Phone line hum

[Sparty]

Fellas,
Since having the dish installed a couple months ago, I am getting a very noticeable and irritating hum in my telephone. It is also very negatively affecting the login speed of my dial-up modem. Last night I finally got around to isolating it. When I unplug the phone line from both satellite receivers (522 & 301), the noise goes away, and my internet connection perks back up to 50kbps. Have any of you had this issue?

 

[ShadowEKU]

Fellas,
Since having the dish installed a couple months ago, I am getting a very noticeable and irritating hum in my telephone. It is also very negatively affecting the login speed of my dial-up modem. Last night I finally got around to isolating it. When I unplug the phone line from both satellite receivers (522 & 301), the noise goes away, and my internet connection perks back up to 50kbps. Have any of you had this issue?

Never noticed this.... are the lines to the recievers split in any way? if so I can tell you the polarity on that line is probably reversed. if it isnt split and just has a splitter or something like that in the wall jack you could consider trying to add a couple of DSL filters to the recievers and that will filter out most line degrading noise.

 

[Sparty]

There are no phone splitters. What is a DSL filter? What do they cost?

 

[Lightfoot]

I have not noticed a hum on the phone but I do have a drastic change in the connection speed of my dial-up modem. The only way I can get back to 52K connection is to unplug the phone line from DISH receivers.

 

[ShadowEKU]

There are no phone splitters. What is a DSL filter? What do they cost?

They are very cheap... I saw one at walmart for 1.99 I believe.

What they do is filter out line noise from DSL modems.... hooking them to the reciever would filter the reciever from creating the line noise. This is a cheap possible solution. I have not noticed any speed degredation when my dsl goes out and I have to use dialup but I would bet this might help at least a little.

 

[blockisle9]

I had this problem with my fax machine, never figured it out. Just kept it un-plugged when not using it.

Is the problem with both receivers or just one? If you isolate it to just one, try running a long wire from the receiver that you think is creating the hum to the phone jack the other one that is not creating the hum and see what happens.
This will at least pinpoint whether its the phone jack or receiver.
Not very scientific I know.

 

[ShadowEKU]

I had this problem with my fax machine, never figured it out. Just kept it un-plugged when not using it.

Is the problem with both receivers or just one? If you isolate it to just one, try running a long wire from the receiver that you think is creating the hum to the phone jack the other one that is not creating the hum and see what happens.
This will at least pinpoint whether its the phone jack or receiver.
Not very scientific I know.

I had this problem when I first moved into my new house... whenever it rained i would get a hum on the line... I finally went to the crawlspace and found a phone wire (just a pair of wire with 2 bare ends) sitting in a puddle. I decided to wire it to an outlet in the hosue sinc eI jsut ahd an extra phone wire.. I wired it backward and the hum was still there... i reversed the wires and presto... I have since rewired alot and that was even pre satellite for me but the principal is the same.

 

[Wishbone]

They are very cheap... I saw one at walmart for 1.99 I believe.

What they do is filter out line noise from DSL modems.... hooking them to the reciever would filter the reciever from creating the line noise. This is a cheap possible solution. I have not noticed any speed degredation when my dsl goes out and I have to use dialup but I would bet this might help at least a little.

If I understand this correctly, DSL noise is very high-pitched.. Wouldn't a DSL filter be a low-pass filter to filter out this noise? A "hum" (as opposed to a "whine") sounds like it would be a lower pitch sound (60 Hz possibly?), within the speech frequency range. If this is so, a DSL filter wouldn't help.

 

[ShadowEKU]

If I understand this correctly, DSL noise is very high-pitched.. Wouldn't a DSL filter be a low-pass filter to filter out this noise? A "hum" (as opposed to a "whine") sounds like it would be a lower pitch sound (60 Hz possibly?), within the speech frequency range. If this is so, a DSL filter wouldn't help.

This is partially true.... however... If hooked up in reverse the modem would scream louder than the hum and would in a sense drown it out. This is why People with Voice over IP can hook a DSL filter up and it fix most problems

 

[haertig]

I finally went to the crawlspace and found a phone wire (just a pair of wire with 2 bare ends) sitting in a puddle.

Back ages ago I wired a phone jack into my downstairs office/bedroom using the cheapest officially labeled "phone wire" I could find from Radio Shack.

Then computers were invented. Someone decided they should be connected to phone lines to communicate. My modem never got the speeds it was theoretically capable of, and anybody picking up the second phone line would immediately knock the modem offline (connected to the OTHER line). Ditto if the second phone line rang.

Then networks were invented. So I wired up some network jacks and figured I'd just go ahead and replace the old phone line as well. You know, the old phone and new network wires weren't the same color, and lord knows I want my crawlspace wires to be color coordinated!

Bottom line: Replacing my old phone wires (originals circa 1982) picked up my modem connect speeds and got rid of that nasty 2nd phone line dropping me offline problem.

