atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Severe Static on pots lines

Hello,
I was recently assigned to a building where the cabling is real old and poorly maintain. The building's owner refuses or ignores requests to fix and/or upgrade the copper lines. So I am in the band aid situation. Anyway I am getting severe static on multiple lines. I replace the phones(analog) and at times that solves the static but then it comes back later. Replacing the phones and/or re punching down the lines is a temp situation. Any ideas what is causing the static? Is there anyway I can fix this issue under the before mention constraints? Thank you.

First question is the dial tone clean coming into the building? I'm assuming you are talking about the inside wiring? Then are there spare pairs feeding the floors? Then it's a step by step block by block test procedure. Good Luck

The fact that static comes and goes is a clue.Any situations where weather could play a role such as wet splices or cable on the outside?

Whenever you have a static or no dial tone problem the first thing you need to do is to go to the Verizon demarc or terminal and disconect the pair. Then you put your butt set on the line to see what happens. If you have the same problem it's not your problem anymore. Call Verizon. But if you don't see the problem then you have to work back in the wiring from that point to your customer's equipment. In some instances such as residential that might not be hard. In commercial buildings with risers you have to follow the pair from floor to floor in the telephone closets. Disconnect, check, reconnect then go on to the next.

-Hal

Your greatest challenge here is to determine from where the static is coming. Follow Hal's post exactly as written.

The next hurdle, for you, is to find out if the building owner, since the building owner is assuming ownership of the inside cabling, will allow you to pull your own cable if the inside cabling is all bad. In other words, if you can't find ANY good pairs from the LEC's demarc to your location, then you need to pull new cable. I only suggest this method because it appears that you have a "slum building owner" that will not do the right thing.

Here, in western PA, most building owners are blase about it and, therefore, it is a free-for-all mess from the demarcs to the individual floor wiring closets. It is not unusual to find an original 500 pair PIC cable installed by Bell Telephone all ripped apart and random pairs cut from floor to floor and all kinds of bad connections made on it. Then you have the cowboys that come in, take a look at the mess and then decide to pull 16 four pair Cat 5 cables 16 floors to their client. Multiply that by over one hundred tenants and you see that the original mess looks a lot more inviting than trying to pick through another 400 pairs of individual 4 pair cables.

If you want to know what a good telephone craftsperson is like, take the time and "work" good pairs from Demarc to the desired location. That is what a good craftsperson does. We repair and make good the existing cable plant.

Rcaman

Do you have a meter? Static can be caused by several different metallic faults. Until you isolate the trouble (as suggested above) the next step is to test each pair for faults with the meter. Then tell us what you have found and we will tell you what to do to fix them.

Yes weather does play a factor and again the owners are aware, but do not care they just want me to fix it or keep the lines going.

Not allowed to pull cable (they want to save money) unless there is a catastrophe event. Such as the building falling down etc.

From all the good advice I have been getting from you guys that is the best I can do by working backwards to the demarc. That is how I am able to prove the premises cable is good (mostly).

I believe The issue is the providers cable, but again the providers demarc is inside the building. And the provider does not want to deal with the copper anymore but is under contract, so it is a reluctant bare minimum service.

Its a commercial building and I have a simple old radio shack meter. So I really do not know how to work it for a commercial building.

This has a pretty clear solution.If the static is present at the demarc with the customer side disconnected then there is no amount of troubleshooting you can do on the inside wiring will correct problem.The LEC is responsible for the dial tone up to the demarc, inside or outside, so if you have static there its their problem.Sounds like theres a wet splice somewhere on the outside, maybe.If they still dont want to fix it and youre sure its their problem, sometimes the mention of FCC gets results.