Strangest Electrical Problem I have ever seen

I consider myself technical, but this one baffled me....

Working on some oak trim molding, I unplugged a phone jack of a nearby phone (which also has an AC outlet, that remained plugged in).

- Several hours later, I try to make a call and get NO dial tone from any phone in the house.

- I start to unplug one phone at a time, seeing where the culpit is. Still NO dial tone.

- All phones disconnected, I don't even get a signal at the main feed into the house.

- Convinced it was "OUTSIDE" I called SBC service to "check my line".

After some discussions, I find the problem was I never disconnected the AC outlet for the one phone that I originally unplugged the phone jack.

Once the AC outlet for that phone was unplugged. I had full dial tone. The service rep says voltage was TRAPPED in the phone line, even though the phone jack was disconnected. Somehow unplugging the AC plug "frees" up the trapped voltage in the phone lines.

The 2 circuits seem completely independant. How is this possible???

Reply to
Bill
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On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 02:45:07 GMT "Bill" used 25 lines of text to write in newsgroup: alt.home.repair

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

And you believed him??

I assume you are talking about a cordless phone that was plugged into a 110V outlet. I could see some correlation *maybe* if that phone was still plugged into the telco jack, and it was creating a short on Tip & Ring internally. But what you describe makes absolutely no sense.

Check that wire going to the jack - did ya shoot a nail through it putting up the trim? Is it under the carpet/ behind the trim and you disturbed it? Finally, check the pins on the jack itself - they might be shorted together.

There is no such thing "trapped" voltage in the phone line. Thanks for the laugh!

Reply to
G. Morgan

Previously in alt.home.repair, G. Morgan proclaimed :

I always hold one up of an extension cord up to make sure any trapped electricity runs out the bottom of the cord before I store it.

Stale electricity isn't only just dangerous, it rots the insulation.

;-)

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Reply to
wideglide01

Reply to
Art Todesco

Sometimes if a phone circuit is shorted or left off hook for a long period of time, it goes offline. If you wait a bit it will come back on it's own.

Reply to
John Harlow

WOW ........

Dude, where do you get your drugs? I want some !!!!

Reply to
ß©©ß

I totally agree, and whenever I coil up an extension cord I place the female end of the cord in a plastic bucket. Then I carefully hold the cord in an upward manner by standing on a stepladder. That way, none of the electricity remains in the bottom of the coil after the cord is wrapped. However, there is a money saving tip that few people know about.

First off, NEVER use a metal pail, or the electricity will be shorted to ground. You MUST use a plastic pail, and red plastic is preferred since raw electricity is red in color. After you drain your cords, take all the dead flashlight batteries you have laying around your house and put them in the pail for several hours, Miraculously the batteries will recharge from the electricity that was poured into the pail from the extension cord.

Finally, after all batteries are charged, be careful when you pour out the pail. There could still be a small amount of residual stored electricity in the pail, so be sure to dump the pail in a safe manner, where children and pets can not access the residue. .

Reply to
gerrinamoo

Not sure, but you should also make sure you blow out your phone lines because they can get stuck too....

Reply to
Red Neckerson

The problem was two-fold... What likely happened was your mother (or mother-in-law, it doesn't mattter which really) placed a call to your house at the precise moment you disconnected the phone line from the wall. She, or rather the "voltage" of her voice, was trapped in your home's phone line system.

Now, as everyone knows, AC stands for "Another Call" which you had incoming to your house (your mother). Once you disconnect and reconnect the AC, it clears any outstanding (incoming) calls, and you can again use your phone.

The service rep really knew his business, hopefully you wrote down his name so's you can ask for him specifically next time you call with an issue ;-)

mikey.

Bill wrote:

Reply to
mikey

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