Telehone landline underground Grounding question

[Marctrees]

Local Phone Utility tech came out, needed to move Demarc box a foot over on post by Mobile Home, to allow for other work..

When he left, I saw the phone box solid grounding wire that WAS connected to my electric going to my Rod, was left hanging.

Unconnected.

Being suspicious, I opened the "Company only" side of demarc box and found...

The copper sheath on the incoming line was NOT terminated and grounded w the common usual clamping connector.

Just hangin free in the box, not connection to the shield.


I am an long retired Electrician, NOT a Phone guy.

But, ...

Isn't it important.. maybe not for regular function..But for Safety ? to do the two things he didn't ????

Marc

 

[hans109h]

Is this twisted copper pair or are they installing fiber?

Sent from my m8whl using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Marctrees]

Old style ?6? pair waxy goop in a corrugated copper sheath, with plastic heavy duty jacket.

The standard stuff they trenched for years.

Marc

 

[wyliesdiesels]

yes should definitely be bonded to ground rod and metal armor should be bonded.

Otherwise, lightening strike could travel down the phone line into your house.

I would call phone company for repair.

 

[Marctrees]

That's what I thought.

The Guy was super nice, and actually did way more than I said cause it was irrelevant to the main question.

So, I kinda hate to tattle, ...

But I am going to Photo both issues and forward it to Management.

Sloppy *** work SH** and unsafe.

Marc

 

[alfredeneuman]

So, I kinda hate to tattle ...Marc

The safety aspect of this by far outweighs your reluctance to tattle.
If he did this once, chances are he's going to do it again to another customer that doesn't realize the difference.
I'd do it in a second, and you shouldn't have any regrets.

 

[b-boy]

I lost respect for phone guys 2 years ago.

On New Years Eve 2016, a truck clipped the phone line to my house and pulled it off the phone pole across the street. The wire fell across the road, but was still connected to the pole and to my house. I should have just cut the wire, but I figured it was Verizon's property, so I'd better not touch it. This is the 2nd time it's happened since I moved in. The wire was obviously hung too low.

I called Verizon. They told me they were too busy to fix it. I told them that the cable was lying in the road, and that it was a dangerous situation. No one showed up for 2 days.

The Verizon guy finally showed up, walked over to the cable, and proceeded to pull on it. The result of this was that the wire lifted off of the ground about 2 feet. This wouldn't have been a problem, except that a car was driving down the road at the time. It was doing about 50 when it's bumper caught the cable. I heard a zipping noise as the cable was dragged taught, followed by 2 loud bangs as it was torn from the side of my house and under my porch. The cable whizzed by me and just clipped my right arm. If it was 6 inches higher, it would probably have decapitated me. It tore my jacket, ripped pieces of siding off of the house, and gouged my porch railing as it was pulled into the street. The car just kept going.

I saw him pull the cable, saw the car coming, and knew what was going to happen. It felt like slow motion. It was like one of those scenes from Final Destination - Except I lived.

I looked at the repair guy. All I could say was 'What the ****?'. He freaked out, started apologizing, and told me Verizon would pay for the damage. He asked if I wanted the cable re-attached. I told him no way. He dragged the cable to the pole and took off. I filed a claim with Verizon for the damage.

Verizon needs to teach their people the meaning of 'cause and effect'.

 

[Ray-CA]

Don’t know how true this is but this has been going around in emails for a while:

“An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her telephone
failed to ring when her friends called and that on the few occasions when it
did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang.

The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic
dog or senile elderly lady. He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in
his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right
away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring.

Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via a steel chain
and collar.
2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.
3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number
was called.
4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then
urinate on himself and the ground.
5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to
ring.”

 

[larry4406]

Don’t know how true this is but this has been going around in emails for a while:

“An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her telephone
failed to ring when her friends called and that on the few occasions when it
did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang.

The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic
dog or senile elderly lady. He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in
his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right
away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring.

Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via a steel chain
and collar.
2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.
3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number
was called.
4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then
urinate on himself and the ground.
5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to
ring.”

I needed this chuckle!

