Eskom Power Alerts

biometrics

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Which means I'm out:

16:00-18:30 today
00:00-02:30 tomorrow
08:00-10:30 tomorrow
16:00-18:30 tomorrow (if stage 4 again)

And that is just the next 24+ hours.

/sends email to inverter & battery installer...
 

Spizz

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Dunno if this is the thread you want this in Bio, but just a weird thing happening now during loadshedding and I'm not familiar with the infrastructure hence the possible reasons.

BUT, as mentioned elsewhere I've got my house hooked up to battery and inverter etc, so loadshedding isn't an issue, we carry on as normal. But now the last few times loadshedding in the suburb has happened our Telkom VDSL signal has stopped after about 1 hour 45 to 2 hours after the scheduled start time. Then 5 to 10 minutes after loadshedding is finished, boom, it's back again.

So I'm pretty sure it's external factors, and I'm wondering if this is some battery degradation or something locally in the Telkom system or infrastructure that is failing and degrading due to these regular outages with the effect that the lifespan is reducing?
 

Sinbad

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Dunno if this is the thread you want this in Bio, but just a weird thing happening now during loadshedding and I'm not familiar with the infrastructure hence the possible reasons.

BUT, as mentioned elsewhere I've got my house hooked up to battery and inverter etc, so loadshedding isn't an issue, we carry on as normal. But now the last few times loadshedding in the suburb has happened our Telkom VDSL signal has stopped after about 1 hour 45 to 2 hours after the scheduled start time. Then 5 to 10 minutes after loadshedding is finished, boom, it's back again.

So I'm pretty sure it's external factors, and I'm wondering if this is some battery degradation or something locally in the Telkom system or infrastructure that is failing and degrading due to these regular outages with the effect that the lifespan is reducing?
Yup, that's a piece of telkom infrastructure's backup batteries giving up the ghost.
 

biometrics

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Dunno if this is the thread you want this in Bio, but just a weird thing happening now during loadshedding and I'm not familiar with the infrastructure hence the possible reasons.

BUT, as mentioned elsewhere I've got my house hooked up to battery and inverter etc, so loadshedding isn't an issue, we carry on as normal. But now the last few times loadshedding in the suburb has happened our Telkom VDSL signal has stopped after about 1 hour 45 to 2 hours after the scheduled start time. Then 5 to 10 minutes after loadshedding is finished, boom, it's back again.

So I'm pretty sure it's external factors, and I'm wondering if this is some battery degradation or something locally in the Telkom system or infrastructure that is failing and degrading due to these regular outages with the effect that the lifespan is reducing?
Yip, a common problem, batteries in the exchange not lasting. My LTE stays up, though it's a pretty big installation on the mountain rather than a box on a sidewalk. Maybe get LTE as a backup or switch to it. I'm very happy with it. R999 gives you 220GB+220GB, that allows multi sims so have one in my dual sim phone. Or get the 1TB for R999 deal but no multi sims. I get about 25/5 Mbps on 2300 MHz (they operate on two frequencies). I then load balance two LTE routers (therefore the third multi sim) to double the speed. Also allows me to mix in Cell C or MTN if I wanted more redundancy.

Do you have line of sight of the tower above the mall on the mountain?
 

Spizz

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Yip, a common problem, batteries in the exchange not lasting. My LTE stays up, though it's a pretty big installation on the mountain rather than a box on a sidewalk. Maybe get LTE as a backup or switch to it. I'm very happy with it. R999 gives you 220GB+220GB, that allows multi sims so have one in my dual sim phone. Or get the 1TB for R999 deal but no multi sims. I get about 25/5 Mbps on 2300 MHz (they operate on two frequencies). I then load balance two LTE routers (therefore the third multi sim) to double the speed. Also allows me to mix in Cell C or MTN if I wanted more redundancy.

Do you have line of sight of the tower above the mall on the mountain?

I'm not sure, it's possible. But each of us have LTE on our cell phones and it's not the best here. I've got Vodacom and MTN and they work fine sometimes and patchy at other times due to being on the edge of town. I suppose at the moment it's fine and we can survive 30 minutes or so at a time, but I can't imagine the situaion getting any better and with the increases in loadshedding slots so maybe I'll look to Sonic or something eventually.
 

biometrics

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I'm not sure, it's possible. But each of us have LTE on our cell phones and it's not the best here. I've got Vodacom and MTN and they work fine sometimes and patchy at other times due to being on the edge of town. I suppose at the moment it's fine and we can survive 30 minutes or so at a time, but I can't imagine the situaion getting any better and with the increases in loadshedding slots so maybe I'll look to Sonic or something eventually.
I use external antennas mounted to the second story. Makes a huge difference. So your experience on a phone will not be the same. The wifi ISPs here offer slow speeds (two years ago anyway) and aren't all that reliable I've read. I use Telkom LTE btw. Can lend you one of my multi sims to test.
 

