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can telephone noise dial 911?

D

Dave Gower

Jan 1, 1970
0
A couple of weeks back I had a couple of police officers knocking on my door
saying someone had placed a 911 call from my home. When I denied it, one of
them got a little angry and insistent. After I managed to calm the
discussion down, they asked me to check my phone line, which turned out to
be noisy static with no dial tone. They sounded almost disappointed and
left.

The whole conversation had an unreal feeling about it, as if they were
fishing for something. If so, they were at the wrong place since I'm a
63-year old retired public servant who leads a very quiet life. But my
question is, can static on a phone line cause a false call to be placed to
911 (along with the number identification obviously)? I live in the country
near Ottawa Ontario and there had been a light rain the night before. The
dial tone came back the following morning.
 
D

Don Bruder

Jan 1, 1970
0
Dave Gower said:
A couple of weeks back I had a couple of police officers knocking on my door
saying someone had placed a 911 call from my home. When I denied it, one of
them got a little angry and insistent. After I managed to calm the
discussion down, they asked me to check my phone line, which turned out to
be noisy static with no dial tone. They sounded almost disappointed and
left.

The whole conversation had an unreal feeling about it, as if they were
fishing for something. If so, they were at the wrong place since I'm a
63-year old retired public servant who leads a very quiet life. But my
question is, can static on a phone line cause a false call to be placed to
911 (along with the number identification obviously)? I live in the country
near Ottawa Ontario and there had been a light rain the night before. The
dial tone came back the following morning.

Yes, it could, although it's unlikely to happen except in weird
situations.

Old "pulse dial" systems (you're old enough to remember 'em :) ) dialed
the number you wanted by doing the equivalent of rapidly picking up and
hanging up, one pcikup/hangup per number dialed - So if you dialled a 9,
there's be 9 "pick up, hang up" pulses. It used to be (and still is,
most places) possible to dial a number without ever reaching for the
dial or the keypad - It takes a quick finger, and the ability to count
rapidly, but with a little practice, it's pretty easy.

Wet lines like you describe *CAN*, under the influence of wind and
weather, dial various numbers - Basically, get a "semi-short" happening
in the cable, so that your line looks "picked up", then have the short
go intermittent, so that it's opening and closing at the right frequency
(60:40 is the "correct" timing - 60% "off hook" followed by a 40%
"on-hook" state then a return to the off-hook state - with *LOTS* of
wiggle room) and you could be "calling" just about anywhere. Getting the
"semi-short" to "rattle" 9 times, then pause, then once, then pause,
then once again then short solid to hold the line open is statistically
unlikely, but *FAR* from impossible.
 
F

Fliptronics

Jan 1, 1970
0
Dave Gower schreef:
A couple of weeks back I had a couple of police officers knocking on my door
saying someone had placed a 911 call from my home. When I denied it, one of
them got a little angry and insistent. After I managed to calm the
discussion down, they asked me to check my phone line, which turned out to
be noisy static with no dial tone. They sounded almost disappointed and
left.

The whole conversation had an unreal feeling about it, as if they were
fishing for something. If so, they were at the wrong place since I'm a
63-year old retired public servant who leads a very quiet life. But my
question is, can static on a phone line cause a false call to be placed to
911 (along with the number identification obviously)? I live in the country
near Ottawa Ontario and there had been a light rain the night before. The
dial tone came back the following morning.

It is more like that your line is tapped by your neigthbour or somebody
else. This because there was no dial tone and a noisy sound, which occur
when a another phone is operating in parallel. The chance that static
electricity on the line can calling 911 is very small.

Alexander
 
D

Don Bowey

Jan 1, 1970
0
A couple of weeks back I had a couple of police officers knocking on my door
saying someone had placed a 911 call from my home. When I denied it, one of
them got a little angry and insistent. After I managed to calm the
discussion down, they asked me to check my phone line, which turned out to
be noisy static with no dial tone. They sounded almost disappointed and
left.

The whole conversation had an unreal feeling about it, as if they were
fishing for something. If so, they were at the wrong place since I'm a
63-year old retired public servant who leads a very quiet life. But my
question is, can static on a phone line cause a false call to be placed to
911 (along with the number identification obviously)? I live in the country
near Ottawa Ontario and there had been a light rain the night before. The
dial tone came back the following morning.