A question for those who have mentioned "polarity" problems. If you reverse the tip/ring of your phone line, you will still get dial tone but your touchtone keypad won't work. Wouldn't you notice this? At least older TT phones wouldn't work. Maybe newer phones auto detect and correct polarity. I haven't misconnected tip/ring for a few decades so I can't say I've tested newer phone's polarity handling.

 

[blockisle9]

Ya, it doesn't matter anymore. I used this a couple of times to make a phone incoming only. When I try it now you can dial out.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Back ages ago I wired a phone jack into my downstairs office/bedroom using the cheapest officially labeled "phone wire" I could find from Radio Shack.

Then computers were invented. Someone decided they should be connected to phone lines to communicate. My modem never got the speeds it was theoretically capable of, and anybody picking up the second phone line would immediately knock the modem offline (connected to the OTHER line). Ditto if the second phone line rang.

Then networks were invented. So I wired up some network jacks and figured I'd just go ahead and replace the old phone line as well. You know, the old phone and new network wires weren't the same color, and lord knows I want my crawlspace wires to be color coordinated!

Bottom line: Replacing my old phone wires (originals circa 1982) picked up my modem connect speeds and got rid of that nasty 2nd phone line dropping me offline problem.

A question for those who have mentioned "polarity" problems. If you reverse the tip/ring of your phone line, you will still get dial tone but your touchtone keypad won't work. Wouldn't you notice this? At least older TT phones wouldn't work. Maybe newer phones auto detect and correct polarity. I haven't misconnected tip/ring for a few decades so I can't say I've tested newer phone's polarity handling.

yes if you reverse Tip Ring on a phone after 1985 you should be ok... as long as it doesnt have a motor/manual ringer it still works.

 

[Rlanham]

Sounds like a ground fault loop problem.
I got a ground fault interuptor filter from Radio Shack that solved the problem with my phone & my stereo system, when I added my 522 receiver.
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/index.html
It can also be as simple as a wire going accross another wire in the wall or crawl space, causing the ground fault.

I am still working on the low hum on my kitchen phone when the low voltage undercabinet lights are on.

 

[SimpleSimon]

ground fault loop problem - that's a new invention on me.

A common cause of 60Hz hum on a phone line is if the line is run in parallel with an electric line. The phone picks up the hum via induction.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Sounds like a ground fault loop problem.
I got a ground fault interuptor filter from Radio Shack that solved the problem with my phone & my stereo system, when I added my 522 receiver.
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/index.html
It can also be as simple as a wire going accross another wire in the wall or crawl space, causing the ground fault.

I am still working on the low hum on my kitchen phone when the low voltage undercabinet lights are on.

Florescent lights anywhere within 5 feet of a phone line causes induction and therefore will screw up any non pbx line.


Also a ground loop fault can be the result of reversing tip and ring and not doing it in the other outlets

 

[SimpleSimon]

Shadow do you mean "screw up any non digital line"?

Not all PBX lines are digital, and therefore can still be affected by 60Hz interference.

 

[satviewer]

We just had our 522 system installed two days ago, and I noticed that our dial up Internet connection was terribly slow. I unplugged the phone line from the 522 receiver, and the problem cleared up. I haven't noticed any audible noise on the phone line though. In order to accomodate internet access to a second computer, I used phone a line splitter in the room where the 522 is located. The phone line went to the splitter, and one line from the splitter went to the 522, while the other line went to the modem on the second computer. I did some experimentation, and have discovered that removing the splitter corrects the dial up speed issue. Is there a solution that will alow me to use the splitter so that both computers will still have Internet access?
Thanks from a newbie.

 

[Lightfoot]

We just had our 522 system installed two days ago, and I noticed that our dial up Internet connection was terribly slow. I unplugged the phone line from the 522 receiver, and the problem cleared up. I haven't noticed any audible noise on the phone line though. In order to accomodate internet access to a second computer, I used phone a line splitter in the room where the 522 is located. The phone line went to the splitter, and one line from the splitter went to the 522, while the other line went to the modem on the second computer. I did some experimentation, and have discovered that removing the splitter corrects the dial up speed issue. Is there a solution that will alow me to use the splitter so that both computers will still have Internet access?
Thanks from a newbie.

You have described my problem exactly. I have looked for a different (better) spliter but have not found one. I am thinking about running a another phone line from the attic into the room with the 522 and computer.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Shadow do you mean "screw up any non digital line"?

Not all PBX lines are digital, and therefore can still be affected by 60Hz interference.

yes... with the exception that the 4 wire pbx phone lines are less suceptable too... however the 2 wire ones are extremely succeptable

 

[SimpleSimon]

Just like OTA antennas, phone lines can NOT be split indefinitely - especially with 56K dial-up modems that push the limits anyway. Every phone line splitter introduces electrical "loss" that hurts - especially given the plug contacts - think about how "loose" those things actually are compared to a coax cable.

Anyway - you get the idea, now for some possible help. Have you considered haring your internet connection between the 2 PCs? Not always convienent, but sometimes can actually work out better!

P.S. Shadow: Wow! I haven't seen 4-wire analog phones for a LONG time.