On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 22:33:56 -0700 (PDT), junebug1701
wrote:

On Thursday, October 30, 2014 8:20:06 AM UTC-5, Robert Macy wrote:
Actually, sharing with you all, but English, what can I say?


this started after the famous flooding here - covered in the national news.
PROBLEM:
outgoing calls: NO problem, clear voice line and dial up modem within 95%
of 'normal' [seen slower rates before with damp weather]
incoming calls: the ring sounded anemic, like a single tinkle, not to be
repeated. Pick up phone, and someone was there?! albeit the connection
sounded like old fashioned long distance.

This reminds me of a strange service call I had when I worked as a Bell System repair technician. It was a rural area and the customer complained that none of her phones would ring, but that she knew somebody was calling whenever her dog howled. Sounded crazy to me, but it turns out that she was on a party line which requires a good earth ground on the third (yellow) wire for the ringers. Well, the unlucky dog was chained to a poorly grounded water pipe which also held the ground clamp and wire for the telephone protector. Whenever she got a call the poor dog got a 90VAC jolt! That's one of the reasons the telcos quit grounding to water pipes in favor of the electrical power neutral.
Years ago I lived in a neighborhood with ground water problems. The
developement had been built on a wetland. After the lots were graded
many homes, mine included, only had about 6 inches of soil sitting on
hardpan. The development ran downhill so the lots and streets were
stepped. Anyway, one day my phone service got really noisy and later
that day I was out in the front yard and noticed water coming out from
under the cover of the pedestal mounted phone box. I called the phone
company and was told that phones don't use water and so there couldn't
be water coming out of the box. I insisted on a service call and was
told I'd be billed if it wasn't the phone box spurting water. When the
guy came out to fix the problem he was flabbergasted. He had never
seen anything like it. The temporary solution was to remove a cover on
the pedestal so the water poured out before the box. Later that year
all the phone lines on my street were re-done and a new box installed
up the street.
Eric