Yes, it can happen, and some offices may be more susceptible than others.
In the early 70s I was telco Plant Manager for NE Oregon and had one office
that had several false 911 calls per day until the switching engineers made
some changes.

The police are obligated to follow up on all 911 calls, and that's good.

Don
 
D

Don Bruder

Jan 1, 1970
0
Fliptronics said:
Dave Gower schreef:

It is more like that your line is tapped by your neigthbour or somebody
else. This because there was no dial tone and a noisy sound, which occur
when a another phone is operating in parallel. The chance that static
electricity on the line can calling 911 is very small.

Alexander

Sorry Alex, but your concept of somebody tapping the line is more
unlikely than random shorting being able to generate three valid digits
to ring up 911.

Shorting the wires of a phone line together, such as what water getting
into the lines causes, will indeed cause no dial tone and noise - to the
system, the phone is off the hook. If there's been one "make/break"
cycle, then it's exactly the same as if you picked up and dialed "1",
which makes the dial-tone go away. Multiple makes and breaks with the
right timing (and the timing is pretty loose) could conceivably "call" a
phone in Finland, or China, or who-knows-where, with no humans being
involved.

The odd thing isn't having it happen - it's having it happen to a
specific number.
 
T

Tim Duke

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi Dave,

Yes it can happen. It happened to me a few months back and I also got a
visit from the local constabulary. Ended up being the wireless phone that
we had causing the problem.

When the next itemised bill came through, there were a lot of dialled
numbers lasting for approx. 5 or six seconds and all numbers were in the
1's, 2's and 3's. Have since got a new phone and have had no problems.

I think you can dismiss all the line hackings etc. If you can get hold of an
itemised bill from your phone company, see if there are any other numbers on
there that you don't recognize. Our emergency services number is 999, but
the european 112 also works here. Don't know if it is the same for you?

All the best,

Tim
 
Y

Yukio YANO

Jan 1, 1970
0
Tim said:
Hi Dave,

Yes it can happen. It happened to me a few months back and I also got a
visit from the local constabulary. Ended up being the wireless phone that
we had causing the problem.

When the next itemised bill came through, there were a lot of dialled
numbers lasting for approx. 5 or six seconds and all numbers were in the
1's, 2's and 3's. Have since got a new phone and have had no problems.

I think you can dismiss all the line hackings etc. If you can get hold of an
itemised bill from your phone company, see if there are any other numbers on
there that you don't recognize. Our emergency services number is 999, but
the european 112 also works here. Don't know if it is the same for you?

All the best,

Tim
It seems to me that I read an article several years ago that an
English (Great Britain) Exchange was having alot of false alarms due to
112 NOISE during repair work on the exchange network ! It seems 9xx is
much less likely to be falsely triggered. That being said, the
proliferation of 9xx xxxx exchanges would seem to present a serious
problem for "911" services.
Yukio YANO
 
J

Jamie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Dave said:
A couple of weeks back I had a couple of police officers knocking on my door
saying someone had placed a 911 call from my home. When I denied it, one of
them got a little angry and insistent. After I managed to calm the
discussion down, they asked me to check my phone line, which turned out to
be noisy static with no dial tone. They sounded almost disappointed and
left.

The whole conversation had an unreal feeling about it, as if they were
fishing for something. If so, they were at the wrong place since I'm a
63-year old retired public servant who leads a very quiet life. But my
question is, can static on a phone line cause a false call to be placed to
911 (along with the number identification obviously)? I live in the country
near Ottawa Ontario and there had been a light rain the night before. The
dial tone came back the following morning.
its possible i guess how ever, if that is the case i think you better
have your lines checked.
 
D

Don Bowey

Jan 1, 1970
0
Dave Gower schreef:

It is more like that your line is tapped by your neigthbour or somebody
else. This because there was no dial tone and a noisy sound, which occur
when a another phone is operating in parallel. The chance that static
electricity on the line can calling 911 is very small.

Alexander

There are lots of reasons for a noisy line, and that one is off the list.
 
T

Tim Duke

Jan 1, 1970
0
It seems to me that I read an article several years ago that an English
(Great Britain) Exchange was having alot of false alarms due to 112 NOISE
during repair work on the exchange network ! It seems 9xx is much less
likely to be falsely triggered. That being said, the proliferation of 9xx
xxxx exchanges would seem to present a serious problem for "911"
services.
Yukio YANO

I still don't understand why the UK went 999. I still remember as a kid
having a pulse telephone, and to dial each nine (not that I have ever
dialled 999) would take quite a few extra seconds than to dial say 111 !


