Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?

Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to their
standards?


The neighbor's contracter was working right at the property line and
cut my phone line. I found him with the 4 wires stripped from each
end, and he was wrapping the wires together, and going to use wire
nuts and electrical tape.

I stopped him and soldered the connections, used his wire nuts for
some reason, and then used stretch tape (I think it is called silicon
tape) which normally gives a much better seal, afaict. But I don't
really know how long the tape lasts. The splice is two inches above
the dirt, and would look better covered with dirt (which I guess they
didn't do, because I had complained that just wrapping the wires isn't
good enough for an underground connection.)

The neighbor himself suggested I call the phone company, and that he
would pay. The woman at the repair office won't tell me how much they
charge for this until the repairman comes out. The woman admitted a
lot of people don't call them, of course.

I don't want the neighbor to pay if my repair is good enough, but if I
don't get him to pay now, when it breaks later, the contractor will be
long gone, and maybe my neighbor too. And I'll have to pay.


(The contractors didn't cut a buried wire. They knew the wire was
there and one was holding it out of the way, while the other used a 4-
or 5-foot rod to jab at the cement left in the ground from a fence
post. He hit it several times before he cut the wire. ) They
should have used a rod that they held in place, and hit it with a
sledge or something, instead of moving the hole 5 foot pole, right?

(FWIW, they also didn't tell me they had cut my line, didn't apologize
when I found out, didn't tell me they were going to "fix" it or when,
and I was going to call the phone company when I went outside again to
do a temporary repair, and saw that they had started their repair. I
don't think they planned to tell me at all that they had cut it.)

Thanks.


Meirman
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or not you are posting the same letter.
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meirman wrote:
Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?

Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to their
standards?


The neighbor's contracter was working right at the property line and
cut my phone line. I found him with the 4 wires stripped from each
end, and he was wrapping the wires together, and going to use wire
nuts and electrical tape.

I stopped him and soldered the connections, used his wire nuts for
some reason, and then used stretch tape (I think it is called silicon
tape) which normally gives a much better seal, afaict. But I don't
really know how long the tape lasts. The splice is two inches above
the dirt, and would look better covered with dirt (which I guess they
didn't do, because I had complained that just wrapping the wires isn't
good enough for an underground connection.)

The neighbor himself suggested I call the phone company, and that he
would pay. The woman at the repair office won't tell me how much they
charge for this until the repairman comes out. The woman admitted a
lot of people don't call them, of course.

I don't want the neighbor to pay if my repair is good enough, but if I
don't get him to pay now, when it breaks later, the contractor will be
long gone, and maybe my neighbor too. And I'll have to pay.


(The contractors didn't cut a buried wire. They knew the wire was
there and one was holding it out of the way, while the other used a 4-
or 5-foot rod to jab at the cement left in the ground from a fence
post. He hit it several times before he cut the wire. ) They
should have used a rod that they held in place, and hit it with a
sledge or something, instead of moving the hole 5 foot pole, right?

(FWIW, they also didn't tell me they had cut my line, didn't apologize
when I found out, didn't tell me they were going to "fix" it or when,
and I was going to call the phone company when I went outside again to
do a temporary repair, and saw that they had started their repair. I
don't think they planned to tell me at all that they had cut it.)

Thanks.

Hi...

Get it properly repaired (and buried) by the phone company.

Leaving it as it is you're just begging for trouble.

Taped up it's just a matter of time until it's wet, noisy,
and telling the central office your phone is busy (when it's
not)

Leaving it strung across the surface it's just a matter of
time until kids or dogs accidentally break it, or small
animals chew it.

Either will happen when most you need it - for an ambulance,
or a policeman, or when the youngsters are trying to call
home.

Get it properly repaired.

Ken

In article ,
says...

Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?

Definitely not.

Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to their
standards?

Yes. They have the tools, the correct type of splicing connectors,
and the skill to use them all together.

Your neighbor's contractor should be made to cover the cost of the
repairs.

Keep the peace(es).

yikes-e-do
Another person who cannot figure out the right way to correct a problem.
Call the Phone Company.
Simple EH!




kip

Your neighbor and his contractor are both a couple of tards. You need to
call the phone company. and the contractor who did the damage will be
liable. and the phone company will collect. if you leave that half ass
repair job you are risking your phone not working properly, not to mention
possible cusing interference for others who share that same cable and/or box
where the wires are.

dont be a n00b. call the phone company. your neighbor needs to own up to his
contractors screw up


"meirman" wrote in message
...
Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?

Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to their
standards?


The neighbor's contracter was working right at the property line and
cut my phone line. I found him with the 4 wires stripped from each
end, and he was wrapping the wires together, and going to use wire
nuts and electrical tape.

