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Author Topic: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.  (Read 2653 times)

HPsauce

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Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« on: August 15, 2019, 01:13:02 PM »

This is at my daughters new (well over 100 years old) house that is being refurbished and extended before moving in.
There was a (non-working) BT master socket in the hall, it was knocked off by the builders and subsequently plastered over!
Outside the wire to that went straight through the wall then ran several metres (alongside another phone cable) to a weird rectangular black junction box (about 6" * 4" * 2") at DPC level, secured only by a tucked-in cable tie (not latched).
Into that junction box, and partly wired (all 3) together in two gel crimps were 3 phone cables:
1. Coming out of the ground, paired with an unterminated coax, a 4-core cable of which 2 were crimped and two not.
2. Along the wall, from the BT Master socket (RIP) a 4-core cable with the blue/white and white/blue pair in the crimps.
3. Also along the wall, a 6-core cable with the orange/white and white/orange pair in the crimps. A third core (one of the blue ones IIRC) was also in one of the crimps!
The 6-core cable ran back, past the master socket hole, round the house and up to the eaves, then across the road to a BT pole.

So, my best guess is that the underground cables are Virgin, the overhead is BT and they have been bodged by a previous occupant when switching between the 2 services. There had been a lot of coax around the house removed by the builders, presumably distributing the Virgin TV.

I decided to test the cables and found:
1: One "underground" pair had 60v between them, the others were dead. Connecting a phone you got "noises" but no dial tone.
2. Ignored this as nothing was connected to it at the house end and we could follow the entire run. Obviously the feed from junction box to master socket inside.
3. Tested every pair, no voltages at all and connecting a phone to each in turn it was totally silent.

Can anyone think why on earth there was a 3-way connection at the junction box between what appears to be Virgin, BT and the house master socket?
And what about the 60V, is that normal? I believe BT use 50V.

They have ordered a Sky package including broadband, is it the case that Sky will install a conventional phone line using Openreach?
A Sky engineer has visited once and basically said, get the builders to run some coax (he left a load) if they can (with long tails) and I'll come back when they're finished! Would Sky have activated a phone line already or do they wait for an engineer on site to tell them to proceed?

My sister is muttering about talking to BT to get the phone working first but I said there's no point if you're ordering via Sky. Luckily they have a newish phone mast nearby so get good 4G coverage.

Any and all thoughts welcome.
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j0hn

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Re: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2019, 02:58:39 PM »

I'll leave others to discuss the wiring.

Quote
They have ordered a Sky package including broadband, is it the case that Sky will install a conventional phone line using Openreach?
A Sky engineer has visited once and basically said, get the builders to run some coax (he left a load) if they can (with long tails) and I'll come back when they're finished! Would Sky have activated a phone line already or do they wait for an engineer on site to tell them to proceed?

The Sky engineer would only be installing the TV part of any order and doesn't touch anything phone or broadband related.

Not sure why he recommended running coax. That would only be used for outputting the Sky signal from an old Sky box to another tv in the house.
The newer Sky Q boxes are wireless. I'm not sure if the current Sky+ HD boxes still have an RF out (coax) port.

Unless it's the 2 core coax for the Sky signal (the mention of the Virgin coax has me wondering) and you have ordered multi room without Sky Q. That would make a bit more sense.

An OpenReach engineer will attend to enable the phone line and should correct any wiring issues.

Sky should have their part already see up for phone/broadband for when the OpenReach engineer activates the landline.

The multiple emails from Sky when the order was placed might contain a date for when the phone should be activated.

Quote
My sister is muttering about talking to BT to get the phone working first but I said there's no point if you're ordering via Sky

You're correct that she shouldn't contact BT (or OpenReach as it is now).
They deal with their customer (Sky) and all your contact should be through the ISP.
There is no way to discuss your order directly with OpenReach.
« Last Edit: August 15, 2019, 03:03:40 PM by j0hn »
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burakkucat

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Re: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2019, 04:20:27 PM »

I'll leave others to discuss the wiring.

From the typed description, I can "see" the peculiar wiring but understanding the original "why" and its current state has me rather perplexed. It is true to say that the PSTN would present with a voltage in the 48 - 52V DC range, whereas ISDN would present a voltage in the 110 - 120V DC range.
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HPsauce

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Re: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2019, 11:38:45 AM »

The Sky engineer would only be installing the TV part of any order and doesn't touch anything phone or broadband related.

Not sure why he recommended running coax.
Sorry, I didn't explain that clearly.
The builders are reconfiguring the roof adjacent to the ideal location for the Sky dish and there was no access for him at the time.
So they (builders) agreed to run a suitable length of cable while doing their work.
He can then just install the dish and terminate it all correctly.
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tubaman

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Re: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2019, 03:54:56 PM »

Make sure the builders understand that the coax is for satellite TV, otherwise they might run-in cheap and nasty terrestrial TV grade coax which would not be a good plan.
 :)
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fat jez

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Re: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2019, 04:36:22 PM »

If you’re getting Sky Q, it doesn’t seem to like joins. Our old dish terminated on the wall in our living room and then had shorter lengths of cable connected between wall and Sky box. When we upgraded to Sky Q, this wouldn’t give a signal, we had to have a continuous run from dish to box before it would work.
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HPsauce

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Re: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2019, 11:43:07 AM »

Make sure the builders understand that the coax is for satellite TV, otherwise they might run-in cheap and nasty terrestrial TV grade coax which would not be a good plan.
 :)
The Sky engineer has given them the cable, so hopefully the correct sort.  :-X

Builders are away on their annual holidays at present so it's all quiet until well after the bank holiday.
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HPsauce

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Re: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2019, 11:48:38 AM »

If you’re getting Sky Q, it doesn’t seem to like joins. Our old dish terminated on the wall in our living room and then had shorter lengths of cable connected between wall and Sky box. When we upgraded to Sky Q, this wouldn’t give a signal, we had to have a continuous run from dish to box before it would work.
That does sound very strange, why should it matter if done properly?
I don't have SkyQ at home, just FreeSat via a quad LNB mounted on a standard Sky dish.
Two cores go to one (twin-tuner recorder) unit and the two others to another room which only has a simple single HD tuner.
So I've extended the spare core right round the outside of the house (25m+) and up to a bedroom to another HD tuner; all works fine.
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fat jez

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Re: Help me understand weird outside wiring please.
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2019, 04:22:58 PM »

No idea. My same setup on Sky HD worked fine.  Sky Q refused to work until it was one continuous cable from dish to box.
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