Tim
 
H

Homer J Simpson

Jan 1, 1970
0
I still don't understand why the UK went 999. I still remember as a kid
having a pulse telephone, and to dial each nine (not that I have ever
dialled 999) would take quite a few extra seconds than to dial say 111 !

It's 111 in New Zealand because the dials are reversed. You want an easy
number to remember but not false calls.
 
T

Tim Auton

Jan 1, 1970
0
Homer J Simpson said:
It's 111 in New Zealand because the dials are reversed.

Reversed dials? Coriolis effect I expect.


Tim
 
H

Homer J Simpson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Reversed dials? Coriolis effect I expect.

No, but it caused grief to anyone importing a phone. I'd send button style
(but pulse dialling phones) to my buddy and he'd have to take all the
buttons out and move them around.
 
P

Puckdropper

Jan 1, 1970
0
*snip*
The odd thing isn't having it happen - it's having it happen to a
specific number.

Statistically speaking, it's probably more likely to have a phone dial a
3 digit number than have it dial a 7 or 10 digit number. If it happens
to be 911, then that's what it calls.

Puckdropper
 
S

Stan Blazejewski

Jan 1, 1970
0
I still don't understand why the UK went 999. I still remember as a kid
having a pulse telephone, and to dial each nine (not that I have ever
dialled 999) would take quite a few extra seconds than to dial say 111 !


Tim
Australia has always had '000' & I always thought in the days of pulse/rotary
dials that the time and/or energy involved was a drawback.

Imagine having been stabbed/shot/clubbed/heart attack/poisoned etc & managing to
drag yourself to the phone only to have to stick your finger in the appropriate
hole & rotate the dial all the way around '3' times.

--

Australia isn't "down under", it's "off to one side"!

[email protected]
www.cobracat.com (home of the Australian Cobra Catamaran)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cobra-cat/
 
J

Jon Slaughter

Jan 1, 1970
0
Stan Blazejewski said:
Australia has always had '000' & I always thought in the days of
pulse/rotary
dials that the time and/or energy involved was a drawback.

Imagine having been stabbed/shot/clubbed/heart attack/poisoned etc &
managing to
drag yourself to the phone only to have to stick your finger in the
appropriate
hole & rotate the dial all the way around '3' times.

don't you know that the murder rate is directly correlated to the increased
use of the pulse telephone?
 
D

Dave Gower

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thank you all for the replies. Very educational.
 
F

feebo

Jan 1, 1970
0
It is more like that your line is tapped by your neigthbour or somebody
else. This because there was no dial tone and a noisy sound, which occur
when a another phone is operating in parallel. The chance that static
electricity on the line can calling 911 is very small.

Alexander

foil helmets on everyone!

What a load of paranoid nonsense

The sympton he described sound exactly like a line that has corroded
through - maybe trees etc rubbing on th eline - if this is so then it
"is most likely" that the two wires are makining intermittent contact
- this could easily be "ghost dialling" and 911 wouldn't be hard to do
at all.

"static electricity" pah! The "noise " is caused by corroded wires -
the current passes intermttently through through oxide causing hissing
and crackles and whines and all sorts.

I bet trees/bushes,bad underground joint or an uncovered junction box
are to blame
 
D

Don Bruder

Jan 1, 1970
0
foil helmets on everyone!

What a load of paranoid nonsense

The sympton he described sound exactly like a line that has corroded
through - maybe trees etc rubbing on th eline - if this is so then it
"is most likely" that the two wires are makining intermittent contact
- this could easily be "ghost dialling" and 911 wouldn't be hard to do
at all.

"static electricity" pah! The "noise " is caused by corroded wires -
the current passes intermttently through through oxide causing hissing
and crackles and whines and all sorts.

I bet trees/bushes,bad underground joint or an uncovered junction box
are to blame

And I'd bet you're absolutely correct.
 
H

Homer J Simpson

Jan 1, 1970
0
don't you know that the murder rate is directly correlated to the
increased use of the pulse telephone?

I thought the murder rate was directly correlated to the increased number of
Jessica Simpson appearances?
 
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