I stopped him and soldered the connections, used his wire nuts for
some reason, and then used stretch tape (I think it is called silicon
tape) which normally gives a much better seal, afaict. But I don't
really know how long the tape lasts. The splice is two inches above
the dirt, and would look better covered with dirt (which I guess they
didn't do, because I had complained that just wrapping the wires isn't
good enough for an underground connection.)

The neighbor himself suggested I call the phone company, and that he
would pay. The woman at the repair office won't tell me how much they
charge for this until the repairman comes out. The woman admitted a
lot of people don't call them, of course.

I don't want the neighbor to pay if my repair is good enough, but if I
don't get him to pay now, when it breaks later, the contractor will be
long gone, and maybe my neighbor too. And I'll have to pay.


(The contractors didn't cut a buried wire. They knew the wire was
there and one was holding it out of the way, while the other used a 4-
or 5-foot rod to jab at the cement left in the ground from a fence
post. He hit it several times before he cut the wire. ) They
should have used a rod that they held in place, and hit it with a
sledge or something, instead of moving the hole 5 foot pole, right?

(FWIW, they also didn't tell me they had cut my line, didn't apologize
when I found out, didn't tell me they were going to "fix" it or when,
and I was going to call the phone company when I went outside again to
do a temporary repair, and saw that they had started their repair. I
don't think they planned to tell me at all that they had cut it.)

Thanks.


Meirman
--
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.
Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

In sci.electronics.repair on Sun, 21 Aug 2005 03:40:25 GMT Ken Weitzel
posted:



meirman wrote:
Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?

Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to their
standards?


The neighbor's contracter was working right at the property line and
cut my phone line. I found him with the 4 wires stripped from each
end, and he was wrapping the wires together, and going to use wire
nuts and electrical tape.

I stopped him and soldered the connections, used his wire nuts for
some reason, and then used stretch tape (I think it is called silicon
tape) which normally gives a much better seal, afaict. But I don't
really know how long the tape lasts. The splice is two inches above
the dirt, and would look better covered with dirt (which I guess they
didn't do, because I had complained that just wrapping the wires isn't
good enough for an underground connection.)

The neighbor himself suggested I call the phone company, and that he
would pay. The woman at the repair office won't tell me how much they
charge for this until the repairman comes out. The woman admitted a
lot of people don't call them, of course.

I don't want the neighbor to pay if my repair is good enough, but if I
don't get him to pay now, when it breaks later, the contractor will be
long gone, and maybe my neighbor too. And I'll have to pay.


(The contractors didn't cut a buried wire. They knew the wire was
there and one was holding it out of the way, while the other used a 4-
or 5-foot rod to jab at the cement left in the ground from a fence
post. He hit it several times before he cut the wire. ) They
should have used a rod that they held in place, and hit it with a
sledge or something, instead of moving the hole 5 foot pole, right?

(FWIW, they also didn't tell me they had cut my line, didn't apologize
when I found out, didn't tell me they were going to "fix" it or when,
and I was going to call the phone company when I went outside again to
do a temporary repair, and saw that they had started their repair. I
don't think they planned to tell me at all that they had cut it.)

Thanks.

Hi...

Get it properly repaired (and buried) by the phone company.

Leaving it as it is you're just begging for trouble.

Taped up it's just a matter of time until it's wet, noisy,
and telling the central office your phone is busy (when it's
not)

I forgot to mention that I also use it for dial-up computer access!

Although my dial-up connection speed has varied quite a bit, in about
15 connections since then, it has never gotten the speed it used to
get often. At least 13K short. More I think on most occasions, but
if I have enough time, I'll have more data.

I know with cable TV a bad connection can cause reflections. Do you
think a solder joint that is thicker than the original wire was, or
more or less conductive than the original wire, can cause a reflection
or some other phenomenon, that would decrease dial-up speed, even this
week when the connection is as good as it will ever be.

Now, I'm not sure that any repair they can do will leave me in as good
as a situation as I was last Sunday.

But you've convinced me that it would be better than what I did.


IIUC, cable TV reflections are maybe like splicing a heavy rope to a
string or light rope, and then shaking the light rope, I think it is.
You'll see a wave go down the light rope until the splice and then
part of the wave will continue onto the heavy rope, and part will
reflect back on the light rope. Bad connections and maybe failutre to
use a terminal connector where one should will cause ghosts with cable
tv iiuc. Would this be the same thing?

Leaving it strung across the surface it's just a matter of
time until kids or dogs accidentally break it, or small
animals chew it.

FTR, it was underground until it got to our little front patios (we
are in adjacent townhouses.) Then it came out of the ground and 7 feet
across the cement to the house. So now 7 feet 6 inches are out of the
ground. Only another 6 inches could be covered with dirt, before it
has to go above the cement.

