Re: Neighbor's contracter cut my phone line

In sci.electronics.repair on Sun, 21 Aug 2005 03:40:25 GMT Ken Weitzel
<kweitzel@xxxxxxx> posted:

>
>
>meirman wrote:
>> Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?
>>
>> Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to their
>> standards?
>>
>>
>> The neighbor's contracter was working right at the property line and
>> cut my phone line. I found him with the 4 wires stripped from each
>> end, and he was wrapping the wires together, and going to use wire
>> nuts and electrical tape.
>>
>> I stopped him and soldered the connections, used his wire nuts for
>> some reason, and then used stretch tape (I think it is called silicon
>> tape) which normally gives a much better seal, afaict. But I don't
>> really know how long the tape lasts. The splice is two inches above
>> the dirt, and would look better covered with dirt (which I guess they
>> didn't do, because I had complained that just wrapping the wires isn't
>> good enough for an underground connection.)
>>
>> The neighbor himself suggested I call the phone company, and that he
>> would pay. The woman at the repair office won't tell me how much they
>> charge for this until the repairman comes out. The woman admitted a
>> lot of people don't call them, of course.
>>
>> I don't want the neighbor to pay if my repair is good enough, but if I
>> don't get him to pay now, when it breaks later, the contractor will be
>> long gone, and maybe my neighbor too. And I'll have to pay.
>>
>>
>> (The contractors didn't cut a buried wire. They knew the wire was
>> there and one was holding it out of the way, while the other used a 4-
>> or 5-foot rod to jab at the cement left in the ground from a fence
>> post. He hit it several times before he cut the wire. :) ) They
>> should have used a rod that they held in place, and hit it with a
>> sledge or something, instead of moving the hole 5 foot pole, right?
>>
>> (FWIW, they also didn't tell me they had cut my line, didn't apologize
>> when I found out, didn't tell me they were going to "fix" it or when,
>> and I was going to call the phone company when I went outside again to
>> do a temporary repair, and saw that they had started their repair. I
>> don't think they planned to tell me at all that they had cut it.)
>>
>> Thanks.
>
>Hi...
>
>Get it properly repaired (and buried) by the phone company.
>
>Leaving it as it is you're just begging for trouble.
>
>Taped up it's just a matter of time until it's wet, noisy,
>and telling the central office your phone is busy (when it's
>not)

I forgot to mention that I also use it for dial-up computer access!

Although my dial-up connection speed has varied quite a bit, in about
15 connections since then, it has never gotten the speed it used to
get often. At least 13K short. More I think on most occasions, but
if I have enough time, I'll have more data.

I know with cable TV a bad connection can cause reflections. Do you
think a solder joint that is thicker than the original wire was, or
more or less conductive than the original wire, can cause a reflection
or some other phenomenon, that would decrease dial-up speed, even this
week when the connection is as good as it will ever be.

Now, I'm not sure that any repair they can do will leave me in as good
as a situation as I was last Sunday.

But you've convinced me that it would be better than what I did.


IIUC, cable TV reflections are maybe like splicing a heavy rope to a
string or light rope, and then shaking the light rope, I think it is.
You'll see a wave go down the light rope until the splice and then
part of the wave will continue onto the heavy rope, and part will
reflect back on the light rope. Bad connections and maybe failutre to
use a terminal connector where one should will cause ghosts with cable
tv iiuc. Would this be the same thing?

>Leaving it strung across the surface it's just a matter of
>time until kids or dogs accidentally break it, or small
>animals chew it.

FTR, it was underground until it got to our little front patios (we
are in adjacent townhouses.) Then it came out of the ground and 7 feet
across the cement to the house. So now 7 feet 6 inches are out of the
ground. Only another 6 inches could be covered with dirt, before it
has to go above the cement.

Thanks a lot to you and Anton and kip.
>
>Either will happen when most you need it - for an ambulance,
>or a policeman, or when the youngsters are trying to call
>home.
>
>Get it properly repaired.
>
>Ken


Meirman
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