ajs@hpfcla.UUCP (03/25/84)
We have a cheap one-piece phone on our line. One of its interesting
"features" is that shortly (1 sec?) after you hang up from a call, you
get a brief "chirp", apparently due to the disconnection.
The question is, why does that same chirp sometimes occur spontaneously,
usually in the middle of the night? Most recently it happened at 0056
(e.g. just before 1am). Yup, it's loud enough to wake you up to note
the time, if the phone happens to be on a wood shelf by the bed...
Mail or post your response as you feel is appropriate. Thanks!
Alan Silverstein, Hewlett-Packard Fort Collins Systems Division, Colorado
{ihnp4 | hplabs}!hpfcla!ajs, 303-226-3800 x3053, N 40 31'31" W 105 00'43"rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (03/26/84)
Chances are your line was routinely tested for the resistance of its insulation. This is done late at night and could elicit a chirp from your phone which is unusually sensitive as you describe it. The CS people have a name for it: GIGO. Remember, this is what divestiture is all about. Hope your chirping phone is worth it. hound!rfg
pat@symplex.UUCP (03/27/84)
<GIFT TO FIRST-LINE EATERS> I recently purchased a combination alarm-clock-radio-telephone & in addition to chirping after a hangup on any phone in the house it chirps three times in rapid succession EVERY night at approximately eleven-fifteen (plus or minus about 5 minutes). Any enlightenment would be appreciated. Richard Patrick Symplex Communications ..!fortune!dsd!symplex!pat
kalm@ihuxw.UUCP (James ) (03/30/84)
line 1 Buy a decent phone from AT&T. -- Jim Kalmadge - AT&T Bell Labs IX 1c415 8-367-0475 (312) 979-0475 ihuxw!kalm
ljdickey@watmath.UUCP (Lee Dickey) (04/02/84)
> The question is, why does that same chirp sometimes occur spontaneously, > usually in the middle of the night? Most recently it happened at 0056. I do not know the answer, but I have the same question! We have a Bell dial phone that "tings" every night just after midnight! -- Lee Dickey, University of Waterloo. (ljdickey@watmath.UUCP) ...!allegra!watmath!ljdickey ...!ucbvax!decvax!watmath!ljdickey
riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (04/04/84)
> The question is, why does that same chirp sometimes occur spontaneously, > usually in the middle of the night? I hesitate to bring this up, but your description of this "chirp" sounds oddly familiar to me. Was it in some piece of fiction or non-fiction that I read about the supposed ability of certain authorities to listen in on private telephones even when they were on the hook, the chief drawback being a faint but audible click as the eavesdropper made the connection? I suspect that it must have been fiction -- this doesn't sound like a very probable explanation. (Just my typical 1984 paranoia, I suppose.) --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
srini@ut-sally.UUCP (Srinivasan Sundararajan) (04/04/84)
The chirping is due to line noise and insufficient shielding in the "cheap" phones. I own one too !
res@ihuxn.UUCP (Rich Strebendt) (04/04/84)
I may be mistaken on this since I have not worked with a telephone operating company, but I believe that a central office equipped to do so periodically checks the integrity and quality of trunks and loops (local lines) automatically during low traffic times (such as in the middle of the night). This test procedure does not cause the phone to ring, but does involve making a connection to the line then running some tests under control of a small computer. Trunks or lines that fail such tests are then scheduled for maintenance during the following day or so. This process catches a lot of problems while they may not be noticable to a human being before they become catastrophic. Since it sounds like your phone is sensitive to the disconnection of the line at the end of a call, I wonder if it isn't also reacting to the disconnect at the end of the test procedure. Perhaps someone from one of the telcos could fill us in on this. Disclaimer: Since I work in the Computer Systems division and not in the division responsible for Local Loop, the foregoing may be totally erroneous. It is based on recollections of discussions and vaguely remembered magazine articles and memoranda. I am quite willing to be corrected. Rich Strebendt ...!ihnp4!ihuxn!res
sleat@aat.UUCP (04/04/84)
<Is this trip necessary?>
I have a phone which has no ringer or normal hookswitch, but is always
connected to the line through a capacitor. Often there will be a loud
CLICK somwhere between 03:08 and 03:11 (not every night it seems). It
is quite definitely something happening directly on my line, rather than
crosstalk. Once it has gotten my attention, if I listen closely I can
hear the crosstalk from similar pulses being applied to other lines.
I can only conclude that the central office automatically tests lines
for something on a regular basis. The question, is what are they testing
for? Since they can no longer get upset about unauthorized equipment
being connected, perhaps they are just checking line impedance for
evidence of cable degradation. I wonder if they do it only at night.
I can see two reasons why they might. One is to minimize the annoyance
from chirping phones. The other is that they might have problems with
normal traffic, in that it would take a more complex algorithm for the
system to work it's way around active lines and still do a complete test.
Someday I'll hang a storage scope on the line and see what the pulse really
looks like. I have noticed that the pulse duration is not constant, but
that doesn't shed too much light on what the measuring process really is.
Doesn't anyone out there actually work for a CO on this kind of stuff?
Michael Sleator
Ann Arbor Terminals
{cbosgd|mb2c|uofm-cv|psu-cs}!aat!sleathutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (04/05/84)
<click CHIRP bzzz CHIRP> OK, time to admit my tawdry past. Before I came to work at Tektronix I actually had to move to California to find work. One of the places I worked for was a company called "Badger Meter Electronics Division" which manufacture[sd] remote alarm and control monitors, and *Telephone Test Equipment!* The I never worked directly on a phone tester, but my officemates did and I can substantiate the procedure. Basically the testers are like stupid autodialers with various meters attached. They call up all the numbers on the office or exchange according to a script (this used to be done by operators who physically dialed the numbers, ych!) and do several tests. Line capacitance, resistance, battery voltage tests, they could even test the connectivity of the lines (via patented method). The sensitivity of this procedure was so good that, well, an anecdote. One of the new test systems was being tested out, and incidentally shown to a telco buyer. They called up (from California) a test unit in Texas. The test unit was told to check line capacitance on the line of the phone going to the home of the buyer, and it showed an anomaly that they buyer was curious about. The expert on telco measurement looked for a few seconds, then told the guy he had a tree in his yard about 50 feet from the handset whose branches were touching the phone wire. Which the buyer confirmed. Anyway, these cheap handsets seem to have a feedback chirp to let you know when you hang them up. Ours chirp whenever we hang up the modem. Hutch