Rod, at 12:18 on May 08 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

BG> I doubt it was the massive amount of rain we'd had (even at that time),
BG> as that should have degraded the levels between us, not improved them.

RS> Not necessarily, that pronounced shift to better db levels
RS> can be due to it being wet. What Telstra call an HR joint, high
RS> resistance. High humidity levels can help them quite noticeably.

True, the resistance can indeed become lower, although in my experience,
it's still far more common for water to degrade bandwidth and line levels
than improve them.  Vocie calls have been particularly scratchy here since
the deluge, and have only just started to improve again.  Funny that the
modem stats haven't really reflected this though.

RS> I went for absolutely ages with one particular person having absolutely
RS> atrocious results, even at 300 baud.

Christ, he should have had perfect performance even on a wet piece of
string at that bit rate.  Must have been a pretty fucking bad HR joint
then.

BG> Incidentally, we've just had 60% of our average annual rainfall in the last 
BG> 10 days, with the bulk of that amount falling in the last 6 days 
BG> (1120mm/44" here alone).

RS> Yeah, talk about fucking wet. No wonder everyone has gone gurgle gurgle |-)

There were a couple of major benefits though.  The previously almost empty
Lake Moogerah (supplies the Fassifern Valley) is now full, as is the North
Pine dam, and the others are up to at least 85% of capacity.  About time
too.  The other good thing is that the Maccas at Grafton was completely
submerged - all you could see of it was the big M sign sticking out of the
Clarence River.  :)

Regards, Bill

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20