At the house end, it has a loop of cable before connecting to the junction box so I doubt their is any strain at the house end, but I am not sure about the pole end.

the loop of cable is between the strained part and the JB, with a wire gadget transferring the strain to the wall usually via an eye hook. An unstrained loop can't exist on the end of an overhead cable without something else taking the strain, the loop would just pullout - if the cable isn't under tension it is visibly wiggly in most cases.

Agreed there are strain-relief loops at the two suspension ends; BUT some of the movement can be transferred through the loops to the joints, thus weakening them; and potentially allowing moisture to creep in, either directly rain or condensate from the water vapour in the air.

The Humidity levels this year have been particularly high, precursors of the record-breaking rain, leading to the Floods of 2012. (And we have not looked at any underground runs!)

The loops themselves can be buffeted by the wind, particularly as so many of them are exposed to the vortices at the corners of buildings etc.

Either way, corrosion can start in the copper wiring, usually oxidation - and some of the older participants on the forum may remember Copper-Oxide Rectifiers particularly as seen in the old/ancient Battery Eliminators and slightly less far back, in the SenTerCell EHT Pencil Rectifiers.

One of my occupations was to teach Fault Finding Principles, applicable to the full range of RAF Electronic Equipment - most of which was installed (exstalled?) in severe environments.

Signs, Symptons, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis!

Understood thank you.

Several tests to 17070 option 2 result in crackly line.

Thank you,

Well, it is definitely not wiggly.

Just keep plugging away at getting that noise fixed. The broadband should be fine afterwards, though it might take a fair while to self-correct.

I am doing, I am ignoring the broadband, because there is no point in having broadband if the voice line is unusable.

bt line tests can pass even though the line is noisy.new test heads are CIDT which can detect noise issues.your problem sounds like a HR DIs fault which is 1 leg breaking down.these can be hard to find unless the noise is present when the engineer is on site and also if the engineer is using a newer hand held tester.eventually a hr will snap and these are very easy to find.i know the bb is suffering because of the line but i would report the bb as bb engineers have to store a pair quality pass where as a line engineer doesnt. hope this a help

Hello, and thank you.

Robster you were bang on target regarding the fault.

The engineer came out, looked up at the cable and said "it will be a connection at either end of the overhead cable" or words to that effect. Sure enough, the insulation of one of the cables had been nicked and moisture had cause the copper to corrode (rust like but blue) When he poked it, the line fell apart. Two minutes later it was re-punched and tested fine. We tested the bb and it came in at 6mbit which we have never had since we moved in 8 years ago!

Thank you everyone for your assistance it was much appreciated