Cell service is still up. If you have a small solar charger for your phone you are good to go. Also, wire line home phone service is up and will also stay up because the exchanges have generators. I seriously doubt that amateur radio will be valuable other than just talking about the power being out.
Ham radio there might be more useful if it magically connected California residents with multiple interstate moving companies.
Ohhh, think of the carbon footprint of all those generators humming away. Greta will have spasms, HOW DARE THEY HAVE ELECTRICITY?
It might not have been only mismanagement by PGE. I wonder how much of the lack of “tree management” might have been affected by attitudes toward herbicides there. A very effective way to prevent trees from growing on a major power line right-of-way is to spray persistent herbicides. I also wonder how much money was available for tree management after the utility commission’s rate setting and various requirements not to shut off power on deadbeats and the like. From news reports in reputable publications it seems that PGE also wasn’t able (or willing?) to maintain hardware on many lines. I don’t know if these were factors, just asking.
What's the status of long-term cellular backup power these days (either USA generally or in CA)? PG&E seems to be implying these manmade outages could go on for 5 days or longer. Is backup still largely 8-hour batteries or generators? Piped-in gas if available or always diesel? If diesel, do the carriers have delivery contingencies for continuity over extended widespread outages? Or is the contingency plan to bring in COWs instead of maintaining power at permanent sites?
Beats me, I'm not a PG&E customer. We have our own "power" company here, LADWP which is city (public) owned and managed.
I guess we will find out, but my guess is they have sufficient power for at least a week. Anyway, wired telephones are on a completely different system and the exchanges can go for weeks using their generators. Bottom line, amateur radio will not play any significant role in the situation, so who really cares?
How many homes or businesses still have "real" wired phones that will work with only central office power? I have non-technically-inclined family members in the affected area. If the cell network goes down over a wide area due to a "5 days or longer" manmade power outage, my best options for getting H&W status for those family members would seem to be NTS traffic and the USPS (assuming that infrastructure is resilient).
