Bt installing earth rod

Hanch123 · Mar 24, 2013

Went to price a board change today, did the usual checks and noticed it had a tn-s and tt earth supply. Both met the required ze, however the customer claims that bt installed the earth rod years ago because his phones had stopped working and they said it was because the house had lost its earth, so they therefore installed a rod.
Now I'm no telephone engineer but this is news to me, just wondering if anyone could prove me otherwise, cheers.

GLENNSPARK · Mar 25, 2013

Geordie Spark said:
Yes, 1981 will be about right for party lines - I had one then, and it wasn't long after that they were discontinued.

It was a "workaround" to provide as many folk with phones as possible at a time when there was a shortage of lines.

They were a bloody nuisance because if the other person sharing the line was using their phone, you couldn't use yours, and was the cause of arguments between neighbours.

The problem was solved when the exchanges were converted from the old electro-mechanical stuff which took up a lot of room, to the the new digital stuff which needed a lot less room and freed-up a lot of floor space to install more equipment thus providing a lot more lines.

i wonder if there was a way to rig it.....so you could `listen in`....on your neighbours conversations?...lol..
in a nosy kind of way...you never know what you might learn about `them next door`...lol..

snowhead · Mar 25, 2013

GLENNSPARK said:
i wonder if there was a way to rig it.....so you could `listen in`....on your neighbours conversations?...lol..
in a nosy kind of way...you never know what you might learn about `them next door`...lol..

Yes you could listen in, you had to to know the line was free for you to use.

GLENNSPARK · Mar 25, 2013

snowhead said:
Yes you could listen in, you had to to know the line was free for you to use.

hmm.....

[ElectriciansForums.net] Bt installing earth rod

Geordie Spark · Mar 25, 2013

snowhead said:
Yes you could listen in, you had to to know the line was free for you to use.

Tell me about it !!!

We shared with an old lady down the street who had a habit of leaving her phone off the hook. It meant that we were unable to use our phone, but could hear everything that was going on at her end - their television, her nagging her hubby, him snoring & farting in his chair .......

GLENNSPARK · Mar 25, 2013

Geordie Spark said:
Tell me about it !!!

We shared with an old lady down the street who had a habit of leaving her phone off the hook. It meant that we were unable to use our phone, but could hear everything that was going on at her end - their television, her nagging her hubby, him snoring & farting in his chair .......

and what they were arguing about?...lol...

Geordie Spark · Mar 25, 2013

GLENNSPARK said:
and what they were arguing about?...lol...

Well it was probably more about her -------ing him for snoring and farting while she was talking at him.

Hanch123 · Mar 25, 2013

Geordie Spark said:
Yes, 1981 will be about right for party lines - I had one then, and it wasn't long after that they were discontinued.

It was a "workaround" to provide as many folk with phones as possible at a time when there was a shortage of lines.

They were a bloody nuisance because if the other person sharing the line was using their phone, you couldn't use yours, and was the cause of arguments between neighbours.

What a pain having to see if your neighbour is off the phone, I can just imagine the fights it must have caused. Ive just had a look into it and apparently a similar system "dacs" is used on some houses nowadays, luckily both houses can make separate calls without having to wait for the other to get off the line, the downside is though that they can't have broadband, only dial up Internet.