[arm-allstar] Repeater site ALLSTAR recovery after POWER FAIL

[am_fm_radio at yahoo.com]

Kansas has it storms and power failures. I maintain 2 ALLSTAR NODES / community repeaters located from my home by 22 miles. 

The site is a commercial building and we share internet with others. We have a APC UPS on the repeaters and the RPI's 

WE encounter on occasion loss of control via TT input on the repeaters. We cannot *B3 to reset.  We cannot SSH into the RPI and remote access via the internet is blocked because there are ATM's and Credit Card terminals on site. AS a commercial site, a second ISP drop starts at $99 per month..
If we drive to the site- 45 minutes  we can only access it during business hours, again ATM machines and other valuables. We do have card access.Our equipment is under lock and key. We have a PC there for SSHing in. We can see both RPI's on the LAN. but can't connect till we pull the power on the RPI's and let them reboot.  the repeaters fire up and announce the LAN IP address and all is well. 

The way I see it- internet and or power fails, the APC UPS peters out and everything goes dead.
When power is reapplied to the building, the APC UPS recovers and applies power to the RPI's and they come up before the community router, located 150 feet way does, and because we are using a static IP (router was replaced about 6 months ago when this all started) 

I theorize the RPI can's talk to the router at the time it needs to, so it comes up with no ACK it's static IP is recognized by the Router and no internet connection. 
Then it's back to a 22 mile drive 44 R/T to reset the RPI's 

Now I understand how dynamic IP addressing works but does Static IP's keep trying to make a connection or is it a 1 time deal? I think the RPI comes up faster than the recovering router that is connected to a cable modem ISP is COX. Because of new management, and it's a commercial business, management has signed a contract with COX for support. I have been told I cannot access setup or do anything at the router, my 100baseT connection runs 150 to the radio room. where I have my gear and another switch. . I cannot UDP or open any ports. etc. 
Management wants only COX to manage it all because of the credit card machines, video surveillance on the cloud and ATM's. 

I can't experiment to see if the RPI's are coming up faster than the router is giving them internet access. The RPI's are working just as if there is no 100base T connected to them. Because recent storms have been the middle of the night, I'm assuming power fails happen then as well.   

3 questions:1.  Am I right?2. Would going to dynamic IP solve this?  We were static before because of UDP ports prior to management changes.3. If we stay with Static IP address, can we delay the startup of the RPI or repeat the networking inquiry until internet 
    connection is made at the router. 

 Finally, you'll love this.. NO UPS at the Cable modem and Router. The router is a Netgear, 6 antenna job  2.4 and 5 ghz wifi.. it has 6 antennas on it. I can't touch it and management says, "Cox says we don't need UPS as no data is stored in those boxes" I did read the specs on the router 2-3 weeks ago it's capable of 128 wifi connections simultaneously. There is a bar-tavern on the premises and I have seen 50-80 wireless phone connections with ANGRY IP... Speeds are supposed to be 500Mbps.  

There are about 6 nets plus Newsline that run on the repeater each week. The second repeater is on K-link KansasStatewide Link) 24x7 were you can find SKYWARN   

WE find both down, and cycling power on  the RPI's solves the problem. They however do control the repeater so they work locally. I don't recall if they ID or not.. 

Larry W8LM