What are These New Installations on the Pylons in Tzfat, Israel?

Looks like ordinary electrical insulators and switchgear to me.

We don't see too many glass insulators around where I am, however, usually that means something very old.

Looks like ordinary electrical insulators and switchgear to me.

We don't see too many glass insulators around where I am, however, usually that means something very old.

Tempered glass insulators "disappear" while a porcelain insulator may just chip.

This is good and bad- the good is that a damaged insulator is easy to spot by its absence and the bad is that they are attractive targets to kids with 22's who see it go pouf when they hit one, as opposed to not really knowing if they hit it or not. For the latter reason many utilities, particularly in farming country, decided to stay with porcelain so the kids would go back to shooting at tin cans, gophers and stop signs :)

Don Kelly cross out to reply

But they are brand new.

I have been told that the electrical company in Israel has gotten a gov't OK to become a communications company - or rather, a supplier of rights to communications company to use their set-ups.

They will be selling the right to use their fiber optics to other companies.

What I really want to know is - is there dangerous radiation going off those things?

The pylons that appear in that video are only *some* of the pylons that are up in the southern part of a town whose total population is ~25,000. I photographed them along one bus route.

That is to say: All that electricity is serving maybe 7,000 people - let's exaggerate and say 10,000.

Most of the buildings in the area are 4-story buildings.

One ahort block, on which there are only four-story buildings has 4 of those pylons on it.

Does that sound normal to you?

Also, please take a look at this hook-up on my roof. It is one of three buildings in Tzfat that I've seen this on:

Please watch this too:

I didn't say that yours were old, just that we don't have glass insulators here in the US except for very old instances. They're always porcelain, or in a few cases a hard plastic. I don't know why they decided to switch from glass long ago, other than the other post that suggested they made too good "targets".

Those lines look right for a town of your size, although the size of the insulators suggest a voltage higher than what's used around here for distribution lines (usually around 13,800 volts). Perhaps those lines also double as the transmission lines to get power to the town from whereever it's generated.

There have been claims that the very high voltage transmission lines (which use pylons much larger than what you show) may have higher rates of cancer nearby, but distribution lines such as this are everywhere. My personal guess on that topic is it's not from the power lines themselves but the defoliants they sometimes use to keep trees from growing along the right-of-way.

Visual Purple Inscribed thus:

All I see in this video are TV, radio and WiFi antenna. The interference patterns sem to be changing in accordance with the sunlight through the window screen mesh.

I only watched a few moments of this one since the other was so boring ! Apart from TV antenna, a point to point antenna and a video surveillance camera, I saw nothing of any real concern.

I would suggest that the phenomena you see, whilst strange to you, is nothing to be concerned about. Try Googling "Moire Fringes".

But they are brand new.

I have been told that the electrical company in Israel has gotten a gov't OK to become a communications company - or rather, a supplier of rights to communications company to use their set-ups.

They will be selling the right to use their fiber optics to other companies.

What I really want to know is - is there dangerous radiation going off those things?

This is pretty standard distribution equipment -as Michael indicated. No problem as far as radiation is concerned- just ugly. The reason for so many is that I expect that the population density is high with most people living in apartments.

Don Kelly cross out to reply

That's just it, Don. The population density is very LOW.

That's just it, Don. The population density is very LOW. .....................................

The population is high by my standards- you mentioned the street of 4 story apartments. The number and size of transformers indicates a fairly high load density. While the load density may be too low to justify underground services and transformer vaults in the buildings (or things just grew like Topsy) I would be curious as to how many live within 1 sq. km?

Don Kelly cross out to reply

I would say about 3,000 people per square mile in the absolutely most densely populated parts of Tzfat. That is a high estimation.