Recommendations- for replacing a telephone line

[ard]

Here is the situation:

Remote gate about 1.1 miles from TNI (telephone network interface=telco's termination)

Currently have buried cable, ~20 years. Manually spliced in watertight boxes every 0.2miles. (Old couplings corroded, cut back, spliced)

Call quality *****.

Phone line used to program the gate (old modem interfaace) AND to allow visitors to dial a resident and call their phone. Resident 'buzzes them in'.

Is there a solution that is NOT trenching 1 mile? No line of sight. Trees and hills in the way.

I cannot find a cellular connection that supports a modem....

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Ray916MN]

Can you just use a toll restricted cellphone with a pre-programmed number dial list to call tenant phone numbers house? Encase it in a weatherproof housing.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

I know its not what you want to hear ,but Id trench it and bury 1 1/2" conduit to pull the wire in with pull boxes every so often.
That would make it much easier to update things in the future if needed.

 

[Norcal]

I know its not what you want to hear ,but Id trench it and bury 1 1/2" conduit to pull the wire in with pull boxes every so often.
That would make it much easier to update things in the future if needed.

Not a good thought but at least it would be future proofed.

 

[timewarp]

Get someone to come out and fault locate the problems in the existing cable or drop. You said cable, how many pairs? You could even just open it at each splice point and check for shorts and grounds in each section, once you find the section that's bad either repair or replace it. You probably only have trouble in one or two locations. A 20 year old cable is new in the telephone industry, it's probably gel filled.

 

[CharlieM]

I would test the pairs and make sure that they are good. Looks like your using multiple pairs for what your equipment is doing. Isolate where the troubles are, and replace. I would also check your equipment, since its kinda old, maybe time to replace also. If you can get ahold of a telco tech, maybe they would want to make some extra cash. I know I would! No OT here.. LOL.. Good luck.

 

[ard]

Get someone to come out and fault locate the problems in the existing cable or drop. You said cable, how many pairs? You could even just open it at each splice point and check for shorts and grounds in each section, once you find the section that's bad either repair or replace it. You probably only have trouble in one or two locations. A 20 year old cable is new in the telephone industry, it's probably gel filled.

I would test the pairs and make sure that they are good. Looks like your using multiple pairs for what your equipment is doing. Isolate where the troubles are, and replace. I would also check your equipment, since its kinda old, maybe time to replace also. If you can get ahold of a telco tech, maybe they would want to make some extra cash. I know I would! No OT here.. LOL.. Good luck.

So the cable has 4 conductors, two pairs. There are 5 junctions. They used to be integrated couplings, brass, with a screw-together connection and rubber gaskets. The cables are messy (when you cut them open) gel filled, rubber, stainless braids... as the circuits have degraded, we replaced the couplings with a junction box, which allowed us to 'swap' the signal on a 'per segment' basis when one pair was better than the other. Now is is a noisy, barely functioning mess no matter which pairs.

Digging for 'the defect' will not find it- IMO there is water in the cables on virtually every segment.

On the cell issue- the gate needs to connect to an RJ11 teleco jack. A 'replace my home phone with a cellular box' would work for calls FROM the gate. But I do not think these transmit modem data when I call into the number. Anyone know this specifically?

I am only 0.5mile from the nearest telco point at the bottom of the him. Retrenching from the top verses telco extending on power company poles to the bottom is where I am at now. (There is power down there.)

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Its rare for gel filled cable to go bad because of moisture unless the gel leaked out through a nick/hole in the jacket.

If trenching and replacing the cable is not an option, maybe look into overhead feed via poles!

 

[ard]

Its rare for gel filled cable to go bad because of moisture unless the gel leaked out through a nick/hole in the jacket.

If trenching and replacing the cable is not an option, maybe look into overhead feed via poles!

I misspoke- the insides are sticky, gummy black soft rubber, with 4 individual conductors each with a hard translucent insulation over the conductor. The SS braid and the sticky black rubber is encased in a hard outer plastic sheath. (I would not be surprised if these were 10+ year old surplus when acquired and installed by the developer...)

As the 5 connectors were above ground on 12" posts, and over the years these were fixed, cut, spliced, cut back, exposed, water may have entered from these ends. (At times the cable ends were exposed with just wirenuts showing.) Now they are cleaned up and in watertight boxes. Issues remain.

I think paying telco to extend on existing power poles- and abandoning this cable run- will be best. Unless I can find a cellular adapter that will allow the modem to work....

 

[The Cobbler]

check with alarm companies to see what they have in cellular?

 

[theoldwizard1]

Do you have "line of sight" between point A and point B ? Trees, building, etc. Actually one good hill in the middle would be good.

Check into wireless internet. There are people going farther than that. Your biggest issue would be the "old modem interface".

 

[mburrus]

lots of options here. is power available at the gate? if so there are companies that can put a pots line of 4 wire audio over fiber, would require trenching or installing pipe... rlh is one vendor. you can also do cellular or 2 way radio... for 1 mile line of sight shouldnt be an issue for vhf or uhf radio communications with a good antenna and a few watts of power... look in to products made by gai tronics...

what exactly is this equipment doing? voice call and modem data???? if you go with the fiber option you can pass serial data to a modem elsewhere over the fiber too...

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Do you have "line of sight" between point A and point B ? Trees, building, etc. Actually one good hill in the middle would be good.

Check into wireless internet. There are people going farther than that. Your biggest issue would be the "old modem interface".

He said no line of sight!

lots of options here. is power available at the gate? if so there are companies that can put a pots line of 4 wire audio over fiber, would require trenching or installing pipe... rlh is one vendor. you can also do cellular or 2 way radio... for 1 mile line of sight shouldnt be an issue for vhf or uhf radio communications with a good antenna and a few watts of power... look in to products made by gai tronics...

what exactly is this equipment doing? voice call and modem data???? if you go with the fiber option you can pass serial data to a modem elsewhere over the fiber too...

He said power IS available.

Fiber is expensive!

 

[mburrus]

fiber is not THAT expensive! at least you have galvanic isolation.. still requires a certain skillset and tools to work with though...

 

[ctgoodman]

You might consider some power line networking devices and some SIP devices to get to your analog interface for your devices.