February 23, 2004
Antique Power
About noon I get a call from Dispatch, have an escalation. Seems that some 48 positions lost dial tone Saturday. Why the trouble ticket was not on my load at 7 am today I don't know.
Big troubles are generally easy to find, this was no exception. A blown fuse in a power supply feeding the NIU cards. Naturally I have no spare fuses. Fortunately Lovelady's Hardware is around the corner, I buy a five-pack of 3 amp fuses. Replace fuse. POP! Unplug load, replace fuse. POP! Unplug backup battery, replace fuse. POP!
OK, it is not the fuse or a short on the load side; the power supply is bad and needs to be replaced. It's a 1988 vintage. I think this site is the last one to still use this model. Scrounge in the corners of the terminal room and find some boxes under boxes under boxes that contain *two* spare power supplies.