what is the black box chained to a telephone pole

There are different services provides on the utility poles depending on how far from town yous're located.  This is a visual guide to what's on them.

Alternate Current Mains Power

At the top is the high voltage Air-conditioning.  Most of the poles near my house have 12,000 Volts.  At my house it's single phase (ii wires), simply closer to boondocks it'southward iii phase.  Three stage is required for running motors rated well above 1 horse ability, industrial air conditioners, etc.  May be handy for a large home shop if you want to utilize industrial lathes or other large consumers of power.

Each firm has its own transformer that steps down the 12,000 Volts to 220 VAC middle tapped.  The centre tap has a wire to a footing rod at the base of the pole.  The input to the transformer is fused.  If a curt develops between the transformer primary and the secondary the center tap provides a low resistance path to ground thus blowing the fuses on the transformer input.  This is and so that a transformer failure will not let 12 kV Air conditioning to enter your business firm.

My house at present has an analog meter, only I've been getting letters for a couple of  years maxim they will install a "smart meter" in the about future.

The entry panel to the firm has ii branches, i fed from each side of the pole transformer (aka: pole pig).  110 VAC circuits are fed betwixt ane branch and the center tap (neutral).  220 VAC circuits are fed from both branches.

Airtight Circuit Television set (Cable Tv set)

This is a single coaxial cable that has an amplifier at regular intervals to brand upwards for cable loss.  Likewise there are taps, typically with 4 outputs to feed houses.  Originally merely used as a 1 way arrangement to distribute analog Boob tube.  Now used with cable modems every bit a two style internet connection.  The latest contraction is to deliver movies every bit digital data on demand, either free or pay per view.  My house is too far from town so there'southward no cablevision TV here.

Cobweb Optic Data

This is a mode to carry a very large amount of digital data.  At that place'due south a FO line that terminates a few miles from my business firm and from there DSL is routed over the copper twisted pair line.

Telephone

This is classical analog phone or more modern Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) for a two way internet connectedness.  It uses a much wider bandwidth on the twisted pair copper lines and then can not be used with loading coils that are commonly used to supply analog voice phone service to people far from the cardinal telephone office.  There's altitude limit on how far DSL can be delivered.

	HV AC	Tel/DSL	CATV/ Broadband	Comments
Fig ane	yes	yes
Fig ii	yes	yeah
Fig 3	yeah	yes	yes	Fiber
Fig iv	yes	yep
Fig 5	aye	yeah		1ph 3wire
Fig half dozen	aye			60kV
Fig 7	aye	yes
Fig 8	yes	yep	yep
Fig 9	yep	yes	yes	BTN-M node
Fig 10	yes			Fiber
Fig 11	yes	yes	yep	DSLAM Ten-box Fiber
Fig 12	yes			Cap banking company Fiber
Fig xiii	yes	yeah	yes	BTN-M node CATV info
Fig 14	yes	yes		my pole
Fig 15	yes	yes		my DSL
Fig sixteen		yes		my DSL
Fig 17	yep	yes		my secret
Fig 18		yes		my NID
Fig 19	yep			outdoor electric panel
Fig 20		aye		loading coils
Fig 21	yes			69kV power tower
Fig 22	yes			Pwr Two close upwardly
Fig 23		aye		tel boxes
Fig 24				ISDN dial-downwardly block inside
Fig 25				pole maint
Fig 26				pole brace
Fig 27				PG&E Smart Meter Repeater
Fig 28				cut pole new pole
Fig 29				cut pole new pole
Fig_31				General Instrument, Jerrold Starline BTN-G Broadband Telecommunications Node
Fig_32				"
Fig_33				"
Fig_34				"
Fig_35				"
Fig 36				Steel Transmission Poles on ground ready for installation
Fig 37				Water Pump Pole replaced, why?
Fig 38				Excavator in strange place (for 3 new manual poles)
Fig 39				New Transmission Towers on the next ridge
Fig forty				Water Pump Pole replaced
Fig 41				PG&Due east new Voltage Regulator Nov 2021
Fig 42				2022-01-25 New Voltage Regulator in Ukiah

