At 09:06 PM 8/31/04, you wrote:
>Anyone have any dealings with your local power company about getting a
>non-commercial rate at a commercially owned tower site? I might be
>dreaming, but I figured I would ask. I know that hams are able to get
>non-commercial telephone rates at commercial sites, but not sure the
>best way to approach the power company. Any thoughts on the subject.
>
>Steaven, W4YI
We got the residential rate but we had to put in our own meter
to get it.
Showing the Pac Bell press release that I put up on
www.repeater-builder.com helped. It showed that another
utility in the same area had granted residential rates.
We bolted a meter panel next to the existing paging company's
meter and ran 1/2" conduit to a box by our rack. In the same
room were several paging TXs.
A year earlier another ham group had rented space at
another site that also rented to the same paging company.
Based on their experience we did not leave an open
outlet. They had put in a meter and conduit to a quad
box behind their racks. Their bill was consistent month-
to-month for over a year then suddenly went up 600%.
They made a site visit and found a 330w paging TX
plugged into the extra outlet they left open (they had used
three of four outlets). It may have been accidental on
the part of the paging tech, but as I understood the
situation it took almost 9 months for the paging company
to reimburse them.
We put a blank plate on our quad box, and drilled
holes in the plate for two clamps. We cut the plugs
off of two 14-3 extension cords and wired them up
so one was on each side of the 220v line, and both
were the only live outlets on our meter. We dropped
the female ends into the rack and plugged the two
power strips into them.
Mike WA6ILQ
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