Hearing voices!!

Piffyonarockbun

My 90 year old father was given a laptop for his birthday, bless him, he is dead keen. We have set him up with a wireless router with the Post Office as his broadband provider. They live in a block of flats for the elderly.

Thing is, and this is where it gets strange, they are getting voices coming from their telephone when the receiver is down, to me it sounds a bit like radio talk, i.e. police or suchlike. When I was on his laptop the other day, I even got a short burst of "the voices". Is it to do with his wireless router do you think or is it coincidence. What can we do about it as the phone is right next to where he and my mother sleep, (in the living room, its a long story). Please can anyone help with this problem? Many thanks in anticipation....

fwor

There are several possible causes. One is the possibility that someone is running a pirate radio station from the top of the block - they have got very sophisticated these days, and often operate the "studio" from a different location, with a radio uplink to the transmitter at a different frequency. However, you'd probably notice the music...

Another is an amateur radio user nearby. My sister has this, with next door's transmitter breaking through on her cordless phone and hifi.

Another is a local taxi company, though I think their transmitters are more tightly controlled now than they used to be.

Strider590

I can't see it being a problem with the router....

If he's on a BT phone line (ie not on cable) it could very easily be a problem at the exchange or with his line itself. One wrong connection and this kinda thing can easily happen.
Dunno why it would sound like "radio talk" though.

McKneff

My 90 year old father was given a laptop for his birthday, bless him, he is dead keen.


I think thats bliddy brilliant - good for him......:j:T

Piffyonarockbun

Strider590 wrote: »

I can't see it being a problem with the router....

If he's on a BT phone line (ie not on cable) it could very easily be a problem at the exchange or with his line itself. One wrong connection and this kinda thing can easily happen.
Dunno why it would sound like "radio talk" though.

He has spoken to the Post Office and BT and neither of them can understand what he means. (Straightforward to me, voices, telephone, out of coming). They were not very helpful and kept passing him onto someone else.

Dunno what else to think or where to contact.

-TangleFoot-

Crosstalk, perhaps?

In telecommunication or telephony, crosstalk is often distinguishable as pieces of speech or signaling tones leaking from other people's connections. If the connection is analog, twisted pair cabling can often be used to reduce the effects of crosstalk. Alternatively, the signals can be converted to digital form, which is much less susceptible to crosstalk.

Strider590

Piffyonarockbun wrote: »

He has spoken to the Post Office and BT and neither of them can understand what he means. (Straightforward to me, voices, telephone, out of coming). They were not very helpful and kept passing him onto someone else.

Dunno what else to think or where to contact.

You need to hear it yourself and contact BT for him..... Lets face the very sad fact, that when a 90 year old man phones BT complaining he can hear voices, they're not going to take him seriously.

amcluesent

Have you tried installing the BT i-plate and having microfilters on the sockets where the phone(s) are plugged-in?

kwikbreaks

The i_Plate is an excellent suggestion because as well as the ringwire choke which will improve ADSL it has a built in RF filter which should fix this problem unless it is with the phone itself.

IMO there is no chance at all that the problem is cause by the WiFi.

Piffyonarockbun

OOOh I can assure you, a typical 90 year old he aint. He's all there with his cough drops!! Hes only just this year stopped singing in a stage show due to commitments to my poorly mother, he has the most fabulous voice. People cant believe he is actually 90.

Piffyonarockbun

Thank you all so much for your replies, I think I will go down the i Plate route and see what happens.