I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several times, and
found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality, and the
answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage, stress test, DC
volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged in different phones at
the NID, and hum was still there.(they say they don't here it)
After unplugging different wires and phones, I noticed the same hum was
coming from the computer speakers.
If I unplug the phone wire from the back of the computer, the hum is
gone from the computer speakers, but not from the phone line.
All this tells me that the hum is on the phone line itself and causing
interference.
My question is what is the tel co missing. I have DSL, but the noise was
there before. That hum from the computer speakers was also there for a long
time, but I did not relate it to the phone line. It seems The digital
answering machine is more sensitive to the hum than an answering mach with
tape.
Also, if I do a memo recording on the phone without the phone line
connected, the recording is OK; plug the line back in, and the recording is
poor.

Thanks for any ideas!!

I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several times,
and
found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality, and the
answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage, stress test, DC
volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged in different phones at
the NID, and hum was still there.(they say they don't here it)
After unplugging different wires and phones, I noticed the same hum
was
coming from the computer speakers.
If I unplug the phone wire from the back of the computer, the hum is
gone from the computer speakers, but not from the phone line.
All this tells me that the hum is on the phone line itself and causing
interference.
My question is what is the tel co missing. I have DSL, but the noise
was
there before. That hum from the computer speakers was also there for a
long
time, but I did not relate it to the phone line. It seems The digital
answering machine is more sensitive to the hum than an answering mach with
tape.
Also, if I do a memo recording on the phone without the phone line
connected, the recording is OK; plug the line back in, and the recording
is
poor.

Thanks for any ideas!!

Have you had your house electrical wiring checked? To me, this sounds like
a house that is improperly grounded (floating ground?). Thus, audio through
your phone devices is distorted by unclean local power. It would explain
why the phone company found nothing wrong. It would also explain why there
is no noise without the phone line connected. (if "ground" is
different/correct on the phone line, the noise could be a product of mixing
with the "ground" of your electrical devices, but only when a phone line is
connected to an electrical device) Another way of looking at it . . . if
the phone line power is clean (likely) and your house power is not
(possible?), every device in your home might work OK until a phone line is
plugged into it. If the hum is low in frequency, this would further
reinforce my suspician that there might be something wrong with the
electrical wiring, not the phone wiring. Good luck, -Dave

hank wrote:
I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several times, and
found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality, and the
answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage, stress test, DC
volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged in different phones at
the NID, and hum was still there.(they say they don't here it)


Ahhhh. A similar thing happened to me. The line always passed all tests.
If I disconnected my inside wiring and called Verizon while it was
happening, they could barely hear me over the 60hz hum. I must have been
told a dozen times that it was most likely my inside wiring and they
would have to charge me to fix it, but I always disconnected my inside
wiring when calling customer service and told them where to shove their
script. The problem only happened when I was trying to work from
home during the day, I rarely noticed it at night.

After a technition left me a door hanger half a dozen times that said
everything tested OK. I finally got one to actually show up while
I was home and had him *listen* to the phone line. He spent the next 4
hours tracing my line to a welding shop where my line USED to go
and should have had the pair disconnected from when they dropped the
line.

The day he disconnected their branch from my line, daytime dialup
speeds changed from 9.6k to 50.6k and no one asked what the hum was
on my conference calls ever again .

Disconnect your inside wiring and listen to your NID to make sure
its not your fault. If the noise is still there don't give up.
Keep calling them until they fix it. If they get snotty
about it call the state utility comission.

wrote in message news:G9rzb.77474$xV6.56282@lakeread04...
hank wrote:
I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several times, and
found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality, and the
answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage, stress test, DC
volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged in different phones at
the NID, and hum was still there.(they say they don't here it)


Ahhhh. A similar thing happened to me. The line always passed all tests.
If I disconnected my inside wiring and called Verizon while it was
happening, they could barely hear me over the 60hz hum. I must have been
told a dozen times that it was most likely my inside wiring and they
would have to charge me to fix it, but I always disconnected my inside
wiring when calling customer service and told them where to shove their
script. The problem only happened when I was trying to work from
home during the day, I rarely noticed it at night.

After a technition left me a door hanger half a dozen times that said
everything tested OK. I finally got one to actually show up while
I was home and had him *listen* to the phone line. He spent the next 4
hours tracing my line to a welding shop where my line USED to go
and should have had the pair disconnected from when they dropped the
line.

The day he disconnected their branch from my line, daytime dialup
speeds changed from 9.6k to 50.6k and no one asked what the hum was
on my conference calls ever again .

Disconnect your inside wiring and listen to your NID to make sure
its not your fault. If the noise is still there don't give up.
Keep calling them until they fix it. If they get snotty
about it call the state utility comission.

That's where I was about to go. Go to a test page on the Internet and
test your connect speed at various times. If you are getting over 30K
on a 56K modem you are doing OK. I get 42K and consider myself very
lucky because I know my lines are not good. If you are getting a low
connect speed you could request a different line. I don't know what
they would charge or if you could negotiate something for nothing.
Connecting to another line is usually a very simple process. (Your
number doesn't change.)

Thanks Dave.
I don't know the best way to check for proper ground, but I'm
getting the same voltage across hot to neutral as hot to ground. There is
continuity from the electric ground wire to an old well pipe. The phone
line used to be grounded at that point, but at some point in time was
changed to be grounded to a riser pipe from the steam heat. I reconnected it
to the well ground, but didn't help the hum on the phone line. If I still
get the hum at the network interface device, wouldn't that pretty much rule
out any problem with the house wiring, phone or electric?