Photos

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Fig one	Unmarried Phase 12kV AC Mains Copper telephone (DSL) cable.
Fig 2	Single Stage 12kV Air-conditioning Mains Copper telephone (DSL) cable.
Fig 3	Cable TV(cobweb only)  top left making a right plow.  Copper pair  phone cable.  As well see Fig 8 More photos of Cable TV
Fig 4	Single Stage 12kV Air conditioning Mains A single petticoat insulator corresponds to about 12 kV, see Fig 22. Ii telephone trunk cables, 1 makiing a left turn and the other going straight.
Fig 5	The end of the 3-phase 12 kV AC mains. There's a water well and storage tank to the correct fed by the heavy black cablevision. The left-hand driblet is a 1-ph iii-wire 120/240V supply and the right-hand one is a 4-wire high-leg delta (Wiki). (cheers to Paul C. & North. McLain) In that location's also a phone feed to the well house. The water tank is located at the peak of the ridge road.  Across the street from the pump house is a residence.
Fig forty	Run across Fig 5 higher up for views of this pole prior to it's replacement. This is the merely pole I've seen where the cable Idiot box and phone lines were moved.  There are many many poles around here where the new pole has the PG&Eastward electric lines and the old pole right side by side to it has the cable Telly and telephone lines with information technology'southward peak chopped off. (eg. see Fig 28)
Fig six	lx kV Transmission line crosses the route and the 12 kV distribution line.
Fig 7	iii-Stage 12 kV Ac Mains with a fuse in each of the 3 wires. Copper phone cable.
Fig viii	T intersection on the street and on the pole. 3-Stage 12 kV Ac going forth the principal road. The 3-stage lines to the correct are not connected to the main line above because the three switches(cutouts) are open up. This is the idea of a grid.  Lines tin be continued together in different ways.  This allows isolating part of the filigree while keeping the rest of the grid hot.  Without the switches y'all would demand to shut down a much larger surface area if there was a problem anywhere. The Comcast fiber cable makes a right turn hither and does not continue on my street. The telephone cablevision continues upwards my street.
Fig 9	Another T street intersection. This time all the three-phase 12 kV lines are continued (switches closed). 220 VAC feed from adjacent pole to a house. Cable TV coax & BTN-M node Phone cable and junction boxes.
Fig 10	3-Phase 12 kV Air conditioning virtually the DSL box. U-turn is on fiber cable to avert cut information technology. thanks to David WB8FOZ: aka:"snowshoe" a) Then in that location's plenty slack to permit both ends to the ground & into the splice truck. b) If a pole is wiped out, the snowshoe breaks loose before the fiber is overstressed and fractures internally.
Fig xi Note cantankerous-connect boxes (on correct) tin can appear by themselves, But DSLAM cabinets (center) will always be accompanied by ability cabinets (left).	There'due south a fiber optic cablevision from the primal phone part that feeds a box with a DSL converter. In that location'due south likewise cable Goggle box on the pole. Digital subscriber line access multiplexer (Wiki: DSLAM)  Note: the maximum distance from the DSLAM to subscriber is about 17,000 feet. Power box is on left with labels and lights about mains power and generator. The DSLAM box is in the center. Crossover box is the i on the right.
DLSAM box - DMAX1120 (Google) (top to bottom) Battery (12 hour) cross-connect Principal Shelf cross-connect Expansion Shelf	Crossover box shown below.  Annotation big punch downwards areas on left and correct.  Each of these is connected to a cable with a large number of pairs.  These connections are not disturbed.  In the centre part are the crossover pairs that connect ane cable to the other cable.  If a pair has a problem in cable A then that pair tin can be abandoned and the crossover connected to a good pair.  But when there are no longer any skillful pairs in that location's a trouble and a new cable needs to be installed. While I was at the DSLAM there were ii other subscribers, both of which could receive phone calls, but had no dial tone so could non place outgoing calls. DSLAM box cards at the left with: ii LEDs are for Plain Onetime Telephone Service (POTS). 3 LEDs are for ADSL. iv LEDs are for Optical Cable Transceivers (OC3-XCVR). viii LEDs are Central Processing Units (CPU). three LEDs & 3 Test Points are Power Supply Units (PSU). 4 LEDs & 2 Pair of jacks are ?? When a black cross-connect block is pulled the subscriber is disconnected and a test set tin can exist used to check for punch tone and place a test phone call.
Fill-in Generator to maintain DSL during PG&E shutdown.	DSL is provisioned on top of a normal copper pair phone line.  The phone line falls under FCC Title II regulations, so in that location'south a requirement that it piece of work during emergency situations such as AC power failure.  This is not the case for most other providers of internet service. Too see Rural Internet, Generators, at&t DSL,
Fig 12	I think this is a capacitor bank used for Power Cistron (Wiki) correction.  Many of the loads continued to the Air-conditioning mains take anterior reactance which increases the current in the transmission lines which is lost ability due to heat.  And then, by making the load look more than like a resistor less power is wasted in heating the transmission line. In the EU in that location are rules about the ability factor of electrical devices and so that the overall system operates nearly a ability gene of 1.0.