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Don’t know how true this is but this has been going around in emails for a while:

“An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her telephone
failed to ring when her friends called and that on the few occasions when it
did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang.

The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic
dog or senile elderly lady. He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in
his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right
away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring.

Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via a steel chain
and collar.
2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.
3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number
was called.
4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then
urinate on himself and the ground.
5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to
ring.”

Sounds like BS.

No signaling current is ran over the ground wire which terminates to a grounding electrode.

All current is ran over each respective pair.

 

[ard]

But still.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Don’t know how true this is but this has been going around in emails for a while:

“An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her telephone
failed to ring when her friends called and that on the few occasions when it
did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang.

The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic
dog or senile elderly lady. He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in
his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right
away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring.

Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via a steel chain
and collar.
2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.
3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number
was called.
4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then
urinate on himself and the ground.
5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to
ring.”

I worked for the local telco and have a similar story. I actually knew the son of people who did this
This family would attach the leash of their to the drop feeding their phone line. This which worked great to allow the dog the run of the yard. Over a period of time the metal leash wore the insulation off the drop.
Their trouble report said basically dog barks when phone rings. Dog doesn’t bark normally. The repairman went out replaced the drop and asked them not to use it for their dog.

 

[Marctrees]

So I called the Corp office rather than CS in Phillipines..

Asked for Tech supervisor for my area.

Called him...

Two hours later 2 trucks w the young tech that was here the other day..

And two unhappy looking older Guys.


3 minutes later, one of the older Guys knock on door, say it's all done.

So I asked..

All done??

Yup, all done.

Other two guys already back to trucks.

"Hmmm... Did you check inside the company side of the Demarc box?

It's all good.

So, that means you bonded the shield?

mmmm..

"GO open the companys side of the box and you will see the sheath is not grounded.

They all three go look...

Finally gets all done.


I CLEARLY told the Area Sup over phone of THE TWO SPECIFIC things undone.

WHY o WHY do I like constantly run into sloppy work ??

Even w TWO Supervisors, nobody bothered to look inside before I TOLD them too.

Marc

 

[James-W]

Sometimes you get a really good repair person and sometimes you get a real dud. It all depends on the draw of the cards.

 

[Chukster]

Why o why do you constantly run into sloppy work?

A: Because the way their ticketing system works they get points for closing as many work tickets as possible, not for closing them correctly. I once chased a single leased-line circuit for 3 weeks because the telco techs were too lazy to do the job right.

Sequence: Not getting any signal from remote location.

Called in to telco, they took 2 days to get to the ticket. I got response back "Adjusted levels, works fine"

Due to my schedule I couldn't get to it to check for another 2 business days; this brought it into the following week. Checked I mean actually measured signal: Nothing, nada.

Called it in again, re-opened original ticket (which is supposed to count against them) and reported no fix.

Response (again, 2 days) "Replaced card, circuit good"

My followup next day: No signal.

Repeat, 2 more times, with similar delays & results; adjusted levels, etc.

Finally was on my way to one service call that ended up getting cancelled, I was near the remote end it was still not working. Swung by, found 3 techs still swinging the jaws at each other, and in 20 minutes they found an open circuit at the pedestal at the corner of the property.

Professional ethics won out over the urge to choke the **** out of them.

"If I had a dollar for every lie a telco tech has told me...."

These effers are what give unions a bad name.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I once happened on a telco service for a customer that had no Demarc box whatsoever meaning no surge arrestors. The service wires were wire nutted to the station cables.

I was totally baffled. It had apparently been like this for years.

Months later one of the lines went down but had no way to test it since there was no test jack. Had to tear apart the spaghetti mess of wires jumbled together(there was 6 or 7 lines there).

The splice tech that came out to fix the service, saw the missing Demarc and grounding. Unfortunately, due to some union thing, he could not fix it. So they had to get an inside wire tech to come out.

When he got there he couldnt finish the job because there was no ground rod installed at the pole and they didnt have any and werent allowed to install them. So i had to run to the store to buy one then go grab the sledge and fence post pounder.

What a joke.

Took so much just to fix a damn service that one person couldve fixed.