Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: telesci!ashepps@pyrnj.pyramid.com (Anton C Shepps) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: The Lighter Side: An Unusual Story Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 89 17:32:03 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Reply-To: "Anton C Shepps (Tony" Organization: TeleSciences, Moorestown, NJ Lines: 59 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 543, message 7 of 7 [Moderator's Note: We've run this story before, at least a couple times, but it is always fun to repeat now and then; especially since so many new readers in recent months probably have not seen it before. PT] The stuff one finds when looking through old disk files! AN UNUSUAL TELEPHONE SERVICE CALL This story was related by Pat Routledge of Winnepeg, ONT about an unusual telephone service call he handled while living in England. It is common practice in England to signal a telephone subscriber by signaling with 90 volts across one side of the two wire circuit and ground (earth in England). When the subscriber answers the phone, it switches to the two wire circuit for the conversation. This method allows two parties on the same line to be signalled without disturbing each other. This particular subscriber, an elderly lady with several pets called to say that her telephone failed to ring when her friends called and that on the few occations when it did manage to ring her dog always barked first. Torn between curiosity to see this psychic dog and a realization that standard service techniques might not suffice in this case, Pat proceeded to the scene. Climbing a nearby telephone pole and hooking in his test set, he dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring. He tried again. The dog barked loudly, followed by a ringing telephone. Climbing down from the pole, Pat found: a. Dog was tied to the telephone system's ground post via an iron chain and collar. b. Dog was receiving 90 volts of signalling current. c. After several jolts, the dog was urinating on ground and barking. d. Wet ground now conducted and phone rang. Which goes to prove that some grounding problems can be passed on. This anecdote excerpted from Syn-Aud-Con Newsletter, Vol4, No 3, April 1977. Anton Shepps - ashepps@telesci.uucp - "Get back to work, you!" -M.Groening - [Moderator's Note: Thank you, Anton, for thinking of us and digging out this oldie-but-goodie. Speaking of party line phones, the system where the bells in each phone on the line had different impedances was fun to defeat. Many an old biddie, with nothing better to do than spy on her party-line neighbor knew just what to do: set the phone inside a galvanized washtub or similar. When the other party got a call, their phone would ring, but your phone would have (ordinarily) a barely audible 'click' due to the deliberate impedance mismatch. With the phone sitting on something designed to make noise, the click was loud enough the old biddy could be out on the back porch and hear the rattle....and coming running in quickly and silently lift the receiver and listen to the others talk. No one could ever keep secrets from their party-line neighbor. PT]