Once upon a time (way back in 2007!), I was walking home and noticed the door on my road's Telewest distbox was hanging open (the lock had been forced). Having always wondered what was in one of those unassuming grey (or green) street cabs, I decided to have a quick look... And take some pictures. (And yes, I did let Telewest know the box had been broken into afterwards)
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F2.8 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 200 shutter_speed: 1/40 created_timestamp: 2008:05:04 08:52:16
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F2.8 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 200 shutter_speed: 1/40 created_timestamp: 2008:05:04 08:52:23
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F2.8 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 200 shutter_speed: 1/40 created_timestamp: 2008:05:04 08:52:30
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F2.8 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 200 shutter_speed: 1/40 created_timestamp: 2008:05:04 08:52:37
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F2.8 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 200 shutter_speed: 1/40 created_timestamp: 2008:05:04 08:52:46
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F2.8 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 200 shutter_speed: 1/40 created_timestamp: 2008:05:04 08:52:58
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F5.6 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 50 shutter_speed: 1/160 created_timestamp: 2008:05:05 03:17:51
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F3.5 focal_length: 7.7781677246094mm ISO: 50 shutter_speed: 1/50 created_timestamp: 2008:05:05 03:18:33
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F4.5 focal_length: 8.4609985351562mm ISO: 50 shutter_speed: 1/125 created_timestamp: 2008:05:05 03:19:04
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F4.5 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 50 shutter_speed: 1/100 created_timestamp: 2008:05:05 03:19:45
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F4 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 50 shutter_speed: 1/100 created_timestamp: 2008:05:05 03:19:54
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F4.5 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 50 shutter_speed: 1/100 created_timestamp: 2008:05:05 03:20:05
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- camera: DiMAGE Z3 aperture: F3.2 focal_length: 5.859375mm ISO: 50 shutter_speed: 1/50 created_timestamp: 2008:05:05 03:21:41
Very interesting to see inside one of these street cabinets but do you know of anything I can do to stop the loud humming noise that comes from the one near my house. (legally of course) We have contacted Virgin many times but they don't seem to want to know. I know I am clutching at straws by asking you but the dam noise is driving me insane. Thank's for listening, regards, Dave
Hi Dave,
Is the humming really loud? If so the Council might be willing to get involved if it's distracting the peace of you and others around you. Environmental Protection Officers (i.e. noise assessment officers) can come out and install noise measuring equipment if it's really loud - sometimes they'll just do a spot check and go yes/no based on their experience.
If it sounds like a transformer on its way out or something which is not operating within normal parameters, it might be worth ringing VM and reporting the equipment as faulty - what might make them move is if you call them and report having seen someone tampering with the equipment inside the box. As that could have resulted in peoples' service being affected, I expect they'd be more inclined to send an engineer out to take a look (at which point he would likely discover the faulty component).
Can you tell roughly which component's sick from where the noise is emanating from?
Hello there Chris, thank's for your reply. I did threaten them with talk of me going to my local MP and local radio station and they did get back to me with a promise that an engineer would be out within 48hrs, which he was, so I did get some satisfaction in the end. They told me that the e-mails I had sent didn't get through as there was a breakdown in the system (yeh!) Perhaps a man from Mars answered my phone calls. Anyway thank's for taking an interest. Dave
Hi there,
I have the same problem with a noisy box outside my garden, it hums louder and softer during the day, I have been chatting with a neighbour just yesterday, who has been in touch with the local radio station, local MP and Virgin themselves, she had no joy, I did suggest to her that maybe if we got a few signatures from the neighbouring houses and pass them onto Virgin, it may help our case. I havent written yet myself, but will be this week, its second on my list as at the moment I have a central networks sub station and alleyway to it at the bottom of my garden which is full of thistles and constantly contaminates my garden with weeds..... I have been past various Virgin boxes and noticed how quiet they are in comparison ( not that im an anorak or anything,! ) I will try the "saw someone tampering" ploy and see if I get anywhere, thanks for the tips.
By the way I love to see the pics of the inside of things, very interesting, and it bought a memory back from my child hood ( 1060's) that I 'd forgotten, my brother used to regularly stand facinated behind the post office men with thier morris or viva vans(i think) when they were repairing the boxes in the street, they'd give him some of the old bits to play with, and we'd call the little wires with blobs on "telegoons" !!... ..sheena.
Likewise, I love seeing inside things, underneath covers, what people don't normally see. I went to a CD pressing plant in Blackburn in 2007 (with my work) and I was utterly transfixed, glad I took my camera because the place was shut down a year later by its German owners!