Telegraph Poles - How Much Clearance?

[DaveS]

I am ignorant when it comes to power or telephone lines but I always assumed that they had insulation covering a conducting core. I guess thats not the case and they are just bare wires?

All EHV, HV and most LV lines in the UK have bare conductors. Some newer LV overhead is insulated and is easily recognisable as the insulation makes the individual wires much thicker and they are hung as a twisted bundle.

 

[reginaldon]

Heron, lovely wee boat, so much nicer to sail than a Mirror.

 

[Plomong]

Never seen overhead cables doing that.

Around here, less than 500 m from where I sit, there is a thick 50mm+ diameter cable hanging from pole to pole carrying the main traffic between two sizeable towns as well as the (concentrated) traffic from many local subscribers. I think that one has several coax cores as well as twisted pairs, with DC supply between the coax centre wire and the shield. However, I could be wrong.

This kind of cable is common around here where burial would be prohibitively expensive -- you would have to blast rock to make a trench in many places !!!

Plomong

 

[PhillM]

"burial would be prohibitively expensive -- you would have to blast rock to make a trench in many places !!!"

Assume you mean the cable not the poor sailer who tried to get under it with too tall a mast.

 

[Plomong]

"burial would be prohibitively expensive -- you would have to blast rock to make a trench in many places !!!"

Assume you mean the cable not the poor sailer who tried to get under it with too tall a mast.

Of course, I'm describing roadside cables, not cables across water.