I have one room in my house where I have 3 different phone lines and numbers which also are in 3 different jacks (a home phone and 2 business lines). All
3 of them when you pick up the phone and hit a number to stop the dial tone or during a phone call, seem to pick up music or a radio station, very loudly too. This only happens in this room, an ideas on how to fix this or counteract the music?Thank you for your time
David
Change the phone?
May I suggest dancing?
What is going on here is pretty simple. You must be close to an AM or FM transmitter. Either a semiconductor part or corroded connection is acting as a rectifier -- "crystal set," if you like. See if there are any clearly corroded connections in the system, especially if you live by any body of water. Here at the Delaware shore I've used a lot of silicon grease on stuff for just that reason. Also see if one telephone is more of a problem than another.
/paul W3FIS
Thank you for the information professorpaul. The house has just been rebuilt so all wiring and materials are brand new. The framing of my house is steel, could this add to the issue?
David
Well, it can't be an FM station, only an AM one.
Generally it isn't as easy to be quite as assertive about causes and effects as it is in this case, but three lines and three phone and only in one room... sorta eliminates a lot of things!
Generally modern telephones (with more active electronics inside them) are a bigger problem with this sort of thing than older ones. Normally swapping telephone sets is a good idea. But, with three of them you are doing that. Same with the lines.
The key is probably the fact that it only happens in one room, and the "framing of my house is steel". There is still some question as to *exactly* what is going on, but the best bet is that the cable to your phone lines in that room was damaged, or at least in some way compromised, when it was installed. Telephones basically depend on a "balanced" circuit to prevent a variety of things, and it sounds as if the balance on your lines is not good. But only in that room, and probably only at relatively high frequencies. As in, somebody tightly wrapped the cable around a piece of steel. I'd expect that if the cables were actually broken open and wires were bare and touching something that you would also be complaining about a loud hum. Lacking that, it is more likely not that bad.
If this cabling is all in one sheath, it is very likely that the grounding has been damaged. In that case it might have an outer shield of aluminum, and that has been allowed to touch a steel beam or something like it.
There are all sorts of odd possibilities, but the same corrective action is require for any of them. Replace the cable.
Before you do that though, get a roll of CAT5 cable and go to the next nearest room with a telephone jack, and run CAT5 from that jack into the problem room, and hook a phone up to it. It should be without the music. If so... replace the existing cable.
That may or may not be easy. If it goes into a crawl space or in any way allows inspection of significant parts of the run you might want to go looking for anything odd. Kinks, twists that break the sheilding or even just the sheath, etc etc. But most likely it is run through walls and not only is inspection going to be impossible, but replacement may be danged difficult too.
Swap phones to another room and line. Does the music stay with the phone? If yes, replace the phone. If not, the problem is in the wiring and you'll have to figure out what is going on, such as a loose connection. A capacitor across the line might help too, but I can not tell you the value to use. Maybe a .01uuf.
With the RARE exception of a high-joint (high-resistance fault) on the cable or drop pair, which would affect ALL phones on that line, this is caused by a defective (usually cheap) telephone. Eliminate/disconnect one phone at-a-time until you've isolated the offending set. Good luck.
I might add one more thing. Make sure your grounds are all good.
I wonder how grounding the frame would fit into this and if it should be grounded or if it should not be grounded by code or best practices. I have never worked with steel framing.
He's got three lines, three phones, and it only happens in one room.
It isn't the telset.
There are no grounds on the telephone system in a home.
Other objects, such as the steel framing, won't affect the phone lines by being grounded or not.
(Interesting question you pose though, about if they should be grounded or not. I'd assume yes, but I don't have any idea if that is so or not.)
I have lost count of the number of customers that I have queried about the number of PHONES in the residence and were told they have 6 lines or 7 lines when, in fact, they have 6 or 7 EXTENSIONS. Many customers don't know the difference between a "line" and an "extension". I now ask how many phone NUMBERS they have. I have yet to run afoul of a Distinctive Ring customer and that question.
Three LINES in a residence is very unusual these days.
OK, if you say so.
All protectors are (supposed to be) grounded. The latest practice is 10-gauge solid copper of minimum length to the premises' multi-grounded neutral system.
Not anymore. It was YEARS ago, but only to facilitate multi-party ringing service and, later, a dial-light circuit. I don't know if the phone chassis used those grounds or not.
Here's what the "I have one room in my house where I have 3 different phone lines and numbers which also are in 3 different jacks (a home phone and 2 business lines)."
Pretty clear. I'd expect he's in the practice of accurate descriptions; he gave the whole scenario in 6 or 7 lines!
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