Telephone Cabling

Regardless of the regulations it is bad practice to run telephone cables in the same duct or conduit as power cables because of the possibility of interference. If you are going to use the telephone for data then make sure you use decent cable to the proper CW1308 spec.

As a Regs matter, you're not supposed to run it in the same compartment of trunking or similar extended-close-proximity as mains cable, nor through the same joist-holes, and so on; separation of at least 2 inches is considered a Good Idea. Crossing at 90 degrees (or near offer) is not a problem - the OSG opines that "where LV and telecoms circuits are obliged to cross, additional insulation should be provided at the crossing point", generously conceding that this is not necessary if either cable is armoured. So if you want to be utterly compliant, you could play with add-on sleeving, taping on a scrap of plastic conduit, or whatever else is to hand and consistent with Good Workmanship; but frankly, you're not protecting against anything useful by doing so in halfway normal circumstances.

TEDIOUS KEEP-USENET-USEFUL INTERRUPTION: while I'm happy for this message to be sent around Usenet and archived in the normal way, being the copyright holder I specifically REFUSE permission for its inclusion in derivative works such as those being operated at

As a matter of good sense, running mains and phone cable next to each other for a long run is likely to cause you some interference, both continuous hum and the odd crackle as thermostats or similar switch on and off. Such interference won't help your modem or ADSL connection be error-free, though it'll merely affect performance as the glitchy bits will end up being retransmitted.

HTH - Stefek

Apart from any possible safety issues, running an audio cable parallel to and in close proximity to mains is very bad practice - there's a very real chance of interference on the audio circuit.

Stefek,

Your post has made it to the website in question already....

Alan.

Or even better, Cat5e ;-)

Get DECT cordless phones and forget about the wiring...

Gordon

You're dead right - best things we ever bought. The only problem sometimes is finding the things! They come with other advantages too - you can have one in your pocket when gardening; if your Mum phones and wants a natter, you can carry on watching TV/Web Browsing/etc.; you don't have to get up from the dinner table; etc. etc.

Peter.

In message , Snowman writes

I still like a couple of wired phones in the house - up and downstairs for reliable emergency use - and I always know where they are.....

I've already wired around the house but do use DECT phones. However they are not without their own problems as they interfere with my A/V equipment. God knows what is going to happen when every street is full of wireless CCTV, wireless alarms, remote video senders, wi-fi, bluetooth etc.

You usually press a button on the base unit and it bleeps, then you hunt the bleep.

They come with other advantages too - you can have

Oh wow - that's what that's for! :-)

And they intefere with hearing aids, so not a good choice if there are hearing aid users in the house!

Andy

Probably depends on what 'data' means, I tried wiring an Ethernet connection with cable marked as CW1308, and couldn't get it to run above

In that case it wasn't CW1308, perhaps CW1311 (the flat D profile stuff)...

The major difference between CW1308 and Cat5 is the number of twists per unit length. Cat5 has a much tighter twist.

In fact if you take a bit apart sometime you'll see that each pair has a differing twist rate, some are more twisted than others;)

Keeps crosstalk down.....

I would make sure what type of Telephone company main boxes I have. To see how you will extend them.

E.G I have one B.T box which is a simple design - square shape with socket in the middle (same as those you buy in all teh shops) this I could only extend by getting an extension kit i.e. a cable with the plug already on. This means that the main box you extend cannot be used anymore unless you by a 2 into one adaptor. Still won't look nice. I luckily found a master box in a skip (see below)

The cable company in my area installed a master box, this is bigger than the standard box with the socket at the bottom. This bottom bit with the socket comes off (2 screws) and behind it you can feed in your extension cable - NOW this can be any type you want and you connect without the need for a plug. So you screw back the part with the socket in it and you can still use the socket and you extension wire is completely hidden.

I extended my system so in some places I hadcables runnign near power, here I wrapped them in tin foiland feed them through waste pipe (was lying around).

I presume you mean because it uses insulation piercing connectors rather than screw ones? These will happily accept 3 wires per terminal, but you need (in theory) a special tool to insert the wires. A cheap version of this is supplied with many sockets. But the real thing isn't vastly expensive - well under a tenner from the likes of TLC.

This is true and had slipped my mind, either way even the loosest Cat5 pair has a higher twist rate than CW1308 which uses the same rate in each pair.

Yitzak referred to a single (old style) BT supplied box. I expect it's more a case of being prohibited from making direct connections to the terminals _inside_ BT's main box.

With the newer NTE5 boxes you can connect inside the removable bit but are still prohibited from connecting to the terminals in the back of the main body of the box.