"Dave C." wrote in message
...
I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several times,
and
found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality, and the
answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage, stress test,
DC
volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged in different phones
at
the NID, and hum was still there.(they say they don't here it)
After unplugging different wires and phones, I noticed the same hum
was
coming from the computer speakers.
If I unplug the phone wire from the back of the computer, the hum is
gone from the computer speakers, but not from the phone line.
All this tells me that the hum is on the phone line itself and
causing
interference.
My question is what is the tel co missing. I have DSL, but the noise
was
there before. That hum from the computer speakers was also there for a
long
time, but I did not relate it to the phone line. It seems The digital
answering machine is more sensitive to the hum than an answering mach
with
tape.
Also, if I do a memo recording on the phone without the phone line
connected, the recording is OK; plug the line back in, and the recording
is
poor.

Thanks for any ideas!!

Have you had your house electrical wiring checked? To me, this sounds
like
a house that is improperly grounded (floating ground?). Thus, audio
through
your phone devices is distorted by unclean local power. It would explain
why the phone company found nothing wrong. It would also explain why
there
is no noise without the phone line connected. (if "ground" is
different/correct on the phone line, the noise could be a product of
mixing
with the "ground" of your electrical devices, but only when a phone line
is
connected to an electrical device) Another way of looking at it . . . if
the phone line power is clean (likely) and your house power is not
(possible?), every device in your home might work OK until a phone line is
plugged into it. If the hum is low in frequency, this would further
reinforce my suspician that there might be something wrong with the
electrical wiring, not the phone wiring. Good luck, -Dave

Thanks. I forgot that they had changed the drop line, installed a network
interface device, and I believe gave me a different line, at least to the
next "box" up the street. When it was changed, I was without phone
service(24hr) until they could reconnect me at the central office. So I
don't know exactly how much of a new line I have. As far as the Internet
connection, with DSL I haven't noticed a change in speed, only that after
about 10-15 minutes on the Web, when I click on a link it doesn't respond. I
don't know if that is software, but I will check my speed on the test pages
mentioned.
"MaxAluminum" wrote in message
om...
wrote in message
news:G9rzb.77474$xV6.56282@lakeread04...
hank wrote:
I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several
times, and
found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality, and the
answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage, stress test,
DC
volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged in different
phones at
the NID, and hum was still there.(they say they don't here it)


Ahhhh. A similar thing happened to me. The line always passed all
tests.
If I disconnected my inside wiring and called Verizon while it was
happening, they could barely hear me over the 60hz hum. I must have
been
told a dozen times that it was most likely my inside wiring and they
would have to charge me to fix it, but I always disconnected my inside
wiring when calling customer service and told them where to shove their
script. The problem only happened when I was trying to work from
home during the day, I rarely noticed it at night.

After a technition left me a door hanger half a dozen times that said
everything tested OK. I finally got one to actually show up while
I was home and had him *listen* to the phone line. He spent the next 4
hours tracing my line to a welding shop where my line USED to go
and should have had the pair disconnected from when they dropped the
line.

The day he disconnected their branch from my line, daytime dialup
speeds changed from 9.6k to 50.6k and no one asked what the hum was
on my conference calls ever again .

Disconnect your inside wiring and listen to your NID to make sure
its not your fault. If the noise is still there don't give up.
Keep calling them until they fix it. If they get snotty
about it call the state utility comission.

That's where I was about to go. Go to a test page on the Internet and
test your connect speed at various times. If you are getting over 30K
on a 56K modem you are doing OK. I get 42K and consider myself very
lucky because I know my lines are not good. If you are getting a low
connect speed you could request a different line. I don't know what
they would charge or if you could negotiate something for nothing.
Connecting to another line is usually a very simple process. (Your
number doesn't change.)

"hank" wrote in message
...
Thanks Dave.
I don't know the best way to check for proper ground, but I'm
getting the same voltage across hot to neutral as hot to ground. There is
continuity from the electric ground wire to an old well pipe. The phone
line used to be grounded at that point, but at some point in time was
changed to be grounded to a riser pipe from the steam heat. I reconnected
it
to the well ground, but didn't help the hum on the phone line. If I still
get the hum at the network interface device, wouldn't that pretty much
rule
out any problem with the house wiring, phone or electric?


I would think so. Phone lines are thin and the insulation isn't very thick.
You don't have a phone line running near something that uses gobs of
electricity, do you? (electric heater, electric motor, transformer,
electric meter, something like that) The noise could be inductive from a
nearby electrical line for something. -Dave

Consider trying this to see what happens. Use an old phone that does
not require any ac power. Use it in a case where the hum is evident,
and turn off the main breaker to your house power. That is turn off ALL
your power at the main box. See if the hum goes away. If it does, then
something somewhere is "cross feeding" from YOUR side of the telephone
feed. --Phil

hank wrote:

I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several times,
and found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality,
and the answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage,
stress test, DC volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged
in different phones at the NID, and hum was still there.(they say
they don't here it)
--
Phil Munro Dept of Electrical & Computer Engin
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, Ohio 44555

Good idea, I will give it a try... I did try with the ground that
comes in with the phone line disconnected, and also tried a different
ground, with no luck. Another phone tech came, heard the hum and said it
sounded like it was the card that generates the dial tone at the central
office going bad. He went to the CO to check it and was to call me, haven't
heard back yet. I don't know if he did anything, the hum is still there.
Thanks for all your help, I haven't given up yet.

"Phil Munro" wrote in message
...
Consider trying this to see what happens. Use an old phone that does
not require any ac power. Use it in a case where the hum is evident,
and turn off the main breaker to your house power. That is turn off ALL
your power at the main box. See if the hum goes away. If it does, then
something somewhere is "cross feeding" from YOUR side of the telephone
feed. --Phil

hank wrote:

I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several times,
and found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality,
and the answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage,
stress test, DC volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged
in different phones at the NID, and hum was still there.(they say
they don't here it)
--
Phil Munro Dept of Electrical & Computer Engin
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, Ohio 44555