extending a telephone point

[Tom]

Hi, I have a BT master socket located in the living room and need to run a line out of the house to a detached building away from the house. Due to the location burying a cable would not be possible (concrete drive etc.) and i also do not want to run conduit as it will look unsightly. The type of cable BT use looks perfect as i imagine this to be UV resistant and as they wire me in from the post in the street the cable would be fine for me to use outdoors. I have looked through Screwfix catalogue and online as well as the local B&Q and the like but cant seem to find anything suitable! Has anyone ever had to do such a job and if so where can i find the right cable?

Tom

[Andy Cap]

HTH Andy

[Owain]

You can buy exterior telephone cable, try

jelly-filled is for direct burial

You should only use

[Dave Liquorice]

google "cw1378" or "drop wire" .

You'll ideally need a couple of brackets and curly wurlys for each end. CW1378 is the proper stuff but be aware that the outer jacket is very tough giving the cable somewaht a mind of it's own. The cable is also gell filled making working on the ends a bit messy, there are boots that fit over the outer jacket to try and prevent the gel getting out in service. The yellow wires are the steel strainers not signal wires.

If 100m is a bit much, it might be worth having a quiet and polite word with an outside BT linesman... It appears that cw1378, cw 1378 or ("drop wire", dropwire) is something you can't get from eBay!

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Whats wrong with a cordless setup?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Have you considered the type of cordless phones with two handsets? One is the base unit but they both have chargers, and have a pretty good range. I lent my elderly neighbour the 'second' one of mine when her phone was out of action and it worked fine.

[meow2222]

there is one other option: enamelled copper wire. Its almost invisible. Its poorly insulated so you'd want 2 hooks each end, one for each of the 2 wires. The plus is you wont see it.

NT

[Alan]

How about a mains telephone line extender like this:

've got the one-for-all version and find it's very good.

Alan.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not sure how it would cope with broadband tho, if thats an issue. That expects twisted pairs.

[John Rumm]

Or if you want data rather than voice:

[Peter Crosland]

The minus is that it is totally unsuitable for a telephone application that requires the two wires to be twisted together!

Peter Crosland

[<me9]

Strange that GPO used two paralell wires for years. Long runs were transposedbetween posts, so in some ways they were twisted. In the length being considered here it would make no difference. The drop wire BT use is not twisted where it is fastened to the building, but may be in the span (if the installer CBA).

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think you will find that there is no two wire untwisted left anywhere around.

Just from the POV of hum pickup its pretty unacceptable.

All underground stuff is multiple pair twisted, and all overheads I have seen in the last 30 years have been multiple twisted pair with a steel core for strength.

The drop wire BT use for buildings is twisted all the way. I know cos I reconnected it.

I suspect you are thinking of single phase AC power lines which come in as a true untwisted pair from overhead poles in older properties.

ADSL is deigned to work over twisted pair, period. Long runs of untwisted will almost certainly degrade performance, possibly to the point of unacceptability.

Al that is needed to run a remote overhead extension is steel cored 2 pair twisted. And some of those spirally strain relief things are not a bad idea.

If its underground just get some plastic heating pipe, put some cat 5 or phone extension up the middle, seals the ends with expanding foam or silicone, and bury it.

[Frank Erskine]

Are you thinking of real dropwire? Dropwire is simply figure-of-eight "flat" cable (occasionally it's three-core). The lineman is supposed to twist it it in span a couple of times, but this is to reduce the effect of wind whipping the wire.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I assume its what connects the pole to my home. Its not figure of eight at all,. Its two pair twisted, round a steel core covered in black plastic.

I have no idea what you are talking about, because I have never ever seen what I would call 'twin flex' used in a BT installation anywhere.

At all times what has come into the master socket has been one or more twisted pairs, and what goes across the road is the same, and what goes under the road is the same.

I've worked with BT, NTL, Jersey and Guersney Telecomms, and none of them has ever used anything like what you describe anywhere.

[Frank Erskine]

I worked for 20 years for GPO, and my squash partner still works for BT Openreach and carries reels of the stuff around on his van.

It's usually mid-grey in colour (not the van!). I wouldn't exactly call it twin "flex", having a steel core :-)

[Guy King]

The message from Frank Erskine contains these words:

Works with ratchet straps, too. When you're securing a load to the roofrack or trailer putting a twist or two in the open sections of strap stops it thrumming annoyingly.

[Bob Mannix]

Pretty sure the overhead pole to house cable on my property is figure of eight/flat twin. Along the poles is multicore (presumably twisted). Mind you mine has been there a while. Maybe it's just some old installations. No doubt an ADSL connection might require that to be upgraded to newer standards but there hasn't been the need to date (we have cable broadband). I'll have to check now!

[Andrew Mawson]

figure-of-eight

anywhere.

I disagree. My two overhead BT lines come in on cable that sounds just like that described as drop wire - each is a single pair in a figure of eight configuration in thick black plasic insulation. The wire itself is very stiff and rather brittle. When BT changed the line a few years back I nabbed the removed bit and pressed it into service for a an extended bell push which is why I know how brittle it is - doesn't like being wrapped round a screw terminal.

AWEM

[The Natural Philosopher]

I still cannot fathom what this stuff is.

Do you mean the two strands are simply side-by-side? And the insulation forms a figure of eight?

Or that the wires are laced together in some figure of eight twist?

I had my two lines pulled down by a tipper lorry, They replaced the two pair twisted with more tow pair twisted. Its simply two twisted pairs and a steel cord inside a black sheath.