sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Automated Time Announcement

I trust that my question is appropriate for this forum. I am a building consultant and therefore know that forums like this exist. I have an unusual phone service problem I hope someone can solve.

My mother lives in the Tampa area of Florida. For two months now her hard wired wall phone (read old - no frills - handset, hook & keypad, no speakerphone capability) has been chiming and a female voice announces the time on the hour, 24/7. She can hear this from the other side of the house! The phone in on the hook when this happens. It also interrupts active calls and both parties can hear the announcement.

She reported this to the phone company, who assigned a tech. He didn't really believe her until he set up a call just prior to the hour, and sure enough, he heard the announcement break in to the conversation. So the phone company changes the wiring to and from the NIC, and it still happens. The phone company tech has talked to his supervisor, and that supervisor to his next level supervisor, but no one has been able to make the calls stop.

This seems weird to me on several levels:

1. How does a wall phone with no speakerphone capability make an announcement you can hear from 1 or two rooms away?
2. How can this happen when the phone is on the hook?
3. What could be the source of this announcement that the phone company can’t trace it back?

I have read articles in a Google search about scams in the area stealing numbers for services the people haven’t asked for but are being billed for. FTC just won such a case. Yet it doesn’t seem to be the case of extra billing for some unrequested service.

The chime is loud enough and of a tone quality that it gets your attention. The female voice speaks fairly quickly. There is no other abnormality about the phone service. The phone company tech is getting harder to reach, so I think they are giving up on the deal.

To me this sounds like:

1. A service that was not requested but camped onto her line.
2. A mistaken camp-on by some service provider who entered the wrong phone number for the subscriber (who may be getting billed for the service but not have it, or corrected the problem without finding the mistake & removing my mother’s number from the service computers).

But this leaves at least one question, aside from how to stop it, unanswered – how can they do this with an old technology phone that is on the hook!

If anyone can shed some light on this I would be very appreciative. It is driving her nuts and interrupting her sleep.

Hi Bob!

More questions than answers jump to mind initially. There is a way that sound can be transmitted through the receiver even when on the hook, but on an old style phone that actually had copper hard switches on the hook swtich it required placing a resistor across the hookswtich. This was primarily done to bug a room using the telephone receiver as the microphone. We used to test lines for this while conducting TSCM sweeps. I doubt this is your problem.

Another possibility that comes to mind is referred to by old cable splicers as a goof regoof when a splicer crosses a wirepair, then fixes it on down the line. The inductance usually results in cross talk being heard across the line. In your case however, the sound seems to be much more clear than that would cause. Perhaps Bill will chime in on this from a splicer's standpoint.

The first thing I'd suggest would be to replace the phone. Believe it or not you might be picking up an RF signal. I'd also try moving that phone to a different jack just to start ruling out possibilities.

Is this a single residence or would it perhaps be in an apartment or complex with a controlled access lobby door or gate?

Thanks MacGyver. The move sounds like a good start. One thing I left out was that portable phones in the vicinity of the hard wired phone will pick up whatever signal is being produced, and also broadcast the message. If the portable is a room or two away it won't pick it up or broadcast.

No neighbor seems to have the same problem as far as we know.

Twisted - its a single residence occupied for over 13 years with no phone co changes other than the rewiring by telco to try to fix the problem.

One note however - power company recently installed remote query meter where all they have to do is drive by to pick up the meter read data. Any chance this is part of it? If so why would a time "announcement" be part of electrical meter data?

First unplug all cordless phones and see if the trouble is still there. I be more apt to believe it's the cordless picking up the signal than the wired phone. You may have a vaild point on the electric meter also. Before any of this did the phone tech hear this at the DEMARC with everything else off?

Does this happen at the same time every day??

If so you may be able to have a telco tech test at the demarc at the time it is happening

One thing I left out was that portable phones in the vicinity of the hard wired phone will pick up whatever signal is being produced, and also broadcast the message. If the portable is a room or two away it won't pick it up or broadcast.

I think you need to explain this more fully. By "portable phones" do you mean cordless phones? Where are the base units located? (The base unit is the stationary part that connects to the phone jack and also may contain the charger.) You are saying then that if you bring the cordless handset into the vicinity of the wall phone it too will emit the message?

Also, with both the wall phone and the cordless phones the sound is coming from the earpiece at a high enough level to be heard from the other side of the house?

If the answers are all true then this is an RF problem. Its possibly being picked up and radiated by the phone wiring. Could also be on the electrical wiring in the wall phone area. (Carrier current) Its strong enough so that it bombs its way through the receiver earpieces either through the electronics or directly.

Big question is where would such a strong signal originate? The answer to the puzzle is the signal itself- an hourly time announcement. Figure that out and you will know how to proceed.

I have heard clocks that do this. Just suppose somebody decided to feed the audio to a transmitter for some reason. I would start by walking around with an AM radio on the hour. See if you can locate the carrier. Might even always be there, audio only on the hour.

-Hal

How long have you had the cordless units installed? Are they the system type,Meaning there is a base and remote units.I could imagine this being a feature of a cordless system,I have never heard of it,But some KSU less phones use the first pair for intercom ,and could possibly broadcast it through the analog set also,especially if using an amplified handset.Since 2000 ,I recall all new analog sets are supposed to have volume controls for the reciever,ADA requirement.

no phone company service I'm aware of would do this .

what type of residence ?

single family ? condo , Mobile home , townhouse ?

since its so predictable have her disconnect her inside wiring from the nid and see if its still happens (I'm betting it will )

I'm guessing local broadcast from a device a neighbor has