Awful phone interference

MercilessKiller

Hey.

I'm next door to like a mechanical factory using welders etc...

When using standard analogue phones, I get huge interference with the welders..

Does anyone know if VOIP will solve this issue, or whether there's a way to get shielded RJ11 cables or something to prevent the interference from next door? Driving me crazy!

Cheers

Inactive

I'm fairly sure that the factory is breaching some law, you should not have to suffer interference on your telephone.

MercilessKiller

Would be nice but they actually own the building! (I'm in a seperate part in an office)

So they're the landlords unfortunately! The build things including doors and locks so can't complain too much!

Pssst

Is your phone mains powered? If so,borrow a non mains powered model,disconnect any other phones and plug the non mains powered phone in. Any difference?

You need to ascertain whether your interference is mains borne or via the phone line.

Is your phone line overhead or buried?

MercilessKiller

I'm pretty sure it's the phone line as the issue seems to be with the cord on one particular phone between the station and the handset you hold. That bit of RJ11 cable seems to suffer interference which can be intermittent depending on how you hold it etc.....

The phone lines run overhead in the building on the same side connected to the factory as such...

Heinz

MercilessKiller wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it's the phone line as the issue seems to be with the cord on one particular phone between the station and the handset you hold. That bit of RJ11 cable seems to suffer interference which can be intermittent depending on how you hold it etc.....

That suggests a loose connection at one end. Try a new cable (or complete phone, they're not expensive).

Pssst

MercilessKiller wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it's the phone line as the issue seems to be with the cord on one particular phone between the station and the handset you hold. That bit of RJ11 cable seems to suffer interference which can be intermittent depending on how you hold it etc.....

The phone lines run overhead in the building on the same side connected to the factory as such...

To take a logical approach you need to definately ascertain whether it is mains borne or phone line born or indeed,if it is interfering with the signal between base and phone on a cordless. If its cordless is it DECT digital or analogue?

Once you have diagnosed the source, you can then obtain a suitable filter to try.

If its from welders it is likely that the welding equipment will be producing low frequency pulses in much the same way as the original spark gap transmitters worked for the transmission of morse.

The pulse can be fed via the mains supply or loose bits of wire and overhead cables can act as antennae for the wideband spark pulses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter

As i say,un plug everything from phone sockets and mains sockets to phones,try a basic phone in the master socket and see if it goes. That will be your starting point.

MercilessKiller

Hey

The phone in the conference room is a none-mains phone plugged into a completely different phone line, which has the same problem as the phones in our office (we only have 3 or 4 phones in the actual office).

So yeh that isn't mains borne and it isn't a cordless phone either, though there is a pretty long cable between the station and the phone socket itself...

Is there such thing as shielded phone cable?

Pssst

Yes but have you gtried unplugging ALL phones and physically disconnecting them from both phone socket and mains,then plugging in bog standard simple phone and checking for noise? Tracing RFI (radio frequency interference) requires a strict logical approach to problem solving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_frequency_interference

DVardysShadow

MercilessKiller wrote: »

... Is there such thing as shielded phone cable?

What cable are you thinking of shielding? And are you sure it is the correct cable in the first place? Sometimes these problems arise due to wiring being wrong - phone wire is twisted and generally quite good against interference.

MercilessKiller

Nope. Will have to try and organise that today.

There are 2 problems.. 1 is that we need the phone line available at all times, and 2, we can't judge when they do their welding as it's intermittent...