Cut telephone cable in attic b yaccident, help!

ledsking

hi all,
I was clearing out the attic and getting rid of old TV cables and I accidently cut the telephone cable, I didn't realise it at the time as it is a black thick cable that looks like a TV cable. Anway, How can I re-connect the cable? Can I just get some kind of union piece or something?
Help/ advice would be appreciated as we have no phone or internet and the missus is not happy!
Thanks,

DublinDilbert

As a temp fix you can just strip & wind the individual wires around each other and tape up. You can get a small junction box to do a tidy job on it...

indie armada

if your in dublin i can give ye a few crimp connections that you just put colour for colour together and squeze with a pliers.

M cebee

does it trip something at the exchange?-when they're cut

indie armada

M cebee wrote: »

does it trip something at the exchange?-when they're cut

in my experience only if the short is there for a certain ammount of time. if its a straight cut and there is no short then you should be ok.

M cebee

ya-i'm not sure

10-10-20

Gents,

Ring can give a nasty jolt if a call comes in and you're the receiver.
Best isolate it by contacting Eircon and have them disable the line first. Just tell them that you're powerhosing the house and you worry about these things too much...

Oh - and OP - telephone cable isn't usually thick and black... It's not coaxial cable like satellite cable. It should contain 4 to 6 wires, so you need to reconnect each one separately. Just check this again as you give me the impression that that's what you cut.

horse7

did you get sorted out ok.

altor

10-10-20 wrote: »

Gents,

Ring can give a nasty jolt if a call comes in and you're the receiver.
Best isolate it by contacting Eircon and have them disable the line first. Just tell them that you're powerhosing the house and you worry about these things too much...

Oh - and OP - telephone cable isn't usually thick and black... It's not coaxial cable like satellite cable. It should contain 4 to 6 wires, so you need to reconnect each one separately. Just check this again as you give me the impression that that's what you cut.

That is true but you would need to be holding both cores to get the full effect of the jolt. It sounds like poly poly cable that the op cut, all he will need to join is the blue pair normally but joining them all will ensure the if a different colour was used the line will work. It is not that big a job to do.

mullingar

AFAIK, its no problem shorting the cable.

This is how the exchange got to know what number you were trying to ring,

How it worked was when you rotated the dial, it would spin back at a constant speed and if you dialed 6, it would short the wire 6 times etc. If you hung up >2 secs the exchange knew you hung-up.

Yes there is around 30-50V on the telephone system, be careful, but it wont electrocute you if you short the wires.

indie armada

if its the poly poly comming in from the pole/manhole then probly only a 4 core, white/orange.....black/green. ive goten tickle of a phone line a few times, and im sure it was when someone was trying to ring into the house while i was working on the line. if it is a poly poly then a few crimps and a coffin obo is all you need.
ive been in houses where people have come before me and made a hash of an extension or wired in the priority on the alarm panel wrong causing a short and ive had to get the homeowner to ring eircom and ask them to switch the line back on after ive re-wired it.

stepbystep

yea think most ppl that deal with phone lines have gotten that tickle, i can remember when i started off installing, had a real smart ass training me and he said theres a lil trick to test the phoneline if you dont have a metres, me eyes opened wide all excited about learning a new trick done as he told me, put both ends of the incoming line on my tongue and D**KHEAD rang the number!!!! lets say i didnt say awhole lot for the rest of the day!

Kashkai

Perhaps the OP should get Eircom in to do the job properly if he's not sure he can handle it himself because a bad repair will have implications for the speed and reliability of his broadband connection which is very susceptible to any kind of interference.

Bruthal

Its a simple job for a sparks, so if the OP does not fancy it, any sparks can do that easily. I think it would be a bit of a charge to get eircom to fix a problem thats internal to the house that is not an eircom fault. Probably long fixed now though.

GreySquirrel

indie armada wrote: »

if its the poly poly comming in from the pole/manhole then probly only a 4 core, white/orange.....black/green. ive goten tickle of a phone line a few times, and im sure it was when someone was trying to ring into the house while i was working on the line. if it is a poly poly then a few crimps and a coffin obo is all you need.
ive been in houses where people have come before me and made a hash of an extension or wired in the priority on the alarm panel wrong causing a short and ive had to get the homeowner to ring eircom and ask them to switch the line back on after ive re-wired it.

Our line is only two core coming in and had two fuses for each core where it came into the house, and an earth

indie armada

GreySquirrel wrote: »

Our line is only two core coming in and had two fuses for each core where it came into the house, and an earth

are the fuses in a black bakolite box above the front door?
if so this is the old way that eircom used to bring the line into the house.
there is probably a black poly poly from the pole to a jb outside where it joins onto the twisted twin core cable. either that or the poly poly is going into the bakolite box and the twisted core is feeding the first point.
i used to do a lot of monitored alarms and i would allways replace the twisted pair with a 4 core cable.

