Solar panel recommended (Score: 2, Informative) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-08-21 20:53 (#J3DA) For anybody without a landline, a cheap solar panel is a good investment.You can use it to charge your cell phone (with any 12V car charger), or to charge your FIOS/U-Verse/cable-modem battery (requires in-line diode). And even without a ($40!) battery, you can use the panel for power directly, but only during daylight hours. It's equally useful to charge flashlight and radio batteries...You just have to be careful about duty cycle with solar. In winter, with just 8 hours of low-angle sunlight, possibly over-cast weather, you might only get a very small amount of power from it. So be sure to always significantly over-spec. Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 2, Insightful) by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 05:17 (#J473) That's great for your devices - but if the cell towers lose power, you're going to have to shout loudly.My sister lives up in Washington. When they had a rash of bad fires in her area, folks sometimes had power, but all the cell towers were out and there was no phone [inter]connectivity. For whatever reason, that doesn't seem to happen so much with the old copper wires.I'm not against bailing on copper. But there are pros to it. Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 2, Informative) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 10:46 (#J4QH) Since hurricane Katrina, the FCC has required all cell sites to have backup power. http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdfCells can potentially be more reliable than landlines... When one goes out, your phone can ramp up its power to reach a more distant one. Or at worst, you can get up higher or walk down the street until you get a signal. But to reach that point requires the FCC to take things a few steps further than they are currently willing to. Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 1) by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 18:09 (#J5HS) That's good to know - so at least there is some time before the juice runs out. How long are they supposed to have battery for, I wonder...
Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 2, Insightful) by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 05:17 (#J473) That's great for your devices - but if the cell towers lose power, you're going to have to shout loudly.My sister lives up in Washington. When they had a rash of bad fires in her area, folks sometimes had power, but all the cell towers were out and there was no phone [inter]connectivity. For whatever reason, that doesn't seem to happen so much with the old copper wires.I'm not against bailing on copper. But there are pros to it. Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 2, Informative) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 10:46 (#J4QH) Since hurricane Katrina, the FCC has required all cell sites to have backup power. http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdfCells can potentially be more reliable than landlines... When one goes out, your phone can ramp up its power to reach a more distant one. Or at worst, you can get up higher or walk down the street until you get a signal. But to reach that point requires the FCC to take things a few steps further than they are currently willing to. Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 1) by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 18:09 (#J5HS) That's good to know - so at least there is some time before the juice runs out. How long are they supposed to have battery for, I wonder...
Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 2, Informative) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 10:46 (#J4QH) Since hurricane Katrina, the FCC has required all cell sites to have backup power. http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdfCells can potentially be more reliable than landlines... When one goes out, your phone can ramp up its power to reach a more distant one. Or at worst, you can get up higher or walk down the street until you get a signal. But to reach that point requires the FCC to take things a few steps further than they are currently willing to. Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 1) by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 18:09 (#J5HS) That's good to know - so at least there is some time before the juice runs out. How long are they supposed to have battery for, I wonder...
Re: Solar panel recommended (Score: 1) by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-22 18:09 (#J5HS) That's good to know - so at least there is some time before the juice runs out. How long are they supposed to have battery for, I wonder...