Fig 13	There is a cable Tv amplifier that has 2 cables on each end, why? answer from Neal: ----------------- Because cable TV networks use two types of distribution cables: - TRUNK is designed for to carry signals over long distances with minimum noise and distortion. Torso signal levels are optimized for minimum dissonance and baloney. Trunks may be cascaded to depths upward to 30 amplifiers (although I once heard of a trunk line 67 amplifiers deep). Body lines are never tapped. Trunk is typically implemented with 0.750" solid aluminum sheath cable, although other sizes will work just as well. - FEEDER is designed for brusque runs within a small expanse (a block or two) to feed customers. Feeder lines are tapped as needed by neighboring structures, typically 1 tap per pole. Feeders run at essentially higher levels than trunk in order to provide the necessary level to drive the taps. Notwithstanding, the higher operating levels result in higher distortion levels; consequently, feeders are typically limited to two amplifiers ("line extenders") per run. Feeder is typically implemented with 0.500" solid aluminum sheath cable, although other sizes volition work but every bit well. The amplifier shown in the photo is a "terminating bridger" (or a "5-amp" in the lingo of line techs, who refer to amps by their Jerrold model numbers). The torso line enters upper left, and is amplified to a level of effectually +45 dBmV (which equals about -three.75 dBm, or 177.83 mV RMS at 75 ohms characteristic impedance). This bespeak is split three ways, producing three feeder outputs. These are the other 3 cables connected to the amplifiers. 1 feeder heads to the left to feed a neighborhood off photographic camera. The other two head to the correct to feed two more neighborhoods. For a detailed explanation, meet: http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/nu_lectures/lecture13/pdf/CATV.pdf -------------------------- Also on the correct there is a tap with a single coax line going to a residence. A black cylindrical phone breakout box and a rectangular metal telephone box on the pole.
Fig 14	This is the pole for my house. 6 kV unmarried phase AC at the top with a transformer feeding middle tapped 220 VAC to the house. The telephone torso has no tap on this pole, it's on the next pole further from the key office with a a couple of return cables. This really hurts for DSL since I'm the last firm that can go DSL service.
Fig xv	Close up of my telephone service at the pole.
Fig 16	This is on the next pole down the street where my two phone cables are branched off the main telephone cable. Y'all can see the two cables going to the right to my identify.
Fig 17	This is the pole for my firm. The large conduit at the left is the underground 220 VAC  feed to my house. There are two telephone cables to my house.  The original cable is the one that is buried in the ground.  The small conduit on the right was installed when the business firm was congenital to make installing cable Goggle box easier, but there's no way the cablevision TV company will extend service to those of us who are too far out in the forest then it's being used for a half dozen-pair phone cablevision.
Fig 18	At the upper left of the photo is the electric panel that as well has the electrical meter. The box to it'due south right is the demarcation box (demark) or Network Interface Device (Wiki: NID) The cable at the bottom center is the original telephone cable.  To it's right is what was supposed to be the cablevision Tv set conduit which now has another 6pair telephone cable.  The small conduit to the left is the extension string for the aircraft container. This is a 6 line bind box that came with the house.  But the cover was broken. Annotation that each of the 6 lines has 2 pair so there'due south a total of 12 pairs going into the business firm.. CO Cable Color Code No. Color Function one Wht/Blueish Dwelling house Phone 2 Wht/Orange FAX & DSL three Wht/Green iv Wht/Brown 5 Wht/Slate 6 Red/Blu x
Fig 23	The cable in the large cable TV conduit is a half-dozen pair CO phone cable. The other large cablevision coming up from the concrete is the original CO phone cable and has been cut off, i.due east. no longer being used but probably OK. The medium sized cable coming out of the wall at the lower left is a vi pair CAT3 cablevision installed for ISDN service and makes a  habitation run to the ISDN jack in my office (now used for FAX/DSL). The upper left wht/org pair is the home phone line. The upper correct Blue/White pair is the FAX, DSL line. Of the grouping of four cables coming out of the wall 3 are quad cables (Red/Green & Yellow/Black) and 1 of them is the ground wire (connects at the pinnacle center of the box). Although this box tin support four lines at that place are jumpers so now it'southward only supporting 2 lines.  I'll alter this in the near future when the Panasonic KX-TA824 telephone organisation is installed.
Fig 24	Inside finish of ISDN (Wiki) cable, peradventure 1999? Wires have been brought out from the adjacent flush wall jack box and fed to this surface mountain RJ-11 Jack. At that place are sixteen dial down terminals, merely they are paired and so it's but 8 terminals. The Cerise-Green pair to the socket connects to the Wht/Brn pair from the side by side flush box. They are in the lower left corner. Not line pair is connected to the Yellow-Black socket wires.
