I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:
I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved.
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. illegally tapped probably. If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. Yeah, right.
....still shuddering from personal experience on that one.

On Mar 31, 12:10*pm, Robert Macy wrote:
On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:





I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. *I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. *They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. *Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved.
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. *Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. *Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. *illegally tapped probably. *If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. *Yeah, right.
...still shuddering from personal experience on that one.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I think the OP surmise is closer to being correct. I worked at Bell
Labs for 44 years in local switching area, so not totally uninformed.

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:20:45 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Mar 31, 12:10*pm, Robert Macy wrote:
On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:





I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. *I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. *They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. *Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved.
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. *Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. *Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. *illegally tapped probably. *If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. *Yeah, right.
...still shuddering from personal experience on that one.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I think the OP surmise is closer to being correct. I worked at Bell
Labs for 44 years in local switching area, so not totally uninformed.


We have had a problem with a buried cable in our neighborhood which
was installed in the 1960s that has had water penetration for 7 years.
We lose our dial tone when it rains. After having technicians switch
our line back and forth between a staticy line and the no dial tone
line for years, we were told by a tech that AT&T won't replace the
line and Uverse is more than a year away. We haven't had a dial tone
in over 2 weeks so we are switching to cable internet and phone. I
didn't think of the Utility commission but I will report them now. It
is really sad what AT&T has become. Chuck

On Apr 3, 6:38*am, chuck wrote:
On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:20:45 -0700 (PDT), "





wrote:
On Mar 31, 12:10*pm, Robert Macy wrote:
On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:

I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. *I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. *They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. *Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved.
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. *Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. *Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. *illegally tapped probably. *If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. *Yeah, right.
...still shuddering from personal experience on that one.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I think the OP surmise is closer to being correct. *I worked at Bell
Labs for 44 years in local switching area, so not totally uninformed.

We have had a problem with a buried cable in our neighborhood which
was installed in the 1960s that has had water penetration for 7 years.
We lose our dial tone when it rains. *After having technicians switch
our line back and forth between a staticy line and the no dial tone
line for years, *we were told by a tech that AT&T won't replace the
line and Uverse is more than a year away. *We haven't had a dial tone
in over 2 weeks so we are switching to cable internet and phone. *I
didn't think of the Utility commission but I will report them now. *It
is really sad what AT&T has become. *Chuck

The phone company charges for a 'connection' to your home, whether you
use it or not. Therefore, *IF* they don't provide a connection to your
home, they CANNOT, by law [my understanding] charge for services they
DO NOT provide. I used to ask, and get, a refund everytime the phone
company failed to provide. Hey, two bits her, two bits there, it all
adds up.

On Apr 3, 11:44*am, Robert Macy wrote:
On Apr 3, 6:38*am, chuck wrote:









On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:20:45 -0700 (PDT), "

wrote:
On Mar 31, 12:10*pm, Robert Macy wrote:
On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:

I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. *I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. *They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. *Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved..
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. *Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. *Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. *illegally tapped probably. *If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. *Yeah, right.
...still shuddering from personal experience on that one.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I think the OP surmise is closer to being correct. *I worked at Bell
Labs for 44 years in local switching area, so not totally uninformed.

We have had a problem with a buried cable in our neighborhood which
was installed in the 1960s that has had water penetration for 7 years.
We lose our dial tone when it rains. *After having technicians switch
our line back and forth between a staticy line and the no dial tone
line for years, *we were told by a tech that AT&T won't replace the
line and Uverse is more than a year away. *We haven't had a dial tone
in over 2 weeks so we are switching to cable internet and phone. *I
didn't think of the Utility commission but I will report them now. *It
is really sad what AT&T has become. *Chuck

The phone company charges for a 'connection' to your home, whether you
use it or not. Therefore, *IF* they don't provide a connection to your
home, they CANNOT, by law [my understanding] charge for services they
DO NOT provide. I used to ask, and get, a refund everytime the phone
company failed to provide. Hey, two bits her, two bits there, it all
adds up.

