Bobcat
Premium
join:2001-02-04
Bedminster, NJ
1 edit | Plastic gas pipes EDIT: The article says this works with plastic gas pipes. Is the plastic conductive? | |
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 Semi751
join:2006-01-03
Waddy, KY | Re: Plastic gas pipes Interesting idea but I don't quite understand how it would work. It seems an idea worth testing, who know it may be in norm in another 15 years. | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Re: Plastic gas pipes Maybe these are the TUBES Senator Stevens was talking about. | |
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vpoko
Premium
join:2003-07-03
Jamaica Plain, MA
| said by Bobcat  :EDIT: The article says this works with plastic gas pipes. Is the plastic conductive? It doesn't have to be, the technology doesn't send an electrical signal along the pipe, it sends an RF signal *inside* the pipe, with the pipe acting as a waveguide. | |
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| russotto
join:2000-10-05
Collegeville, PA | Re: Plastic gas pipes Plastic won't work as a waveguide. | |
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nightstar75
@verizon.net | Re: Plastic gas pipes Its not the pipe carrying the signal, it is the ground line that is wrapped around the pipe that will carry the signal. | |
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| 8744675
join:2000-10-10
Decatur, GA | Geez, sounds like they've just upped the ante for the FIOS installers to cut more gas lines. And when they do, there goes all your personal information gushing up from a hole in the ground and being spread all over the street! | |
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ARGONAUT
got ping?
join:2006-01-24
New Albany, IN | Re: Plastic gas pipes "Whiff-WiFi" 
I think there using the plastic as jacketing to stop signal bleeding like coaxial cable. | |
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Bobcat
Premium
join:2001-02-04
Bedminster, NJ | Re: Plastic gas pipes I found out that plastic gas pipes are supposed to have a wire running alongside them, so the utility location folks can find the line. They must be using the wire to send the signal. | |
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| | | keyboard5684
join:2001-08-01
Youngsville, PA | Re: Plastic gas pipes They have a wire for grounding out electricity that builds up from gas moving through the pipe. Gas moving through gas lines creates electricity and needs dissipated. | |
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| | | | Tom517
join:2006-07-13
Greenville, SC | Re: Plastic gas pipes Actually the wire is there so the gasline can be located with metal detectors. | |
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vpoko
Premium
join:2003-07-03
Jamaica Plain, MA
| Re: Plastic gas pipes said by Tom517 :Actually the wire is there so the gasline can be located with metal detectors. Ehh? Why would they want people locating them with metal detectors? "Ooh, I think I found a treasure, better get a pick axe and dig it up!" | |
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printscreen
join:2003-11-01
Juana Diaz, PR
 ·Choice Cable TV
 ·Coqui/PRTC
| Re: Plastic gas pipes said by vpoko :Ehh? Why would they want people locating them with metal detectors? For the service people to find the exact location of the pipe without digging. This is done with water pipes also but I have seen them using a metallic tape similar to the one placed above buried power and telephone lines instead of a wire. | |
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| | | | | | Tom517
join:2006-07-13
Greenville, SC | It's actually not that easy to find with the average metal detector; which is why, most of the time, they put an RF signal on the wire.  | |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
| Theoretically, a buried plastic gas line can still act as a waveguide (which is what they are trying to do here) but it would have higher losses than a copper pipe of the same dimensions.
However...this all assumes they can get it to go through the regulator and meter. No gas company in their right mind is going to connect anything on the high pressure side of the regulator.
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Toolmaster of La Grange. | |
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