Power cut

I was reporting my power cut this morning on the phone and as soon as I reported the postcode the phone cut off and started rapid pips. Then power came back on but the pips were still there for about 20 mins on the phone. Anyone know what these pips meant. Broadband couldn't connect either.

Edited by Banger (Mon 21-Sep-20 14:17:56)

Anyone know what these pips meant

.. time to put another 10 pence piece in the slot ?

Beat me to it!!

Openreach engineers have a system whereby they can put a repeating tone on the line then probe at the wires to check if it is connected or in order to locate that particular line. This happened to me once when my neighbour had a fault and they put the tone on my line by mistake.

It is not usually audible on a ‘normal’ handset.

You need an amplifier to hear an oscillator .

Yes. I believe even without a phone (or other device) connected the voice circuit can be tested across the two incoming legs via a resistor contained in a NTE5. I guess the test signal would be an audible repeating tone if a phone was connected to the front of the NTE5?

A question for you: a distinct buzzing/ humming sound when doing a quiet line test, no internet but the router remained syncing to the exchange with no issues. When the buzzing/humming stopped, without any interventions by me, the internet (PPP link) was established. The line is ADSL SMPF and all has been OK since - any guesses as to what that might have been all about, an exchange issue?

Perhaps you accidentally got patched into MDZhB

A humming sound is often associated with an earth fault.

That it came and went fairly quickly, and hasn’t returned seems to imply something like a contact on the frame (MDF) which got knocked off again shortly after ... but it’s all just conjecture really.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Anyone know what these pips meant

.. time to put another 10 pence piece in the slot ?

Haha sounded just like that. Backup battery on last legs signal?