Yeah wet cables are a whole different problem. I've had my share of
them. But that is not what I'm experiencing though. My lines off hook
without dial tone are clean. Lenny

On Mar 31, 1:10*pm, Robert Macy wrote:
On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:









I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. *I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. *They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. *Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved.
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. *Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. *Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. *illegally tapped probably. *If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. *Yeah, right.
...still shuddering from personal experience on that one.

The CO is 30 miles from my house so yes I'm certain that there are
many opportunities along the way to access my line, but you're
probably correct in that it's most likely something else. I don't
believe anything they tell me either. The phone company is notorious
for keeping secrets. The boost amplifier echo cancellation theory
sounds like a more likely scenario. I will suggest that to them. When
I was a kid we would go down to the basement of the apartment building
in which I lived with a 500 set with clip leads. so I know how easy it
is to tap a line. Thanks, Lenny

On Mar 31, 12:21*pm, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:
On Mar 31, 1:10*pm, Robert Macy wrote:





On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:

I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. *I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. *They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. *Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved.
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. *Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. *Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. *illegally tapped probably. *If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. *Yeah, right.
...still shuddering from personal experience on that one.

The CO is 30 miles from my house so yes I'm certain that there are
many opportunities along the way to access my line, but you're
probably correct in that it's most likely something else. I don't
believe anything they tell me either. The phone company is notorious
for keeping secrets. *The boost amplifier echo cancellation theory
sounds like a more likely scenario. I will suggest that to them. When
I was a kid we would go down to the basement of the apartment building
in which I lived with a 500 set with clip leads. so I know how easy it
is to tap a line. Thanks, Lenny

Just reread your original posting. ASK each time you hear if the other
person is on a landline or cellphone.

Cellphones have a distinct delay between microphone pickup and
transmission. They are notorious for creating weird echo's. How many
times have we heard the convesation 6 or 7 times?! and had to break,
and re-establish the connection to even talk?

On Apr 1, 8:20*am, Robert Macy wrote:
On Mar 31, 12:21*pm, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:





On Mar 31, 1:10*pm, Robert Macy wrote:

On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:

I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. *I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. *They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. *Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved.
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. *Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. *Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. *illegally tapped probably. *If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. *Yeah, right.
...still shuddering from personal experience on that one.

The CO is 30 miles from my house so yes I'm certain that there are
many opportunities along the way to access my line, but you're
probably correct in that it's most likely something else. I don't
believe anything they tell me either. The phone company is notorious
for keeping secrets. *The boost amplifier echo cancellation theory
sounds like a more likely scenario. I will suggest that to them. When
I was a kid we would go down to the basement of the apartment building
in which I lived with a 500 set with clip leads. so I know how easy it
is to tap a line. Thanks, Lenny

Just reread your original posting. ASK each time you hear if the other
person is on a landline or cellphone.

Cellphones have a distinct delay between microphone pickup and
transmission. They are notorious for creating weird echo's. How many
times have we heard the convesation 6 *or 7 times?! and had to break,
and re-establish the connection to even talk?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

VERY GOOD point!!

On Apr 1, 8:48*pm, " wrote:
On Apr 1, 8:20*am, Robert Macy wrote:









On Mar 31, 12:21*pm, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:

On Mar 31, 1:10*pm, Robert Macy wrote:

On Mar 31, 9:32*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:

I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at *other
times they are soft.

The interesting thing is that only I can hear them. The person on the
other end cannot. The telephone company hasn't got a clue as to what
could be going on and have asked me to try to log these events. So
far, as near as I can tell I don't think I've heard it on local calls
but rather on calls to cell phones, 1-800 numbers and long distance
calls. I've called them a few times about this and I figure by now
they're starting to think that I'm nuts. Perhaps whoever reads this
will concur, however I know that this is happening. Does anyone have
any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks, Lenny

Had similar experience, but sounded like standing in a cave and
hitting the side of a garbage can. You got a bong, followed by
repetitive decaying bongs. *I recall that sound comes from lack of
echo cancellation in the boost amplifier circuitry. Boost amplifier
amplification goes either towards you or away from you so when one
side acts up only one person hears it. *They have a lot of anti-echo
in them, but sometimes....

