Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

radioworld.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 286 posts

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#201

Post by pjc50 »

silisili wrote: post #139

Kentucky for some reason has an epidemic of this. My father lives in the middle of nowhere in a perfectly safe area, yet still at least once or twice a year someone steals the phone or power lines leading to outages. I live in a similar area in another state and it's nearly unheard of. I wish they'd up the severity of these crimes - people willing to damage infrastructure for everyone else just to make drug money are…

> people willing to damage infrastructure for everyone else

Cable theft is particularly destructive because it's so value-destroying. $100k of cable destroyed for a maximum profit of $1k.

Or in this particularly egregious UK case, a multimillion pound artwork destroyed for £1,500 scrap value: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/may/17/henry-m...

I also think that stereotypes make people underestimate rural crime. There may not be a lot of people, but the per capita crime rate can be just as high as urban areas, and the under-reporting issues can be worse. Lots of invisible drug trafficing or manufacture/growing. Lots of thefts of ag equipment. Even the occasional theft of livestock, a crime from pre-history.

Then there's the both essential and illegal use of immigrants who have been imported for the purpose without work permits and may be held in coercive and unpleasant conditions.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#202

Post by pjc50 »

xp84 wrote: post #30
aeonik wrote: post #15

Working backwards from clues in the article, thief maybe stole 200-400 ft of wire. Assuming between 3-1/8″ - 6-1/8″ diameter. Somewhere between $1,360 - $6,400 of scrap value. $70k-$100k to repair... Absurd.

Other than those who commit grave offenses of bodily harm, I reserve my greatest disgust for the type of dirtbag who imposes these orders-of-magnitude greater costs on other innocent people for such a relatively low "reward." They'd burn the Mona Lisa for fuel, melt down the Statue of Liberty for scrap, anything if you let them. I agree with another commenter here, the overlap of this mindset with tweakers is large.

Or as mentioned upthread, a Henry Moore statue was stolen for scrap.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#203

Post by pjc50 »

phainopepla2 wrote: post #161
Loughla wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We live in a very rural, incredibly safe area. You can always tell when someone else gets hooked on meth. Their place goes to shit, step 1. Their kids get dirty, step 2. You start to see things like car batteries or tools disappear from nearby farms, step 3. They die or go to jail after trying to steal something big, like electric lines or even train rails in one instance, step 4. At least with heroine, they tend to…

My apartment was broken into once and I knew it was a meth head because they color coordinated my closet before they left. Turned out to be someone I knew (on meth)

This reads like one of those jokes about "my car is so bad that when someone crashed into it they caused thousands of dollars of improvements".

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#205

Post by bArray »

ordu wrote: post #145
bArray wrote: post #134

I'm surprised nothing more serious happened. There was obviously a serious electrocution risk, but I think that is the easiest bit to deal with. 100kW of radio waves, whilst non-ironising, can still microwave you. With 100kW there could have also been a serious reflection back to the transmitter. This guy cutting the cable is far luckier than he will ever know.

I like your typo. Seriously, non-ironising.

Somewhat ionical.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#206

Post by Halian »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #24
defrost wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought also .. possibly pulled a breaker rendering cable inert, or perhaps rigged a remote cutting tool - drop saw poised to cut on a long extension cord ready to be turn on ... (problematic). I'm leaning toward killed the current first somehow, but very location detail dependant.

You can buy high voltage gear online cheap. Just this one job would pay for the complete setup if you're buying cheap brands.

I bet it's Vevor. They make everything.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#207

Post by Halian »

xp84 wrote: post #33
gacgacgac wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Furthermore, going after scrap metal sites makes an important business harder and fails to be inquisitive enough about the reasons why the thefts happen at all. Maybe we should try to understand why people are stealing copper. (Presumably poverty, drug addiction, lack of opportunity)

If you believe we can just fix poverty and drug addiction with some government program, I have a bridge to sell you. So far, no one has, anywhere in the world. Many people (and once they get themselves addicted to something bad, that rises to "most") are just terrible and care only about their own short-term gain. They'd do any amount of destruction to others for some small temporary profit or fix.

Portugal

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#208

Post by expedition32 »

pjc50 wrote: post #201
silisili wrote: post #139

Kentucky for some reason has an epidemic of this. My father lives in the middle of nowhere in a perfectly safe area, yet still at least once or twice a year someone steals the phone or power lines leading to outages. I live in a similar area in another state and it's nearly unheard of. I wish they'd up the severity of these crimes - people willing to damage infrastructure for everyone else just to make drug money are…

> people willing to damage infrastructure for everyone else Cable theft is particularly destructive because it's so value-destroying. $100k of cable destroyed for a maximum profit of $1k. Or in this particularly egregious UK case, a multimillion pound artwork destroyed for £1,500 scrap value: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/may/17/henry-m... I also think that stereotypes make people underestimate rural…

The Netherlands had a lot of problems with people stealing copper lines. Eventually the government made a deal with scrapyards- they were traditionally run by somewhat shady people.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#209

Post by TitaRusell »

joquarky wrote: post #199
narrator wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is called prison, but that's pushing the easy button which is strictly forbidden.

Putting people in prison has substantial costs.

In my country it was eventually accepted that some people are too far gone. The junkies got their daily ration of drugs until they died of natural causes.

I don't think America is culturally capable of doing that though.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#210

Post by odiroot »

xp84 wrote: post #30
aeonik wrote: post #15

Working backwards from clues in the article, thief maybe stole 200-400 ft of wire. Assuming between 3-1/8″ - 6-1/8″ diameter. Somewhere between $1,360 - $6,400 of scrap value. $70k-$100k to repair... Absurd.

Other than those who commit grave offenses of bodily harm, I reserve my greatest disgust for the type of dirtbag who imposes these orders-of-magnitude greater costs on other innocent people for such a relatively low "reward." They'd burn the Mona Lisa for fuel, melt down the Statue of Liberty for scrap, anything if you let them. I agree with another commenter here, the overlap of this mindset with tweakers is large.

Don't ever read about the Red Army marching west (and plundering) through Europe. You'll get a heart attack.
Post reply on HN