I came home from work yesterday and found this notice hanging on my door...It says:

      " SORRY WE MISSED YOU "


Dear AT&T Cable Services Customer,

In the course of conducting routine maintenance, our technician has detected a cable television signal leak.

In accordance with the rules and regulations of the FCC, we must correct this leak as soon as possible ,or disconnect the cable service to your home.

Please contact our customer service center at (###)###-#### to schedule an appointment for our technican to make the necessary corrections. To prevent any possible service interruption, please call our office within 72 hours.

                      THANK YOU    

What kind of bullsh>t is this ???

I've heard of leaking pipes and faucets but not CABLE TV !!!

Sounds to me lke a lamea$$ excuse to search your home for extra TV hookups or one of those illegal d-scramble boxes...WHAT A CROCK OF SH>T

I've already called the cable co. and asked for them to explain to me "technically" how this is possible. The first girl immediately put me through to her supervisor after I told her to go ahead and disconnect my service, and I'd gladly buy a new satellite dish...The supervisor also could not explain to me how cable signals "leak". She offered to let me speak to one of their technicians. I said I'd be happy to... but after being on hold a minute, she came back on and said "they were in a meeting" could I leave my number ? I said no way, my number is unlisted, just go ahead and un-hook my cable if you feel it's necessary for a complete stranger to enter my home, I absolutely will not permit it, under any circustances...PERIOD. I will gladly purchase a new satellite dish.
"GOOD-BYE"    

Anyone have any opinions on this ???

ART

IMHO, sounds like crap to me.  I think you've pegged it correctly, and now they are scrambling to avoid giving you a tissue paper thin explanation.

While I'm not going to speculate on why they wanted to come in, there is such a thing as a cable RF "leak". When a cable, typically a trunk or a bridger/line extender feed, gets some mechanical damage, a damaged shield, or a boogered connector, the RF can leak into the surrounding environment and interfere with broadcast signals. Once, long ago while as a cable tech part-time while in college (electrical engineering), we kept getting complaints from Dobbins Air Force base about some TV audio interfering with a CAP frequency. It turned out to be some holes in a trunk line on the main drag outside the base, that was shot with birdshot (presumably by base personnel shooting nuisance birds near the runway?!?). Sometimes if a cable gets boogered real bad the 60V, 60Hz power on the coax for powering amps gets on the shield and into customers's drops, causing the possibility of a shock.

If you are in an apartment or condo, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that there is a boogered feed somewhere in the building's walls that they are trying to find. Do what you want, but it might not be unreasonable to take off your tinfoil hat and see what they want (JK). Just disconnect and hide your "pirate" cable box before they come inside! [:D]

Do you have any self installed connections?(ends)Its possibile and works both ways.

Art -

They are referring to RF leaks (radio frequency). This is often caused by bad connectors, poor grounding, and my favorite, mice. It happened at my house once - right where the cable comes through the wall, some little delinquent mouse tried (and probably succeeded) to gain entry to my house by chewing away at the cable. Most likely the problem is with the cable from the pole to your house, so they probably won't even have to come inside.
BTW, I work for AT&T, but not in the cable TV business. At my current house, I have Directv and I'll never go back to cable. `Course where I live now, we're lucky to have electricity and phones, much less cable!!!!!
If you're switching to satellite anyway, don't worry about it. If you stay with cable, you kinda have to let them fix it.

I have 1 wire coming into the house and it goes directly to my TV.

I live in my own home/private residence not an apartment or condo or anything of the sort...

I work as a Maintenance Mechanic in a large industrial plant, so I'm always working around machines / 480 volt 150 HP motors etc...I build racing engines & automatic transmissions as a hobby..I know how to crimp ends & run wires. 75 OHM Cable is so simple, an 8 year old girl could put ends on it.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY WIRES

ONLY MY CABLE COMPANY
They will now lose another customer to satellite TV...  

My parents had a "Cable Signal Amplifier" installed on one of their long cable runs.  Forgot it was even in the closet until they got a visit one day from the FCC.  "We've had complaints from aircraft about RF interference on approach to Newark Airport, and we've traced it to this house."  My Dad just about pissed his pants.  They looked over all the equipment, disconnected the "amplifier". Thanked him and left.

When I was active we split the signal so many times in the barracks that 1 guy supplied 20 rooms. The Coast Guard helicopters couldn't fly over because it screwed up their equipment.
Now I work for the cable company. The reason they track leaks is just for that reason you don't want to be responsible when a plane crashes due to electronics failure? The problem is probably in your vicinity and unless their maintenance is on the ball they will disconnect someone just to make their live easier. My company waits for the customer to come first to try to rectify the situation as painlessly as posssible. Sorry to here they screwed you. That sound par for the course for AT&T.

Well I've raced and built cars too.I'm a millwright,carpenter and I fix my own appliances.Ever had a bad plug wire that checked out fine on the ohm meter.I have,replaced it and took 3/4 sec off the car.Had a bad wire between the pole and house because the wind ruined the shielding from streching.A lot of people add there own connections and dont do it right.so you do,just trying to help.

Probably a bad termination somewhere...and it's most likely not in your house.  Just a guess.

I got rid of cable after they raised my rates nearly every bill... I was paying just under 50 bucks for regular cable-no movie channels.  Hey Media One-GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!!  

Have Dish Network now-like it-plus free equipment and installation.

Not sure, but I, too, think they also use the term "leak" when they're looking for bootlegged cable.  "Routine" could mean they don't want to arouse suspicion.

It may be that they can't identify the exact house so they're going through a process of elimination.

If so, they've shot themselves in the foot.  Instead of getting more revenue, now they have less.

Could we hear from the pro's on this?

[red][size=4]P.R.K.

In England they drive around with a truck that monitors TV set RF emmissions. They tax you on each TV set you have, so thy want to make sure you don't have an illegal TV set.

In Oxnard, Ca, Jones Intercable usd to have a cable box monitor setup inside of a van. They would drive through the streets and look for unauthorized converter boxes.

It is quite possible that you do have an RF leak, you should get ahold of the techs and have themm tell you what they are looking at.

Satellite TV has its pros and cons.
It sucks that you can only watch on channel at a time (picture in picture is out) unless you get another converter box. At least with non-box cable TV you can hook up as many TVs as you want to.

Also, (at least DirecTV) broadcasts some stations as the originate on the east coast. This blows for west coast users as this puts a lot of the 3 am (east coast time) infomercials on at midnight here on the west coast.
Plus, even though I get the major local TV stations (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX) I don't get the UPN, WB, or any of the local Canadian/USA TV stations. I also don't get the local 24 hour news station or the local / state government channels, and I get to pay for 140 or so channels of TV and music I don't want!

ILLEGAL TV SET?  YIKES [:O]