Trip report: Meeting with Mountain Bell on splice reflection in Phoenix, AZ.

In a meeting with engineers from Mountain Bell, the authors presented data on the performance of rotary splices and on the general causes and effects of reflections in optical transmission systems. Most of Mountain Bell's prior concerns were eased but two points they mentioned warrant more investigation on our part. The first is that we have insufficient data on the performance (loss and splicing time) of the current generation fusion splicing equipment. The second is that an AM TV signal may be much more sensitive to reflections than a digital one. We may need to set up a demonstration system to evaluate this effect.