Deliberately shorting a phone line

[euphline]

I've got a phone line I want to take out of service. The line has busy/no answer forwarding on it from Verizon. I'd like to activate the forwarding for a few days... I figure if I short it at the NID or something that this will happen... Would just shorting it do this? Would it hurt anything?

Thoughts?

The NID has binding posts and a test jack on "my side."

-jbn

 

[felixrosbergen]

I'm not expert but i'd say that's probably not a good idea. If you just disconnect the wires on your side wouldn't this indicate 'busy' and thus the forwarding would be active? Or just leave one phone of the hook is that works.

 

[tmbrown97]

just short the pair - that triggers a busy, and in turn the forward. There's no harm in that - in fact, if you have to take a line out of service in a hunt group, that's the best and recommended way to do it - that's what any telco installer would suggest.

Either at the NID or any jack... you could even make an RJ11 jack for specifically that purpose that you could plug in at will.

Just disconnecting the phone would make it ring the 4 (or however many specified) rings before triggering the forward. The short makes it instant.

 

[briankelly63]

I've got a phone line I want to take out of service. The line has busy/no answer forwarding on it from Verizon. I'd like to activate the forwarding for a few days... I figure if I short it at the NID or something that this will happen... Would just shorting it do this? Would it hurt anything?

Thoughts?

The NID has binding posts and a test jack on "my side."

-jbn

I don't know why you wouldn't just use the code (typically 72+number) to call forward the call immediately. Some telcos have a service that lets you do that remotely... Anyway you can leave it of the hook or "short" it with a few hundred ohm resistor. Some telcos will see this neverending off hook condition and contact you. Forward on busy and forward on no ans are TWO different services so make sure you actually have it set to do what you want..... For example most people don't know that a caller will be forwarded on a no ans but say the person is currently dialing a number on that line... in that case the calling party would get a busy signal unless you have call forward busy set. Another trick which may work in some central offices is to place a diode accross the line, this scenerio will allow the phone line to still be used but the ring cycle will be tripped so quickly that the call may be forwarded anyway... you'd have to test.

 

[tmbrown97]

I can think of cool uses for instant forward - use a zone on the M1 to short the line causing an instant forward!

Anyway - when working with business lines, often smaller offices use a hunt group... think a bunch of lines with no call waiting and forward on busy. 1st line in use, it forwards to the next, then the next, and so on until it finds an open line. Each line has individual hunting to the next so a call gets bounced from line 1 to 2, then if 2 is busy, it forwards to 3 - and so on. If you were to unplug line 3, any calls that go to line 3 would just ring and ring, and never make the hunt to line 4.

So - if you call the telco to service a line or install a new one that's not yet terminated, even they just short the pair. This happens in thousands of telco rooms across the country every day, and I can tell you not one of those telco techs carries resistors or diodes - most couldn't pick one out of a pile of electronics if their life depended on it. They just short the line.

So - no need to overcomplicate this - if a force busy is what you want, there you go... it won't cause a problem, telco won't call you and care, it won't hurt their switches... it's actually how they would do it themselves if asked.

 

[euphline]

I can think of cool uses for instant forward - use a zone on the M1 to short the line causing an instant forward!

...

So - no need to overcomplicate this - if a force busy is what you want, there you go... it won't cause a problem, telco won't call you and care, it won't hurt their switches... it's actually how they would do it themselves if asked.

Hadn't ever thought of "automating" the process. That does sound like a cool idea!

Thanks for the help.

-jbn
PS: One reason not to do this by dialing a code is that at the moment there are no phones (nor jacks, for that matter) connected to that line!

 

[TCassio]

Technically, putting a short across your line will busy the line out. However, a direct short could raise alarms in the central office, and if these alarms are persistent for long periods, the phone company will see this as a problem on the line and take it out of service. You should really put a 600 ohm short accross the line as this will look like a telephone off hook to the phone co.