New Cable Designed To Deter Copper Thieves 668
Hugh Pickens writes "Pervasive thefts of copper wire from under the streets of Fresno, California have prompted the city to seal thousands of its manhole covers with concrete. In Picher, Oklahoma, someone felled the town's utility poles with chain saws, allowing thieves to abscond with 3,000 feet of wire while causing a blackout. The theft of copper cables costs U.S. companies $60 million a year and the FBI says it considers theft of copper wire to be a threat to the nation's baseline ability to function. But now PC World reports that a U.S. company has developed a new cable design that removes almost all the copper from cables in a bid to deter metal thieves. Unlike conventional cables made from solid copper, the GroundSmart Copper Clad Steel Cable consists of a steel core bonded to a copper outer casing, forming an equally effective but far less valuable cable by exploiting the corrosion-resistance of copper with the conductive properties of steel. 'Companies trying to protect their copper infrastructure have been going to extreme measures to deter theft, many of which are neither successful nor cost effective,' says CommScope vice president, Doug Wells. 'Despite efforts like these, thieves continue to steal copper because of its rising value. The result is costly damage to networks and growing service disruptions.' The GroundSmart Copper Clad Steel cable is the latest technical solution to the problem of copper theft, which has included alternatives like cable etching to aid tracing of stolen metal and using chemicals that leave stains detectable under ultra-violet light. However the Copper Clad Steel strikes at the root of the problem by making the cable less susceptible to theft by both increasing the resistance to cutting and drastically decreasing the scrap value."
Used by hams for decades (Score:5, Informative)
Copper clad steel has been used by hams for decades. It is most effective at radio frequencies, where the "skin effect" causes the current flow to exist primarily in the outermost regions of the cable. 50 or 60 Hz AC current is not high enough frequency to have much of a skin effect, so it will consequently be a poor conductor compared to solid copper. There's no doubt that it is harder to cut, though.
Re:This won't work (Score:5, Informative)
Too true. They'll still try to cut and strip cable, if they think it's valuable. There's been a lot of cases not only in the US but in Canada where these jackasses have cut fibre links thinking they were copper.
While copper coated steel is a good idea, steel still has a market value. So these guys will simply strip the copper off, either by shaving or electrolysis. And then sell both. After all they wouldn't steal manhole covers if steel(and iron) had no value either. Really though, as long as scrap dealers are willing to look the other way for where metal is coming from it'll be easy.
Though you can bet that once the job market picks up, this type of stuff will become rare again.
Re:JOBS (Score:5, Informative)
A glance at this graph [mongabay.com] will give you a swift education on why copper theft has increased recently.
Re:This won't work (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Just coat them with plutonium (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The problem is thieves. Get rid of them. (Score:5, Informative)
I'm pretty sure their are jurisdictions were publishing something anonymously is illegal.
For example your post annoyed me and: ...
"""
Whoever -
makes a telephone call or utilizes a telecommunications device, whether or not conversation or communication ensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications; ...
shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
""" 47 U.S.C. Â 223(a)(1)(C)
Now sure "intent to annoy" means something entirely different - but do you really know every single law that applies to you in enough detail to know you have never broken one?
Re:Theif soultions (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This won't work (Score:5, Informative)
People get real desperate when they have hungry kids. When I was a kid my father poached wild game. It was the only way we could afford meat. And my mother ground hogs feed to make bread, because we couldn't afford either bread or grain intended for human consumption. When you are in that kind of situation you do or you die. There is no other option.
What's New? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Same thing in the US (Score:5, Informative)
Another reason copper is used, is that copper oxidizes much less. Which is why you have special connectors for aluminum wire, and for most modern building wiring, aluminum is forbidden. (Super-simplified version)
Re:Theif soultions (Score:5, Informative)
As someone else has pointed out, this is factually incorrect. The skin depth in copper at 60 Hz (377 rad/s) is over 8 mm. [wolframalpha.com] The skin effect won't make a difference here.
Re:This won't work (Score:4, Informative)
That's a nice story except it's not true. If that were the case then how do you explain the fact that crime is still dropping despite cutting back on stiff sentences and releasing criminals for budgetary reasons?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/07/us-usa-crime-idUSTRE60613K20100107 [reuters.com]
Re:Theif soultions (Score:4, Informative)
Except for the big white letters embossed into the jacket that say "FIBER OPTIC"
Re:Theif soultions (Score:5, Informative)
Most power cables are NOT copper. Even the low power 220V ones coming to my house are only copper clad aluminum. they connect to a copper whip that goes from my meter to the masthead where the cable from the street goes.
From wikipedia and personal experience.....
"Aluminum conductors reinforced with steel (known as ACSR) are primarily used for medium and high voltage lines and may also be used for overhead services to individual customers. Aluminum cable is used because it has about half the weight of a comparable resistance copper cable (though larger diameter due to lower fundamental conductivity), as well as being cheaper.[1] Some copper cable is still used, especially at lower voltages and for grounding."
Re:Fuck meth (Score:4, Informative)
You know, as an American, I will always tip my hat to the Chinese. Damn, how I envy their effectiveness at dealing with drugs abusers. They put up with none of that politically correct non-sense.
What are you babbling about? The Chinese treat addiction with rehab programs, the recidivism rate for which was 80% in the 90's (Mao 1999, 151), and is documented to be over 90% in the '00s (China Daily Youth, 27/4/04). You will need access to Lexus Nexus or a similar thing to easily follow these citations, unfortunately.
Perhaps you are thinking of their trafficking penalties. It is true that being found in possession of over a kilo of cocaine or heroin in China is often punished with the death penalty [journal.com.ph]. However, stepped up enforcement efforts are met by increased prices, inducing repair to the supply chain, resulting in no long term gain. As a result, China has been investing heavily in a multifaceted program of treatment, interdiction, social welfare targeting at-risk populations, education, rehabilitation, and diplomacy seeking to convert drug growers abroad to production of legal staple crops.
The Chinese government is already aware that they can't make significant progress solely by killing all addicts, or even just major drug traffickers - there is an unlimited supply of people who will accept any risk. Fear has become just one component of the Chinese strategy. Read up on what they're doing - in many ways, they are actually more progressive than the United States. Unlike you, they aren't entirely naïve.