Phonia And the Cure

"Phonia" That's what The Fuzz has had to deal with these last few days.  "Phonia" is when you have issues with your (in this case) Land Line.

There have been some difficulties with this lately, mostly static, or occasionally it would just quit.  In the past these were seemingly resolved by use of a hair dryer, and screwing around with the wires in the "Box".

Here in the Woods, where we can't get a signal for our cell, the land line is by Cable,  We won't mention the Mega Corporation.  Mostly it works fine, if a bit strange at times.  But for some reason, which The Fuzz doesn't understand, The wires run from the modem (near phone #1) to a box over 30ft away, mounted near the electrical stuff.  Then 30ft back along the same cable, to phone #1.  From this box there is a relatively short line to phone #2 in another room.

A few days ago, actually the same day as The Fuzz had his misfortune on the stairs, this arrangement quit again.  It was just one of those days.  With painful difficulty, he tried the previous fixes, but to no avail.  In fact there was a new symptom.  No matter how much he screwed with the wires, he got the signal of a phone off the hook.  This was just not true.

But this was a new clue.  The wheels began to turn, click, click, click, in his head.  Could this mean there was a short somewhere?  By testing a number of combinations, he concluded that the wires running back from that troublesome box to phone #1 were the culprits.  But by then it was dark, he was too busted up to fool with it.  He did figure out that by disconnecting the bad wires, he could get one phone to work, thus satisfying the Young Daughter and her boyfriend.  This was all fine and well, but the problem remained.

After a few days of this, The Fuzz was finally up to the challenge and headed into town once more to that Home Improvement Store.  There he purchased some phone wire to replace the bad one.

Here you can see where the line comes from the modem and gets sent to the "Box" outside, and also where it is supposed to return to phone #1.  Note the flaky wires leading out to the "box".  It was the wires from the "box" to phone #1 giving the trouble.  But of course they all ran together.

The Fuzz had toyed with the idea of just running another line beside this one.  It would have been the easy way.  But it wouldn't have been the Cowboy Way!

So he pulled out the old stuff and replaced it with this brand new telephone wire.

Here's a look at these pretty new wires outside in that "Box".

And a look at the pitiful old stuff beside the new.

Happily everything is back to working fine now.
As for The Fuzz himself, he is on the mend and even managed to get the yard cut yesterday.