On 28 Jun 2017 17:55:21 GMT, KenK wrote:

Stormin' Norman wrote in
:

On 28 Jun 2017 16:34:59 GMT, KenK wrote:

Stormin' Norman wrote in
:

On 28 Jun 2017 13:56:37 GMT, KenK wrote:

I have three phones - two in the house, one in a separate
office building. The two in my home don't work. I traced
signal to the box and barrier strips where the line is split
and goes to the two phones. Signal ok at that point. Phone in
kichen has signal from the splitter to a connector that goes
between bare phone line and female phone connector. Have
signal there where line is connected with an old repairman's
test phone with alligator clips. Phone doesn't work. Tried the
other phone. Doesn't work. Tried a spare phone that works
IIRC. Doesn't work. Only place for a problem is between bare
line connection and female connector. Not likely but that is
what I find. Afraid to test with working phone - don't want to
damage my only working phone by messing with connection or
plugging in a possibly bad phone. The other splitter line goes
to an answering machine. It doesn't answer the phone if I call
it on my cell. No convenient place there to use alligator clip
repair phone - all phone line standard connectors.

Doesn't make any sense.

Any theories to try?

TIA

Are you saying you have three, wired, extension phones all on the
same number? The one in the out building works but the other two do
not?

Yes.

If the above describes the problem, take one of the phones that
doesn't work and, as a test, connect it to the jack in the out
building. If the phone works when connected to that jack, then you
have a wiring problem in the house.

As I said, I'm reluctant to do that. I hate to mess with the only
phone line that works. Also, it's my internet connection line. I don't
think it's a phone, or at least one of them, where the answering
machine doesn't work either. After all, an answering machine is just a
specialized phone.


Take the above working phone and start by connecting it to the jacks
in the house from the beginning of the circuit to the end. You
should be able to isolate the two points between where the circuit
has gone dead.

I tried that. Doesn't work as far back towards the splitter as I can
get. Odd that both sides of the splitter should fail, but there is a
signal in and out of the splitter. The ho,emade 'splitter' is a metal
box with a barrier circuit strip. The line from the phone company box
goes to two screws on the strip where it branches to four other screws
on the barrier strip, which in turn feed the lines to the two phones.
All those screw pairs in the splitter show a dial tone. This is about
20 - 30 years old and has worked with no problem up until now.

Odds are, you have a bad splitter or a loose / broken wire at a
jack. You could also have a defective jack.

It would have to be two jacks as there are none before the splitter.
Seems unlikely but you never know.

You can use your test set if you like, but you are not going to
damage a regular telephone by plugging it into a miss wired jack.

Other questions?

It is a simple two wire system. You have a loose / corroded / broken
wire / connection somewhere in the circuit.

I would start with the home made splitter and inspect / tighten /
clean all of the connections.

Also, your description doesn't make a lot of sense, if the twisted
pair from the street is going to your home made splitter, and then
branches off to two extension, just how is the third extension in the
out building connected to the circuit?


There are two lines leaving the telephone company's box - one to the
splitter for the two phones in my home, the other a single line to my
'office'. The signal successfully, according to my alligator-clipped phone,
gets to the splitter. The problem is after that point, but that's where I
get confused. If signal is ok when arriving at the splitter, how could a
problem after the splitter on one output affect the other splitter output?
Or just coincidence that two problems arose at the same time? Hard to
believe. I'm more confused than usual. Or maybe the alligator phone is
misleading me somehow?

You need to unscrew the terminals in the splitter and inspect those
wires, it is really quite simple.

From what you are writing, it appears you really don't know if the
signal is "leaving" the splitter, you simply know that the signal is
present in the splitter.

If you post a picture of the internals of the splitter, it might help
me help you.