Spizz

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I use external antennas mounted to the second story. Makes a huge difference. So your experience on a phone will not be the same. The wifi ISPs here offer slow speeds (two years ago anyway) and aren't all that reliable I've read. I use Telkom LTE btw. Can lend you one of my multi sims to test.

My one son had a Telkom sim for the 2 year contract and it didn’t work so well here. He’s now on Vodacom and says it’s a much better signal. But the external antenna sounds good for LTE. What kind of set up do you have? Any links to the kit?
 

biometrics

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My one son had a Telkom sim for the 2 year contract and it didn’t work so well here. He’s now on Vodacom and says it’s a much better signal. But the external antenna sounds good for LTE. What kind of set up do you have? Any links to the kit?
I've got an elaborate setup (dual antenna, dual LTE router, load balancer, Gb switch, wifi AP, VOIP and battery backup) and I doubt you're interested in that. All you really need is a LTE router and external antenna.

Telkom currently supplies the Huawei B535-932:


The antenna I used is the Poynting XPOL-6-10 with 10 meter cable (don't know if it's been upgraded in the past two years):


I got one from Takealot at full price and one for half priced (unused) from Gumtree (or Carbonite):

 
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Spizz

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I've got an elaborate setup (dual antenna, dual LTE router, load balancer, Gb switch, wifi AP, VOIP and battery backup) and I doubt you're interested in that. All you really need is a LTE router and external antenna.

Telkom currently supplies the Huawei B535-932:


The antenna I used is the Poynting XPOL-6-10 with 10 meter cable (don't know if it's been upgraded in the past two years):


I got one from Takealot at full price and one for half priced (unused) from Gumtree (or Carbonite):


Thanks bud, this looks pretty good. I’ll see how desperate we get further down the line but definitely a good option in future.
 

biometrics

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Thanks bud, this looks pretty good. I’ll see how desperate we get further down the line but definitely a good option in future.
I also pick up Rain, Vodacom, Cell C (haven't tried MTN) here. Cell C works well but the management of the sim(s) is shit. Rain used to be brilliant and went to shit. Vodacom I have on my watch and iPhone (which lives next to my bed) so can't comment on performance. Telkom's web interface isn't great but it does work. And I like having data/multi-sims on the same account (one in my phone as a backup to FNB/Cell C, two in routers).

My point is that deciding on which LTE to get at YOUR location is a case of buying test sims to test. But then you need a router and antenna already. And then you need to consider LTE router sub models as they support different frequencies. Frequencies in use are 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 (Telkom) and 2600 (Rain) MHz.
 

Spizz

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I also pick up Rain, Vodacom, Cell C (haven't tried MTN) here. Cell C works well but the management of the sim(s) is shit. Rain used to be brilliant and went to shit. Vodacom I have on my watch and iPhone (which lives next to my bed) so can't comment on performance. Telkom's web interface isn't great but it does work. And I like having data/multi-sims on the same account (one in my phone as a backup to FNB/Cell C, two in routers).

My point is that deciding on which LTE to get at YOUR location is a case of buying test sims to test. But then you need a router and antenna already. And then you need to consider LTE router sub models as they support different frequencies. Frequencies in use are 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 (Telkom) and 2600 (Rain) MHz.

I bought a Rain sim last year and never got a signal at all. But thanks for the info, I’ll bend your ear more if and when we need a solution.
 

Johnatan56

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My one son had a Telkom sim for the 2 year contract and it didn’t work so well here. He’s now on Vodacom and says it’s a much better signal. But the external antenna sounds good for LTE. What kind of set up do you have? Any links to the kit?
Telkom uses Vodacom's towers since early 2020, so if Vodacom has signal, Telkom now has signal.

Talk to your ISP, they can inform Telkom that the battery is no longer lasting, but since you're on copper, Telkom might not care.

In regards to Medupi units failing, we're past the point that all the units should already have been "fixed":
OD-Oped-Yelland-MedupiTW2.jpg


According to the article, they went from just below 70% EAF to about 75%, still terrible, a coal plant should have 92% EAF if industry standard.

Don't expect Kusile to improve much either considering Medupi changes:
However, Eskom has acknowledged that performance of the pulse jet fabric filter plant after the rework has been disappointing. The lifetime of the fabric filter bags before replacement has only increased from nine months to 13 months, instead of the 36 months expected in the “use requirement specification”.
An utter failure.
 
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