Thank you Les! This is a new suggestion so I'll be sure to tell them! I don't quite understand what a "node" looks like or what makes it work, but they seem to have considerable trouble with the node at the nearby city that feeds me, downtown in the next city over (about 10 miles from the node). I am also the first drop (on the pole) from the node for my section-- so if I go "out" on service, my whole neighborhood //node area soon follows. The company used to blame local TV stations so one of the TV station engineers told me about amplifiers. Maybe looking at capacitors as you suggest will get to the bottom of this very long, very frustrating issue! Judy On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Lesley L Shockey <lesshockey@wildblue.net>wrote: > This may sound stupid, but really it is not. I would bet that at the > point of the problem they will find a bad capacitor. If builds up a > charge, shuts off, quickly bleeds the charge off and starts working > once again. > > To find it they need a Technician with sensitive hands who can run his > hand over a circuit board and feel the capacitor that is getting hot. > Very few Technicians seem to know how to do this. I learned this > technique many years ago from one of my old computer buddies. > > Les Shockey