asterisk users - Sep 2005 - Moaning dog...

Here's one for you phone people....

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 voltage 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. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus
causing the phone to ring.

Which demonstrates that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning.

Rich Adamson wrote:
>Here's one for you phone people....
>
>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 voltage 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. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus
>causing the phone to ring.
>
>Which demonstrates that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning.
>  
>
Urban legend, probably older than you and I together, and, at least in 
the US, valid only for party lines that rang from T or R to ground
Certainly not a problem in the Gulf Coast these days either.

John Novack