We're at our wit's end. We have a problem that Bellsouth cannot fix or find the cause of. The phones in the house give one short ring, usually in the middle of the night or early morning. Only heard it once during the daytime. Caller ID shows nothing. Bellsouth has checked all their connections. They put a block on their computer that automatically checks lines. I've disconnected all phone lines connected from my DirecTV and DSL and router to no avail. There is nothing else to disconnect and yet it still rings. Anyone have any ideas?
What about just turning off all the bells at night? If you need to get emergency messages you can leave a phone machine on, with volume on high. You can move it next to the bed if necessary. If it only rings once and short, it probably won't turn the phone machine on.
I have 9 phones in my house, but only one bell per floor. Sometimes I change things and only have one bell turned on for the whole house, and when I really need to sleep in the morning, I turn that off too.
If you can't "turn" it off, you can open the phone and cut a wire, or put a splice a wire with a switch in it, going to the outside of the phone. Or change to a different model phone. Or you might be able to just put some blankets and pillows over it at night.
Or arre you asking how to find out who is calling you and stop him?
At work it was the other problem, too many outgoing toll calls. They installed possibly expensive software, and maybe some hardware, that kept a record, of which extension made each call. Maybe 300 or 500 phones in the various buildings. It turned out it was the Coke machine. The Coke machine was set up to call the supplier whenever it was running out of cups or syrup or spritzer, and the number was in the next area code. No problem, except the machine went bad and was calling over and over, as soon as it hung up, all day and all night, all month every month. What would that be, maybe 1400, 1000, 500 calls a day.
(I don't know if it stopped calling when it was filled up again, but eventually it ran down, and the supplier knew he had several days, a week or more, to get there before it was actually empty.)
So, you have to use your imagination, and maybe you can't solve the underlying problem. But you can keep the phone from waking you up.
A deceased telemarketer is calling you via ghostly electron pulses :)
Seriously, you might just have a screwy phone that is sensitive to line noise. Try a different phone. You said "phoneS", so I assume there is more than one. Unplug all of them, then just use one NEW phone. (It dont need to be new off the shelf, just a different phone that has not been connected in your house). In the old days, the phone companies ran a voltage surge thru the phone lines once or more per day. I was told it cleans the wires. It is supposed to burn off faulty connections In all honesty, i never really understood that, except I can take a wild guess, which I assume would mean something like moisture on bare wires. I dont know if they still do that, but if they do, you might be getting those pulses.
Have you researched the history of your house/land? The phenomena of phantom phone ringing has been associated with demonic possession as well as poltergeist/spirit activity. If a tragedy occurred in your house or its built on tainted ground you may have a supernatural problem. I would contact the local paranormal research group and ask them out for an evaluation. Most groups have associations with psychics who can get a quick idea od whether or not there is supernatural activity in your home. If the psychic picks up on something the group can investigate with cameras etc. An easier route may be to ask your clergyman to bless your house in the Lord's name. Or if your faith is strong you can try yoursrelf. The book "Beware the night" by ralph Sarcie(sp) gives sample blessings. This may handle minor earthly spirits but you will need help if your problem is demonic in nature
It might be someone you know , caller Id might not read on 1 ring, have you tried the call back feature your company offers, or do a trace through the phone company, change and unlist your number, it will stop.
Good grief...... So much for technology going amuck. You'd think the supplier would have called you and complained about all the incoming calls.... I'd cut the phone line to that coke machine forever.....
He actually thought it might be one of their computers testing the line and hanging up on our number. He had the main office block our number from testing but that still didn't work. I called him back today and he's taking the investigation further. I just prefer not to change our number.
I've done that. I've unplugged every phone in the house except one and still had the ring. Then swapped out that phone and the same thing happened.
I thank you for your candid reply. It really helps the situation. I didn't read the book that you recommended but I did read the book "Why I love my dog better than some humans".
Believe it or not, the repair person gave me his cell number and his home number and told me to keep him apprised of the condition. I think he's more determined to find the cause of the problem as I am to getting rid of it.
Phones need enough power to ring properly - "Ringer Equivalence Number" (REN) should be a the bottom of the phone. Add those numbers up (total of all phones), generally a home can handle five phones on the power supplied by the telecom.
Also consider some type of interference, CB radio, HAM, local AM station, wireless devices, etc.
You should be able to find a ring control cord (that disables the ringer). Or, you may be able to make one. It's just a full-wave rectifier (you should be able to use 200V diodes) on the phoneline. The ringer won't work on DC, but everything else should.
I'm not a telephone engineer however I am an electronic tech.
Basically a telephone rings because of the presence of a ninety volt AC signal sent out from the local toll office. You phone rings because of that voltage being present.
I suggest that Bell South connect a simple recorder to your phone line for a period of time to see the level of the "ring" voltage and time/frequency. Its easy for stay voltages to be induced into wires, that's likely what's happening in your home.
Your home (and phones) are not possesed!
I understand why the BS technician gave you his cell & home numbers. This has become his quest. I myself have often had puzzling technical problems that have stumped me. Typically when I do find the solution it's one of those "Why didn't I think of that?!".
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