Fig 19	The left side of the AC mains entrance panel has the underground conduit feeding the analog electric meter. PG&G says they are going to install a smart meter, but information technology's been a couple of years and information technology hasn't happened yet. The right side contains some breakers.  The door is hinged at the top and volition non stay open unless someone holds it.  There's some other breaker panel in the garage (see the kitchen oven repair "Wiring for new oven" for a little more on information technology)
Fig 20	Small & Large Loading Coils in the cylindrical cases. These are typically 88 mH Inductors.
Fig 21	This loftier voltage power tower is visible from my front door. See shut up view (Fig 21) beneath.
Fig 22	Close up of High Voltage Transmission Belfry.  6 Wires or two three phase lines. Distribution (Wiki) is what's on the wooden poles and is commonly 7.2, 12.47, 25, and 34.5 kV, "12 kV for the poles on my street. Manual (Wiki) is for moving electricity over long distances and is done at voltages much higher than for distribution and the peak in a higher place ground is also much higher. You tin can estimate the line-line voltage by counting the petticoat insulators: 1 - 12 Kv 3 - 34.5kv 4 - 46kv 5 - 69kv 7 - 92kv 22 -345kv And so for this case v petticoats = 69 kV line to line voltage or (69 kV/SQRT(3) = 39.8 kV to ground. PS to have this photograph from my front end door requires a long telephoto lens ( and scroll down a little).
Fig 25 Pole Maintenance	Man on right (00:00:12) with chain saw or weed eater. Homo on left (00:26:00) working at base of pole. Osmose - Wood Preservation - Wood Pole Maintenance -
Fig 26 Pole Brace
Fig 27 PG&Yard Smart Meter Repeater	Over a yr ago PG&East installed a smart electric meter merely it was read the old fashioned manner. But now Jan 2015, a repeater has been installed on a ridge line up the road and it's now "smart". Annotation since this is a PG&Due east pole they merely use the neutral and one of the 115 VAC transformer outputs to power the repeater. If the ability fails at that pole, like happened final week, PG&Eastward can see that the repeater is down since it has an ID. They can likewise see what houses upwardly stream have ability and effigy out nigh where the problem is.
Fig 28 at&t no longer maintaining poles	PG&E has put in a new pole and moved their wires to the new pole so cut off the top of the old pole leaving the at&t telephone cable.  Only at&t has not moved the phone cable to the new pole.  It's my understanding that at&t has an obligation to maintain the outside copper wires, simply it seems they are non doing it. These two poles are on my street.  I wonder in how many other places are they ignoring maintenance with the idea that they are going to abandon this outside plant? California AB 2395 "Telecommunication: replacement of public switched telephone network."
Fig 29 at&t no longer maintaining poles	PG&E has put in a new pole and moved their wires to the new pole then cut off the top of the old pole leaving the at&t phone cable.  Only at&t has not moved the phone cable to the new pole.  It'southward my agreement that at&t has an obligation to maintain the outside copper wires, but it seems they are not doing it.
Fig 36	Steel Transmission Poles 20 June 2019 I'm guessing this is so that in the event of a burn the pole volition not burn.. The trouble is steel gets weak when heated so may slump, but that ameliorate than dropping the line on the footing. Taken with G6 cell phone from parked car. See Ukiah 29 June 2022 PG&E Poles -
Fig 38 Excavator at top of hill why?	At that place has been a lot of PG&E piece of work for the by few months where they are installing new wooden distribution poles next to existing wood poles.  The new poles are larger in diameter and mayhap taller, but the new wires are considerable larger.  Maybe to make it less likely they will pause if a tree branch falls or perhaps because the whole United states of america electrical grid need to double in capacity if gasoline is going to exist replaced with electricity from the grid.  Probably the onetime reason. When the new hole is dug, information technology is NOT using an auger, only rather a wand with I assume compressed air/water.  Peradventure because the new pole is right next to the old pole, or maybe it's a ameliorate way to dig the pigsty? Ans: to avoid secret utilities Used to dig holes for the 3 new transmission poles (non a tower).
Fig 37  2022 Oct 22: Replacing distribution wood pole next to the HV lines & Water Pump	The PG&E electrical outage map shows: Commencement Time: 9:01 am Estimated restoration: v:00 pm Customers afflicted: 35 A month ago I received two letters saying my ability would be out for a pole replacement, both times it did not happen. And then this time the power outage happened, only there was no alarm letter of the alphabet.
Fig 39 New Transmission Poles on next ridge	New steel poles (not lattice type towers) replaced the wooden poles and cross arm on the next hill over.
Fig 41 Voltage Regulator	YouTube: T&D PowerSkills: Pole Elevation Equipment - Voltage Regulators [PREVIEW] -
Fig 42 2022-01-25 New Voltage Regulator in Ukiah	There is an existing apartment complex behind the voltage regulator and an apartment complex nether structure beyond the street.  This is the second day of the install.

