# Cable guy.



## Fredman (Dec 2, 2008)

Are you sure work was confined outdoors? (Did he shoot a cable through wall?) I would look for any new coax cables going into the house and start there.


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## rookie67 (Mar 3, 2010)

Fredman said:


> Are you sure work was confined outdoors? (Did he shoot a cable through wall?) I would look for any new coax cables going into the house and start there.


 I found where the cable comes in and goes to the modem, and there was nothing he would have hit.According to the H.O. he did no work inside the house as far as running new cable.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Could some SE cable be loose enough of rotten enough that wrangling it around or hitting the service head (or even aerial drop) with his ladder could have momentarily opened a loose neutral?


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## rookie67 (Mar 3, 2010)

The SE cable looked pretty good where it goes into the meter, but I did not go up and check the weather head. as far as the cable guy hitting it with his ladder, I think that is doubtful, the drop goes over the attached garage to the weatherhead at the peak of the gable end.He would have to have been trying to hit it. I guess that's not that far fetched, I really believe he did not know how to reset a breaker so ,anything is possible.
I don't know what it is like where you are from but, most cable guys around here are hacks. Drilling through hardwood floors, they don't/won't fish walls etc.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

If this is still an open service request that you'll be going back to, I'd try to heavily load one leg and see what the voltage disparity on each leg to ground looks like. That will likely rule in or out a loose neutral. 

I'm grasping for straws here, really. An open neutral, however brief, is really the only thing that pops into my head when you talk about that fried equipment.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

I've also seen situations, with a marginal service neutral, where the shield of the coax is passing a heck of a lot of neutral current (since they're both connected to the pole ground and the house's ground). If the cable drop was disconnected for a period of time, the house could be left with just its marginal service neutral to pass the neutral current, and it could have zapped some stuff. The cable tech probably would have noticed that condition, though, since you can draw a pretty good spark when you unscrew the cable fitting.


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