🚀 go-pugleaf

> The problem is simply stated; my apartment has two extensions,
> one a plastic drugstore fone and one a GTE touch-tone. For long
> periods of time (but intermittantly and unpredictably) callers
> from outside trying to reach us get a busy signal, when the extensions
> are solidly hung up. The corollary of this from inside seems to be
> an event where, for long periods of time etc., we can't get a dial tone.
> This has been going on since last April, when we moved in. 
> C & P says they can't find any problem (we've never been able to get them
> to monitor the line for a 24-hour period). 
> Does anyone have any good insights into this? Any possibility that it's
> an "outside" problem? What prompts that question is that the telco junction
> boxes or whatever they're called for the apt bldgs appear to be very
> poorly secured; often I'll see one with the door hanging open.

	There could be a variety of reasons, including a telephone company
problem in the central office (although that has the least probability).  Since
the telephone company has not been able to solve the problem, I guess it's up
to you.  I would therefore use the next time when you have no dial tone to
perform some diagnosis:

(1)	Unplug both phones; can you get dial tone when only ONE telephone is
	plugged in?  If so, then the OTHER phone is probably bad.  Make certain
	that you can reproduce the problem before reaching a final conclusion.

(2)	Assuming (1) didn't tell you anything, what exactly do you HEAR when
	picking up the telephone without dial tone?  If you hear a loud 60 Hz
	hum, or a hum mixed with dial tone, then you no doubt have a cable
	problem (hopefully in the telephone company's cable, and not your
	inside wiring).  Do you hear sidetone (i.e., can you hear yourself
	talk), but WITHOUT any hum?  If so, I would suspect a telephone company
	line equipment problem.

(3)	During times when the telephone works normally, do you hear excessive
	hum or noise (especially a scratching type noise)?  Does it get worse
	during wet weather?  If so, then it is most likely a telephone company
	outside cable problem.

	If it appears that you have hum or noise as above, call the telephone
company and get on their case!  In order of likelihood, here are the telephone
company's trouble possibilities:

(1)	Bad outside cable.

(2)	Bad subscriber premises protector.

(3)	Bad central office protector.

(4)	Bad central office line equipment.

(5)	Overloaded (by traffic) or otherwise bad subscriber line concentrator,
	if your line is so equipped.  While it is not too likely that your
	line is run through a line concentrator, your symptoms could be exactly
	caused by an line concentrator during an all paths busy condition; in
	this case there is really no hardware problem - just poor traffic
	engineering.

(6)	Bad subscriber line carrier equipment, if your line is so equipped.

==>  Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York        <==
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