Definitely COMPLAIN.If you can record, do so. *Your telephone carrier
has a monopoly *AND* a charter to supply you certain quality of telco
line, when it does not, the Utilities Commission should get involved.
If the sound prevents you from successfully completely a call, they
have failed in supplying you with 'minimal' service. *Until they
repair, ask for reduction in service cost.

Second, but not as likely, is a cable bundle that has 'failed' and
lines are crossing and disrupting each other. We had that problem once
and after any call so disrupted, I called to complain, giving time,
length of disruption, and type of disruption. *Only took three months,
but they finally found the problem: one of those huge buried cable
bundles with multitude of telephone pairs had gone wanky. Random
noise, and worse, randomly lines would cross to other lines. They
pulled a new bundle - a major operation, and voila! clean phone
service again.

There is a third potential, but that is most likely heard at both ends
- your phone is tapped. *illegally tapped probably. *If you check with
phone company they'll deny, assuring you there is no tap on your line
and no way to tap your line without their knowledge. *Yeah, right..
...still shuddering from personal experience on that one.

The CO is 30 miles from my house so yes I'm certain that there are
many opportunities along the way to access my line, but you're
probably correct in that it's most likely something else. I don't
believe anything they tell me either. The phone company is notorious
for keeping secrets. *The boost amplifier echo cancellation theory
sounds like a more likely scenario. I will suggest that to them. When
I was a kid we would go down to the basement of the apartment building
in which I lived with a 500 set with clip leads. so I know how easy it
is to tap a line. Thanks, Lenny

Just reread your original posting. ASK each time you hear if the other
person is on a landline or cellphone.

Cellphones have a distinct delay between microphone pickup and
transmission. They are notorious for creating weird echo's. How many
times have we heard the convesation 6 *or 7 times?! and had to break,
and re-establish the connection to even talk?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

VERY GOOD point!!

I got the opportunity to speak to the "tech" at the phone company
yesterday. Unlike companies such as Verizon or Southern Bell, this
part of the state is serviced by a very small independent telephone
company that services just several small towns. It's relatively
friendly. They have just one senior tech. We spoke for awhile. I
mentioned the boost amplifier theory and asked him how calls are
processed in this area. He said that years ago everything went out on
"T" lines. Today, in addition to the "main" CO. there is a "sub CO"
here in town. The switch is a recent electronic one with enhanced 911.
Nothing special happens on calls placed within town, however as soon
as the call leaves town it gets converted to fiber and then depending
on how it's routed and where, who knows what happens. So short of shot
gunning the switch, which he's willing to try if all else fails, due
to the extremely sporadic nature of this problem, he said that they
really can't do anything about it right now. I can understand this. He
has asked me to keep a log of the problem, recording date, time, which
line, etc and then perhaps we'll notice a pattern. It would also be
handy if I could catch an audio recording at will of this ghost as
well. I'll have to work on that one. I could probably hang a cassette
recorder with remote recording capability on the line, along with
something like a Viking RC1 (I think it is), DTMF operated gate
controller. It gives you a relay output when it hears a pre programmed
DTMF code. I would need one for each line though, unless you guys have
a better idea. Lenny

klem kedidelhopper wrote:

I have two POTS lines into my home. One is measured service
residential and the other is for my business. The only difference
between the two as far as I can tell is that the telephone company
gets to charge me four times as much for the business line.

This is going to sound really strange. Every so often when I'm on the
phone (either line) with someone I hear these strange noises. The only
way to describe them is: "BOING, BOING, BOING, etc. The onset of these
noise cannot be associated with anything in particular. They seem to
happen randomly and their duration, as well as their amplitude is
random as well. Sometimes they are almost deafening and at other
times they are soft.

Do you have a REALLY old phone exchange for your area? This noise
is typical of Western Electric (AT&T) crossbar switches, which I
haven't heard in decades. But, when switching other lines they did
produce a VERY loud and distinctive bell-like ringing when the
contacts had become dirty. They had to clean them periodically, like
every year or so to eliminate this noise.


The interesting thing is that only I can hear them.
Hmm, that's a little odd, I think the crossbar bongs would be heard
on both ends. The fact you get it on both lines (do you use the same
phone for both lines?) seems to indicate it may not be a phone co.
problem, but in your house wiring or whatever.

Jon