Thanks a lot to you and Anton and kip.

Either will happen when most you need it - for an ambulance,
or a policeman, or when the youngsters are trying to call
home.

Get it properly repaired.

Ken


Meirman
--
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.
Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:08:24 -0400 meirman
wrote:

Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?

If you do a good solder joint, that's the best connection possible.
The problem that remains is whether you can keep water out of the
connections. A bit of moisture in there can make a high resistance
short between the conductors and lead to noise on the line and slow
down your dial-up connection.

These frequencies are much too slow to have to worry about a good
impedance match at the splice. Whatever the phone company would do
would be much worse.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

Jim Adney wrote:
On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:08:24 -0400 meirman
wrote:


Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?


If you do a good solder joint, that's the best connection possible.
The problem that remains is whether you can keep water out of the
connections. A bit of moisture in there can make a high resistance
short between the conductors and lead to noise on the line and slow
down your dial-up connection.

These frequencies are much too slow to have to worry about a good
impedance match at the splice. Whatever the phone company would do
would be much worse.

Hi Jim...

Betcha a dollar against a stale donut that you can't find
any phone company anywhere that wouldn't replace the entire
cable intact from their drop to the service entrance block
inside the house.

Betcha a million against the same donut that they wouldn't
leave an inch of it lying exposed on the ground. Just
imagine their liability if it was soaked, or broken, when
the need arose for an ambulance, cop, or fire truck!

Not to mention the mailman tripping on it and suing a la
"McDonalds too hot coffee" kinda thing.

It is, after all, their cable, not the OP's.

Take care.

Ken

meirman wrote:
Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to their
standards?

Call the phone company. I once dug up two 5-pair cables (on the property
I was living on; they had a lot of phone lines) with a trencher. I went
as far as figuring out which end was which, then called the phone company.
The lineman came out and used gel-filled insulation displacement splices
(the little colored buttons about 10 mm or 3/8" diameter) to do each
individual wire. Then, he bundled up the splices from each cable and
put them in a thing that looked like a toothpaste tube of silicone
sealant with the end cut off. He advised me to wait a little while for
the sealant to set, then bury the wires and splices again and forget
about it. The phone lines were fine for the next couple of years that I
lived there.

Matt Roberds

In sci.electronics.repair on Mon, 22 Aug 2005 05:35:53 GMT
posted:

meirman wrote:
Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to their
standards?

Call the phone company. I once dug up two 5-pair cables (on the property
I was living on; they had a lot of phone lines) with a trencher. I went
as far as figuring out which end was which, then called the phone company.
The lineman came out and used gel-filled insulation displacement splices

I don't have any of those!

(the little colored buttons about 10 mm or 3/8" diameter) to do each
individual wire. Then, he bundled up the splices from each cable and
put them in a thing that looked like a toothpaste tube of silicone
sealant with the end cut off.

I don't have any of those!

He advised me to wait a little while for

I can wait. I can do that part.

the sealant to set, then bury the wires and splices again and forget
about it. The phone lines were fine for the next couple of years that I
lived there.

I'm convinced. Thanks.

Matt Roberds


Meirman
--
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.
Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

I hit the phone wire coming in near the foundation not knowing it was
there behind weeds . It broke a couple wires .

I soldered them and applied a pretty big gob of silicone glue and all
has been fine for years .

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 04:00:00 GMT Ken Weitzel wrote:

Betcha a dollar against a stale donut that you can't find
any phone company anywhere that wouldn't replace the entire
cable intact from their drop to the service entrance block
inside the house.

My impression from the OP was that this occured at the point where the
line went underground. For an above-ground line I'd agree with you,
but for a buried line my bet is that they'd splice it.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

I forgot to mention that I also use it for dial-up computer access!

Although my dial-up connection speed has varied quite a bit, in about
15 connections since then, it has never gotten the speed it used to
get often. At least 13K short. More I think on most occasions, but
if I have enough time, I'll have more data.

I know with cable TV a bad connection can cause reflections. Do you
think a solder joint that is thicker than the original wire was, or
more or less conductive than the original wire, can cause a reflection
or some other phenomenon, that would decrease dial-up speed, even this
week when the connection is as good as it will ever be.

Now, I'm not sure that any repair they can do will leave me in as good
as a situation as I was last Sunday.

But you've convinced me that it would be better than what I did.


Just have the phone guy come out and fix it, it'll be as good as new. This
stuff is not nearly as critical as RF, but it does require a good watertight
splice. If I'd cut my own line I'd fix it myself, but in this case it's not
your dime so just have them take care of it.