Key West power outage

A big thunderboomy rumbled through the lower Keys late last night and early this morning, knocking out electricity to the feed site.

Even though my own uninterruptible power supply kept the scanner, stream computer, and cable modem running nicely for the hour or so that electricity was out, the p.o.s. Comcast cable Internet service went out almost immediately. A call to Comcast confirmed that they have no backup power for their cable infrastructure in Key West, so when the power goes out, the customers are s.o.l.

Despite Comcast's superior downlink speed an order has been placed with Shuddern Bell/BellSouth/AT&T for a DSL line. At least they make an effort to provide service during a power outage, even if it doesn't last quite as long as stated publicly. Power outages are frequent in Key West so it behooves everybody on the island to plan accordingly.

p.s. I locked out the aircraft guard channel that was stuck on a weak carrier. I opened up the aircraft group yesterday, so we shall see how long it lasts. If it becomes too much trouble I'll just lock it out again.