Loud Hum On Home Phone Line

[FONT=Microsoft Sans Serif]There is a loud hum sound on my home phone line. I have run the SBC recommended test in the box on the outside of the house and the in-bound phone line is clear so the problem is in the house. I have tried disconnecting each phone and that does no good and there haven't been any recent changes to any of the jacks. We did have a lot of lightening lately so that might be a cause. All the phones and my DSL service function OK; there is just that hum sound on the phone line. Any help will be appreciated

 

Really best way to test is with a test phone

I assume you dont own one so take a phone that you know is good plug it into a known good phone jack (not wired in )

attach a peice of solid phone wire from the red green connectors on the back of the jack strip the insalation off the end of the wire


now take your phone jacks off the wall one at a time and connect the test phone in and see if the hum is there if it is leave that jack disconnected and move to the next

you may have to take all your jacks off but you should be able to either find the bad jack or isolate the bad cable segment this way

you mention DSL do you have individual filters on each phone or does the box from SBC split out voice and dsl ?

If you use individual filters have you tried replacing the filters ?

if you use individual filters you will need to add one in the test set I suggested earalier

 

Loud Hum On Home Phone Line -- It's called Dialtone...just kidding

If your lines are ran in a star pattern (meaning they juction at the NID or other central location), lift all the pairs and place one pair on the service terminals at a time. Then use a phone (you might have to hunt for the live jack but one will be live...somewhere) to see if the hum is generated on that run. Immediate course of action would be to eliminate that line until you can get a new line ran. Chances are the noise is either induction from a power source or conduit or one side of the tip and ring (phone pair) is possibly grounding out up against something. The latter is generally fixed at the NID or the jack whereas the prior problem (induction) is usually in the wall and most likely should be replaced or moved if possible.

 

I got it fixed. I started outside the house at the junction box and disconnected all threee lines going into the house. I reconnected them one at a time until I heard the humm. The red/green were going into the house and changed it to the yellow/black and it solved the problem. Has been OK ever since.