Where can someone buy Outdoor phone wire

I'm on a farm, and have a landline in the house. I want to run a phone line to my workshop, which is around 270 feet. The phone company wants a fortune to run it underground. Rather than pay for this, which may not be real permanent anyhow, I decided to just run my own wire overhead. I can go from the house to a power pole, then to the peak of the garage, run it thru the inside of the garage where I can put a phone jack if desired, and finally from the rear peak of the garage to my workshop. All of this is short enough runs to go overhead without any problems, except over the driveway it needs to be high for farm machinery. The rest dont matter, and by the shed it will only be 8 feet off the ground.

However, I want to use that "official" thick coated black phone wire that the phone company uses. That thin indoor phone wire would probably not last long outdoors especially with winds whipping it around.

I cant find this stuff at any hardware stores or building supply places. Where can I buy this stuff? (I dont know if the phone company would sell it to me).....

I'm sure someone will tell me to just get a cellphone. I have one!!! I cant get decent service out here in this rural area. That's why I have a landline. I spend more time in my workshop than the house and get tired of having to walk to the house to check for messages on my answering machine.

Reply to
fred.flintstone
Loading thread data ...

Might be easier to check out a cordless phone first. Some are supposed to have 300' range.

Reply to
Vic Smith

*This should work:
formatting link
Reply to
John Grabowski

Check with a center pivot dealer if you have one nearby. Some pivot companies use phone line for position sensing. They typically bury it if the well and control panel are located away from the pivot point.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

some years ago radio shack sold outdoor phone wire.

a better option might be a cell phone repeater, a antenna goes on the outdoor building and a seperate antenna and box indoors. verizon sells one failrly cheap......

lots of people live in poor service areas or alunimum sided homes....

there are solutions for such situations:)

Reply to
bob haller

I'd be real surprised if your local electrical supplies store doesn't carry 'drop wire'.

You might want to check with your power company to see if that is permitted. [even if it is your pole]

We used to bury drop wire with a straight claw hammer-- it doesn't need to be deep. Just sayin'.

I've got some on the north side of my house that looks fine after 20 years. Not recommending it-- just sayin', again.

Unlikely on the phone company--

This will do you-- but look around at what else they have-- the lower the gauge number, the heavier the wire and the less signal lost.

formatting link

Get some drop wire clamps and drive hooks, too

formatting link
Use the clips to form drip loops on each outside hook-- look at a couple on various houses to see how they're done.

I'm in the burbs-- but under a hill. We have lousy cell service in the house. Those satellite TV folks have come out twice to tell me the only way I could get direct TV would be to build a 100' antenna.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

I can't help with the overhead wire, but I'm pretty sure you can pick up direct burial phone cable from the home centers. It's usually in the big rack of wire that is cut to length, not in prepackaged rolls.

You also might ask your phone company. Years ago my phone company gave me a few hundred feet at no charge.

As another poster mentioned, get a "cordless" phone. Ours reach 250' easily so it should cover your distance OK. Depending on where you place the base unit, you may be able to improve that range.

Take care,

Anthony Watson Home Cookin Recipe Software

formatting link

Reply to
HerHusband

Bob, can anyone buy the Verizon one or do you have to be a Verizon customer? I'm thinking of one for the aluminum sided homes.

Reply to
Doug

I was thinking the same thing here .... if the pole belongs to the power company or telephone company, I bet they don't like you using their pole for your own line. Of course I can be wrong.

If it were me, I'd try the wireless phone setup first as others suggested. Worst comes to worst, if it doesn't work shortly thereafter, return it and start with the next idea.

Reply to
Doug

formatting link

Reply to
recyclebinned

-snip-

+1 on Graybar

Thanks for posting that. I couldn't think of their name to save my soul, but I know where 2 of them are.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

And that "tension" may need to include the weight of ice if the OP lives in an area prone to freezing rain.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

An overhead run needs to be strong enough for the tension. The wire above is only #22, but apparently has "cable armor". Some overhead wire has a strong "messenger wire" included. If you don't support it right at the ends of the span the wire may fail.

The link also refers to earthed entry protectors at both ends of the run. I would use them.

I agree with others that utilities may take a dim view of using the utility pole.

I like Vic's idea of a cordless phone.

Reply to
bud--

So, did you get an actual quote or an open-ended $90/hr (or whatever the current going rate is) offer? I would not want to entertain an open-ended one, but if you did manage to get a quote, I'd seriously consider it.

Buried cable is much safer than aerial and properly installing an aerial cable is also not a walk in a park. The utility company will not let you use their pole and will fine you if you did it illegally. It also appears that you don't have poles high enough to go over the driveway at the height you need. The cable will exert pulling force on any structure you attach it to, and you'd have to calculate whether it will actually hold it, especially if there's any ice and wind load.

For an aerial cable you will have to have two protector boxes on either end, and for a buried one it's plausible that you won't need it (depends on how the garage and the workshop are positioned and the height of the roof of each structure)

So, yeah, I would seriously consider a buried cable installation quote - a properly installed aerial may not be so cheap either.

Reply to
DA

wrote

Grainger to the rescue once again. Here's a good place to start:

formatting link

Reply to
David Kaye

You beat me to Graybar, one of the things I do is sell and install phone systems and I've purchased quite a bit of stuff from Graybar over the years. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Or you can order from Amazon:

formatting link
(Note the description - not just the title: Designed for use as a duct, aerial, or direct burial cable.)

Reply to
Robert Neville

Per snipped-for-privacy@thecave.com:

Here's a variation on that one: look into cordless phones. Some of the name brands are pretty cheap when on sale. How many of them will do 300 feet is another question... but I'd at least look. And maybe the base station could be located in the house such as to reduce the 300'...

If there is no AC in the shed, have a couple of handsets to alternate on the charger in the house.

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

If you are in a lightning-prone area (I'm in thunder alley) overhead phone cables are not a good idea without lightning arresters at both ends - and I'd still prefer underground if at all possible.

Around here a lightning strike 5 miles away can take out an electric fence driver

Reply to
clare

I didn't mention the cordless phone without looking first. Mine works fine in the garage, but that's only about 60-80' Here's the farmer using one. The biggest problem with this is it's too easy, and it stops folks from talking about wires. And the OP might have line of sight issues. Pretty sure with Amazon you could send it back if it didn't do the job.

formatting link
"I live on a 50 acre farm. I have a non-farm technical job that requires me to be "on call". I don't have cell phone service at my farm so I have to rely upon a land line. I have tried many brands of phones over the years and but this system is the only one that gives me full coverage all over my farm. I have the base unit mounted in the house, a charger / repeater base mounted under the eve of one corner of the house and a second charger / repeater mounted under the eve of the opposite corner of the house. This gives me line of sight coverage, over my complete 50 acre hay farm. The greatest distance between the house and the far corners of my triangular shaped property is over 2000 feet. That is not a mistake - 2000 feet and I get great reception on the handsets. Keep in mind that this is a clear line of sight between the handheld phone and the eve mounted charger / repeater antennas. I have tried the same setup with other brands and NONE come close to the Uniden clarity or distance. I could, of course, have gone big dollar and got a phone system that would easily cover 2,000 + feet, but why do it when if you can accomplish the same thing for chump change. Pop (43 years of electronics experience)."

Reply to
Vic Smith

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.