From: malQRMassimilation@gmail.com   
      
   On Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 06:46:19PM -0500, Bill Horne wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   > Richard called me on Wednesday morning, and said he'd be right over:   
   > he was at the Central Office, a couple of miles away from my house.   
   >   
   [snip]   
   >   
   > I called the new POTS number from my cellphone - Callcentric is a   
   > non-portable provider, according to Frontier - and it rang once and   
   > tripped and all I heard was crackling. If I picked up the phone   
   > quickly, I could talk on it, with a lot of static, so I realized that   
   > the "protector" on my side of the demarc had probably punched through   
   > years ago, and was now causing ring-trip-idle faults.   
   >   
   > [snip]   
   >   
      
   This morning, at 8:05 AM, Paul called me about the problem with the   
   phone line. I said “Now is fine” when he asked if he could come over   
   right away.   
      
   I went through the things I had looked for, and told Paul that the   
   wiring on my side of the demarc showed a 7,000 ohm cross if I measured   
   it with the red lead on the red wire, but a 12,500 ohm cross when I   
   reversed the leads.   
      
   Paul went downstairs, and after about ten minutes he came back and   
   told me “I found it!” He invited me to see the source of the problem,   
   and took me outside and down to the lower level, and showed me a   
   “mystery” wire that vanished into the overhead from a junctoin box on   
   the outside wall.   
      
   We traded jokes about Black Helicopters and Chinese balloons, but I   
   had to agree that it was probably there from the days when customers   
   paid for each extension phone, and he left the wires laid back so that   
   the phone line would work with the trimline-style phone I have plugged   
   in to it inside the house.   
      
   It has voice mail. There was no way to avoid it. I couldn't get a line   
   with a regular busy signal instead, and I asked several times. I   
   didn't want call waiting, and I didn't have to have it, and I could do   
   without conference-calling, so that’s not on their either.   
      
   But, I’ll stop kvetching: it works, and my wife can get calls while   
   sitting at her computer, or dial 911, and that’s the important part.   
      
   Bill Horne   
      
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