telephone wiring

Try it and see

Oh, thanks!

Why not just leave the phone off the hook?

BT test your line every 24-48 hrs, it would possibly show up as a fault and attract their attention. Worse case it might even blow a trip at the exchange if your total loop resistance is low. i.e if you are close to the exchange.

Yes it will,

however you run the risk of somone reporting the line as faulty. Not sure if you would get charged...

Yes, but would show up as a line fault. If you put a 600 ohm resistor across the line (in the old days sometimes one half of a 500+500 ohm bell solenoid was used) that will hold the line nicely.

Owain

Well my phone screams at me to put it back on the hook if I try that trick.

Obviously the OP has a reason not just to switch the ringer off, as well

Tricky

The trouble there is that you will put a permanently engaged condition on the line, which will likely warn BT staff that there could be a line fault. They could then send somebody out to investigate, and you'd end up with a hefty bill for their trouble.

So use a knackered old phone and disconnect the speaker.

It will show as a fault at the exchange. If BT call to investigate you will get a large bill and they may even cease your line.

Peter Crosland

It will but may also raise a fault at the exchange, which may or may not get BT investigating. A series resistance would be better, try

So you need to make yourself a faulty phone handset with a 600 ohm resistor inside, that you plug into an extension socket when you need the "fault". The odds of the full duplicity being discovered are pretty remote, I would venture. Whereas an installed switch would be pretty obvious.

Or sort out handset with a dead ringer, which will suggest no one in (OK if you don't have voicemail).

Does it have to show engaged..? Simply unplugging all phones will mean you won't be disturbed.

If you short a line or even put a resistance across it, it will eventually trip the "howler" circuit. Sooner or later it will get flagged as out of service.

Ivor

There is a BT network service called Night Busying which does just this, though with a high-value resistor connected via a switch (Switch 2A used to be supplied, though not so common nowadays with answer machines, voice mail, etc being so cheap). BT needs to install detection equipment at the exchange.

If you just short the line, the exchange will detect off-hook and if no digits are sent, it will park the line. This may show up as a fault.

But if a 'fault' is reported, ie, if someone phones BT and says "this number has been continuously engaged for 8 hours, can you check it", don't BT listen in on the line concerned to see if anyone's using it? I'm sure they used to, at least.

David

If Alan wants to switch off the phone (giving engaged response to any caller) - then there is one simple way. Connect PC online and only go offline when calls are allowed. This will obviously only work if the offline period is not so extensive as to cause fault reports to occur. Only if he explains his" tedious and complicated" reasons - however boring, can we sort his problem with satisfaction.

Pete

No it won't - it will initially give a caller an engaged tone but will show up as a fault. You need to use a 5-600 ohm resistor if you want to do this reliably.

A resistor across the line will have the same effect as a short-circuit. It'd show up as a loop.

Another way of preventing the bell from ringing (or use of the line) would be to have the switch disconnect the line.

It would still eventually show up as a fault when routine automatic line testing due to the lack of capacitor (condenser) across the line, but wouldn't be so immediately apparent.

If you wanted to do all this "correctly" you could arrange for the line to be TOS.