since overhead lines are often disrupted by weather; storms damage poles, lines can ice up and collapse due to the weight of ice or snow.

In the United states, a similar system of local and Radio Frequency (on copper wire) carrier circuits were used to provide long distance communication between cities. Open wire was the term given to any wire on an insulator. Local circuits had anywhere from 2 to 20 wires on a pole, with a two wire lead being attached to a pole with wooden brackets, and anything above six wires were typically constructed on a crossarm, with 10 or 20 positions per arm. A typical pole was able to carry up to six crossarms, making for a possibility of up to 30 circuits (for 10 pin) or 60 circuits for a 20 pin configuration. 20 Pin arms were typically found in urban areas. Toll (long distance) lines use a special configuration of crossarm with the space between wires being 8 inches and 18 inches between other circuits. Sometimes the individual pairs were connected with copper pieces between each insulator and the wooden pins to help stabilize capacitance issues. None of the metal pieces were ever grounded, otherwise capacitive coupling would leak energy from the line to earth. Beginning in the 1950s, however, the open wire began to come down and multi-pair cable became the favoured choice of telephone companies. in the 1960s, microwave and fiber optic technology was put into service, with modern day open wire being nearly extinct today.

(This isn't about a power line so belongs somewhere else, in a more telecomms-oriented article.) --Wtshymanski 17:54, 11 April 2006 (UTC)