Max capacity on phone line?

Ocean Blue

Apologies in advance for a possibly stupid question.

Is there a maximum capacity on a domestic phone line? We have had constant problems getting a hand-set operating on a line which currently has 2 sky box connections, a house alarm and broadband. It also had a fax machine until recently which we also had trouble with. Should I give up on the hand-set?

ED E

Shouldnt be a problem normally. What happens when you connect it?

Have you had the phone line tested for faults?

Ocean Blue

ED E wrote: »

Shouldnt be a problem normally. What happens when you connect it?

Have you had the phone line tested for faults?

Phone line works perfectly for most things so I doubt it's faulty e.g.when house alarm goes off it rings our mobile phones as expected.

If our number is dialled the caller hears a normal ring tone but nothing happens in the house - neither handset or base activate.

If I try to dial out I hear no ring-tone at all, phone shows that call has connected straight away but I only hear dead air.

oppenheimer1

Ocean Blue wrote: »

Phone line works perfectly for most things so I doubt it's faulty e.g.when house alarm goes off it rings our mobile phones as expected.

If our number is dialled the caller hears a normal ring tone but nothing happens in the house - neither handset or base activate.

If I try to dial out I hear no ring-tone at all, phone shows that call has connected straight away but I only hear dead air.

Have you tried unplugging everything apart from the handset and testing?

Mr. G

The maximum number of devices that is recommended by Eircom is 4.

Try unplugging the Sky box and try again.

Xantia

As Mr.G says the REN (Ring Equivalence Number) on a PSTN phone line is normally 4.
Which means that only 4 devices can ring for an incoming call, this is due to the current required at 72Volts AC to ring phones.

Suggest you turn off the ringers on un-needed phones or get a REN booster or a small telephone system.

SpaceTime

That sounds more like a faulty device than an overloaded line.

Test each phone individually:

Unplug everything, plug one phone in .. ring line.. plug out, try next phone and so on until you find your problem.

REN 1.0 = one old bell-ringer telephone. It took a lot of energy to drive those so you were limited to about 3 or 4 phones (depends on the line length - longer the line, the less power that comes out the other end).

Most modern phones have tiny REN values and the Sky box etc probably don't have any significant impact on the line at all.

Something else is going on here.

When you plug in the phone, and pick up are you getting a dial tone?

There are some odd scenarios like UK-phones with non-standard terminals in the phone cord that (when used with a standard Irish / US phone cord) can cause the line to be short circuited. Some UK phones have to be used with an adaptor and their original cord even if an Irish one fits the socket on the bottom of the phone itself, the pins are wired by BT in a weird non-standard way.

An eircom exchange will present 75V 25Hz as the ring tone, but you might only get half that or less at the end of a long line.

One other thing is that Eircom exchanges usually present the ring signal using both wires out of phase (this is the usual European and international standard - it means you get up to 75V between the two wires, but much less than that between either wire and earth (much safer) ). Some UK-spec equipment doesn't like that and expect 90V on one wire and 0V on the other or may get annoyed about polarity.