the iPlate has a common mode choke with at least the theoretical capability of rejecting interference while allowing balanced signals to pass. May help with the electric fence, possibly, worth a go for a few quid.

And as for the the electric fence, well that's relatively straightforward, but we'll worry about that later when they fix the rest. Can anyone give be an explanation of how the pulses from the fence end up in a fully insulated cable?

I'd be looking to get that fixed now. If you can hear it ticking on the line, there is no doubt that it's injecting errors on to the circuit. I wonder if the fence is 'pig grade' they seem to kick out more RF than the normal ones.
This can be seen on the engineers JDSU/Exfo tester, using the manual ADSL test, on the errors screen, should be seen as the bursts of errors in time with the ticking. The wideband time can also be used to look down the line to 'see' REIN.

I'd agree with Yarwell that a split pair, possibly rectified, might be the cause. All the 'usual' culprits, battery faults, and the like would have shown up on the previous engineers close out tests.

When the engineer calls to your house and runs the PQ test with the jdsu or exfo tester ask to see the results the ac balance needs to be above 60db and also look at the resistance between the A and B leg any more then 11 ohms is looking like a H/R dis out to line, sounds to me like you need to try and turn the fence off first see if it gets any better, your main problem is the line lenth. I also very much dout the pq test will pass with the overhearing etc, the test result needs to be all orange and/or green to pass any red is a fail and needs to be faulted. hope this helps

Thanks, I'll certainly give the I plate a go when the engineers have finished.

Thing is, its not a hugely beefy fence unit, its only doing a small chicken run, but I suspect the problem is largely because its a net, and the net goes right to the floor, that every pulse will be going to ground. The fence is probably 150m from the phone line at the closest point, 200m from where the main UG cable comes up to go to overhead. As I say, at the moment to ticking has changed to a soft pulsing buzz, could this be due to all the snow cushioning the interference?

So is it possible that the noise of our neighbors phone ringing bleeding through onto our line might not be from a physical problem (like damaged cable or dodgy connections in a junction box), but from EMI?

Oh, and kind of a side point, but one of the engineers said that everyone's pretty solid background buzz on the phone line was due to EMI in the underground bundle of 50 pairs since most places have adsl running all the time now. But to my mind there's only about a maximum of 25 pairs in use on that cable, is that enough to cause a significant background buzz? Or is that more due to the line length?

As a final point, given that the inter-exchange fibres already run up the road, how much would BT be asking for to blow 5km of fibre up the road? See I've got my fingers crossed for FTTP at some point in the next few years...

Thanks, JF.

Why are you telling me this Mart ?

dunno who uses electric fences for chickens, let alone a mesh, but anyway.

Crosstalk of voice won't be EMI between balanced pairs, or the whole phone network would suffer from it all the time.

You can't hear ADSL as it starts well above hearing range, so that isn't the buzz.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

You can't hear ADSL as it starts well above hearing range, so that isn't the buzz.

Yes you can, if the line has a HR fault.

When I had a major HR fault last year caused by a dodgy frontage tee joint, I could hear the modem syncing on the phone among all of the cracking.

It could very well be a HR fault. Once whatever is causing the voice fault is fixed, your broadband speed should definitely improve.

Edited by chris6273 (Wed 13-Feb-13 14:30:41)

you cannot hear ADSL.

You may hear audio tones generated in response to the ADSL signal by unfiltered equipment or by a fault but there isn't a continuing audible element in the ADSL signal itself.

Right, ok...

Quick question, but has anyone any ideas what would be causing a very pronounced and constant buzzing on the line? After speaking to the neighbors it turns out that all 10 properties served by this line after it comes out of the ground have a very pronounced background buzz, and also get accused, by the other end, of being quiet.

Problem is, this problem has been gradually getting worse, and whilst we have been here for generations and know it should be better, everyone else has only moved here relatively recently and puts up with it because they don't know any better, or believe its to do with staying out in the sticks...

I just want to know when the engineer is flanneling me!

Thanks, JF.

is it mains frequency ? like you get when you put your finger on the end of an input jack on a hifi or PC speakers