GreySquirrel

yep, black box over front door. incoming cable was two core figure of eight. After box, grey and white twisted pair (I call it bell-wire)

We got a monitored alarm and man took out the box, I don't think he new what it was

indie armada

GreySquirrel wrote: »

yep, black box over front door. incoming cable was two core figure of eight. After box, grey and white twisted pair (I call it bell-wire)

We got a monitored alarm and man took out the box, I don't think he new what it was

that twisted core cable is a pain in the bum when its been disturbed after years of being there. it usually snaps when you go to strip it so id usually take it out and replace it with a white jb or an empty sensor housing.
twice in the past ive done this and it solved broadband issues or gave a quicker speed, according to the home owner.

GreySquirrel

i posted a reply about the history of our phone going back to P 7 T times. Can't find thread now. I'll have a look tomorrow.

At the moment (i upstairs) i think the black cable comes into an eircom splitter, a box as big as a deep single gang back box and cover

GreySquirrel

found it:

Was very reluctant to switch from eircom. Phone in the house from as long as i remember, middle of last century, P & T era. big bakelite thingy with dial and braided cord. Only one on the road. Da used to charge tuppence for a call until he got fed up with neighbours calling in and put it up to a shilling

Solair

Voltages:

Normal state : around 48V DC
Ringing : 75V AC - that'll give you a nasty jolt if you're holding the two wires.

If you're playing around with phone wiring it's advisable to divert your calls to your mobile / another phone to avoid ringing voltage:

*21*(destination number)#

#21# to cancel.

Bruthal

Solair wrote: »

Voltages:

Normal state : around 48V DC
Ringing : 75V AC - that'll give you a nasty jolt if you're holding the two wires.

If you're playing around with phone wiring it's advisable to divert your calls to your mobile / another phone to avoid ringing voltage:

*21*(destination number)#

#21# to cancel.

I dont think 75v is all that nasty of a jolt, although it is fairly perceivable alright, its more the unexpected sensation really. Even 110v with wire in each hand is not overly severe.

Solair

robbie7730 wrote: »

I dont think 75v is all that nasty of a jolt, although it is fairly perceivable alright, its more the unexpected sensation really. Even 110v with wire in each hand is not overly severe.

It is if, like a friend of mine did, you were stripping the phone wires with your teeth!

KoolKid

robbie7730 wrote: »

I dont think 75v is all that nasty of a jolt, although it is fairly perceivable alright, its more the unexpected sensation really. Even 110v with wire in each hand is not overly severe.

It is. This is DC not AC.

Solair

koolkid wrote: »

It is. This is DC not AC.

Phone lines are weird.

48V DC for the signals
75V AC 25Hz for the ring signal.

The ring will give you a serious blast, remember it's designed to physically ring several electromechanical bells, not just signal a little bleeping speaker. That takes quite a bit of juice!!

Bruthal

koolkid wrote: »

It is. This is DC not AC.

I dont believe its overly severe, 110v ac can be held in dry hands without being too nasty, some will believe, some wont, we had one just the other day with the 48v dc phone line and we could not percieve even with dampness on hands. The ringer can be perceived but that can be more noticeable where wire windings were involved with back emf etc, and with sweaty hands it might be nice and noticeable alright. Is the ringer not AC?

With DC a higher current is needed to have the same negative effect on the heart as AC does as far as i know anyway. DC causes more burns though than the same AC voltage level.

Solair
48V DC for the signals
75V AC 25Hz for the ring signal.

The ring will give you a serious blast, remember it's designed to physically ring several electromechanical bells, not just signal a little bleeping speaker. That takes quite a bit of juice!!

How much juice something takes to operate has little to do with the percieved shock, the perceived shock has a direct link to the voltage. A car starter motor is over a KW just for an average engine car, but no shock or voltage will be percieved from that. But a 5 watt 230v watt bulb and touch its terminals and its a nice shock, the load the bulb or anything else takes has nothing to do with the shock. The terminals at a 9kw shower will give the same shock as the terminals to a set of christmas tree lights.

Bruthal

Solair wrote: »

It is if, like a friend of mine did, you were stripping the phone wires with your teeth!

Yes it would be a nasty shock in the mouth alright, the tonge can percieve voltage right down to a 1.5v battery, 12v is a good noticeable shock there, and 48v or 75v would be nasty in the mouth alright, no doubt about that.