Instead of the old fashioned cable Television system where just coax was used the organization Comcast is using hither is called Hybrid Fibre-coaxial.  The frequency compensating line amplifiers have been eliminated by installing nodes every mile or and then and running coax to the subscribers where the length of the coax run is brusque plenty that no amplifier is needed.  The organization is based on the Full general Musical instrument, Jerrold Starline BTN-M Broadband Telecommunications Node.  As far as I can tell this box can use either coax or fiber (Wiki) in the path from/to the headend (Wiki) or downstream.  At the headend (Wiki, CMTS) there are multiple fibers connecting to the internet.  There are up to four coax I/O ports that can go to subscribers.  The classical cablevision TV system was one style from the headend to the subscriber, merely for internet a ii fashion organization is needed.

YouTube: Cable Television Node- inside the Fiber - Coax node box
5 - 200 MHz for Render (Upward Load) and fifty - 750 MHz for Foreword (Down Load).
If 1 TV channel takes up six MHz and then slightly more than 100 channels are available for a unmarried path.  Mayhap twice that if a "dissever" organization is used?

DOCSIS 3.0 (Wiki) is the current cable modem standard.  In versions prior to three.0 only i TV aqueduct was used limiting the bandwidth, merely now at to the lowest degree iv channels are supported with no maximum number divers.  With 4 channels the max download throughput is 152 Mb/s (what Comcast advertises for is small business service).

In that location is an impact of this wider bandwidth on the Wireless router (Wiki) that yous attach to the modem.  The first generation routers

only worked at ii.4 GHz and only supported a limited amount of bandwidth.  The newer routers support multiple channels on both 2.4 and 5.8 Ghz allowing a number of people to have simultaneous connections.

PS I looked into Mobile broadband modems (Wiki) merely they have data caps and only work with a reasonably strong prison cell telephone signal.  Something I practise non have.

7039317 Reconfigurable node for a hybrid fiber cable network, Marlin McGregor, General Instrument Corporation, May 2, 2006, - the Starline BTN-M node
Note that two fibers are used in this system.  One for download and i for upload so the organization is potentially symmetrical different ADSL where the "A" stands for asymmetrical.  This allows for high speed uploads, like needed for video broadcasting (i.e. a Youtube channel).

Fig 31	The input is the upper left fat cable. At that place are ii outputs the lower left and lower right. Phone cable is below the node box.
Fig 32	Can not tell much
Fig 33	One input & 3 outputs one with a tap. Phone cable is below the node box.
Fig 34	One input & one output with a tap. Telephone cable is below the node box.
Fig 35	One Input, 3 outputs one with a tap.

On 8 October 2022 at that place was a wood fire very close to my business firm.  Nosotros heard from the sheriff that the probable cause was a tree knocking downwards a electric line.  But today I read an commodity that said ""The utility company is charged with maintaining its power lines and the vegetation effectually them to prevent wildfires."  I don't call back that judgement applies to trees falling on power lines, but rather to preventing the High Voltage lines (not eht 220 volt lines that feed houses) from touching vegetation.  Note that if the Loftier Voltage lines touch vegetation the electrical arc tin can state a fire.  So, as far as I know, they maintain a ten foot separation.

I've asked the authors of the article to analyze this.

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Source: http://www.prc68.com/I/TelephonePoles.shtml