I have a land-line on a long - 30m + - extension lead in my office/shed at the top of my garden.

Trouble is the phone hardly works and I am told this is because the small current required has dropped off because of the long lead.

Is there anything I can get to boost the power slightly?

David

 

what about something like this ?
http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com/co...oduct-features
Not exactly what you asked I know.

 

Thanks but I really want a proper land-line that works with hands free etc.

David

 

Surely the power is supplied from either the street cabinet or the exchange which can be anywhere from several hundred metres to a couple of kilometres away. In which case an extra 30m of cable shouldn't make much difference. I might be wrong

Are you sure the extension lead isn't broken or water damaged anywhere?

 

Well I questioned that but cable and power feed are different in the classic "telephone wire" that runs along the street apparently.

The line was put in carefully and even sheathed where it runs along my old garden wall so I don't think it is damaged and it is top quality round cable.

David

 

What comes in from outside is normally just a single twisted pair, and it is powered from the exchange which is miles away unless you are a virgin customer or on some very new boxes which are fibre driven. Either way, 30m should not make any difference.

 

Better extension wire.

 

I paid quite a bit for the work and that included the best cable/extension wire available.

It was the electricians who did the original work (not cowboys btw) who told me that it was current loss in the long extension.

David

 

How many phones\faxes etc have you got connected in the house? Have you tried disconnecting them and checking if the phone in the shed works any better?

Also, did they run a power cable alongside the extension lead? Is interference possible?

 

REN


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My DECT cordless handsets have speakerphone function (Panasonic)

 

We don't have too many phones and anyway I disconnected one of them just in case.

The extension runs at a minimum of 12" from the shed power cable.

David



PS. As I said to the cable man I can make a satellite phone call but I can't phone my house 30 yds away

 

Does the phone in the shed ring when someone calls your number?

I'd really be tempted to unplug all other phones\faxes\modems and check if the shed phone works any better like that. It could be a REN issue. Not all phones have a REN of 1 so unplugging 1 phone doesn't always mean that you could add an additional phone. The additional phone might have a higher REN value.

Also if you've got ADSL broadband I assume you've checked that every phone has a microfilter attached?

Just some things you can try

 

OK, thanks. Yes phone rings but, for example, the sound fades during a conversation and if I am using hands free and dial a number the phone will not recognise the numbers dialled.

Also I have a credit card merchant terminal and signal is just not good enough to keep connection going, this works fine in the house though. I do have broadband in the office which is fine.

I can check REN stuff again but I really don't think that is the problem. Most of the filters are new.

David

 

I said better cable because I recently ran 50 metres of Cat 6 from my router to the lounge and it was perfect for either Gigabit network or telephone. I decided to put the phone line nearer in the end, but that is on 35m of Tower cable from B&Q and it sounds great.

If the equipment at both ends is correct, and the cable is correct and undamaged, then nothing should function differently that you'd notice on the end of a long cable.

Can you plug in your equipment at the house end of the long extension and confirm it works as intended, so the only thing you're changing is the length of cable between? Then just buy a long bit of cable and try it through that... it should still work.

 

Thanks John, interesting. Yes I know the phone works perfectly at house end.

I'm beginning to suspect that the cable used just wasn't of a high enough spec. Trouble is I can't easily swap it over as cable was threaded through a protective sleeve which was then fixed to garden wall.

Bit of head scratching required

David

 

You attach the new cable to the old and then pull it thru the conduit.

 

Thought about that but there is another cable (TV) in conduit which probably makes it too tight to pull through.

I did check whether TV aerial would interfere with signal btw and was told it wouldn't.

David

 

Can you test-run a cable "across the lawn" (or whatever) to see if you get a decent connection over the required distance (should only be a few quid, if anything).

If so then it may convince you to re-wire the existing one?

mb

 

distance will not make any difference its the capacitance of the line that matters and ren is the ringing equivalence number eg how many bells/phones are connected sorry but have you a friendly bt eng to check it over electricians are rarely trained in the sourcery of alternate speech paths etc open up all your sockets on the extns and make sure that the same wire codes are connected to the same points at both ends

 

Sensible suggestion and, with hindsight, the guys who did it should have tried that before threading through sheafing and fixing to wall.

I don't fancy doing all the connections as I would mess it up but I am thinking about getting the electricians back with 40 metres of better cable and get them to experiment.



Noted and I'm sure you are right about their competence in the finer elements of this black art. To be fair to them they did seem to have quite a bit of knowledge about phone stuff. Regret we are fairly new to the area and I don't have any friendly BT guys in my little back book.

Cheers guys, David

 

does the phone from the shed work ok when plugged into the house ?
sorry if it sounds daft but you never know.

 

Yes it's fine (see Post 15).

I have swapped phones as well but same problems.

David

 

Why not give Skype ago David or don't you have a good Internet connection up there ?.

I use Microsoft Lync 2013 ( like a version of Skype ) and its all I use daily and im on conf calls for sometimes 6 hrs a day using headsets handsfree etc.

Skypes kind of a version but could try it for nothing if you've got Ethernet up at that end, or is your wifi weak also.

skypes good but best to have a nice strong signal with it

 

Yeah I use Skype which is pretty clear. But I would have to pay for calls if recipient not on Skype whereas my normal BT calls are free. Might give it a try. Can I use keyboard just like a phone to select options?

Thanks, David

 

David you can actually pay a flat fee for landline calls from Skype and you'll be pretty surprised at the cost, think its about 3 or 4 quid a month all in unlimited to any landline I do it for my kids, that also includes a number

There are Skype specific phones also should you get further down that path, its actually cheaper than BT,

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/dect-wireles...mpaign=13P6-11

 

Thanks but I want a decent land line extension and not wireless. For example to give a decent signal to my credit card terminal and have 2 hands free when I am making a call.

David

 

Ok a few things you need to check.
If you have a volt meter you need to check what power you are getting at the socket in your shed, easy enough to do.

Have you moved the phone you are using to a different socket in the house?

Is the socket of a "good" quality?

Is the socket connected from the Master socket (no junctions in between and not a slave socket).

Tony

 

sorry david came over all smart **** just see where ext connected and that same coloured wires are on same no,s at both ends easy to c*** up but an easy fix too