Phone listening stops working

I live in Md. and have Verizon copper for phone and DSL. The phone I use mostly and for these incidents is hard-wired, though fwliw the base of that phone is also the connection for cordless phones that are available to it, but none have been in use during this problem: Lately there have been seemingly random interruptions in my ability to hear, though others can always hear me.

3 times I've been in a long conversation with a friend on a cell phone with a headset, and for substantial periods, 5 minutes or more, I couldn't hear her. She'd had trouble with headsets before so we thought that's what it was. But I was on the phone with a bank yesterday, and again I couldn't hear him for 3 or 4 minutes.

I tried wiggling, pushing and pulling the plug into the handset and banging on the handset with my hand, and it had no effect. I didn't touch the base of the phone this time or any of these times, and nothing strange appeared on the computer which I sometimes use while on the phone. (The phone is a Uniden, also with cordless phones available but not in use.)

Then all of a sudden it started working again and did so for the rest of the phone call, 10 minutes or more, and today it worked fine for 90 minutes.

Verizon provides the phone and the DSL for the computer. Nothing for TV. Any idea what the problem could be? ;-) Or what I should try next?

Reply to
Micky
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I live in Md. and have Verizon copper for phone and DSL. The phone I use mostly and for these incidents is hard-wired, though fwliw the base of that phone is also the connection for cordless phones that are available to it, but none have been in use during this problem: Lately there have been seemingly random interruptions in my ability to hear, though others can always hear me.

3 times I've been in a long conversation with a friend on a cell phone with a headset, and for substantial periods, 5 minutes or more, I couldn't hear her. She'd had trouble with headsets before so we thought that's what it was. But I was on the phone with a bank yesterday, and again I couldn't hear him for 3 or 4 minutes.

I tried wiggling, pushing and pulling the plug into the handset and banging on the handset with my hand, and it had no effect. I didn't touch the base of the phone this time or any of these times, and nothing strange appeared on the computer which I sometimes use while on the phone. (The phone is a Uniden, also with cordless phones available but not in use.)

Then all of a sudden it started working again and did so for the rest of the phone call, 10 minutes or more, and today it worked fine for 90 minutes.

Verizon provides the phone and the DSL for the computer. Nothing for TV. Any idea what the problem could be? ;-) Or what I should try next?

Reply to
Micky

Does any WIFI work on the same frequency as your phone? That is what happened to me with a wireless camera. Which made for a lousy picture with blocks of noise in that.

Reply to
Sjouke Burry

Well the phone says it runs on 5.8 MHz. I don't know what wifi runs on.

But it's the phone with a cord that goes to the base station, with a cord that goes to the central station, via copper, that stops letting me hear other people. The cordless phones are all off, that is, on just enough to know if the base station is calling them.

Wow. I'll keep that in mind.

Reply to
Micky

That's the way it is.

There are only two phones connected to the wires. This one that has the DSL filter (and shows no static or whatever interference the DSL would cause) and a standard Western Electric dial phone in the basement, that is on the hook 99.9% of the time, and always when this problem happens.

I'd do that, in fact I still have spares, but are you just saying this for caution or do you really think one could be going in and out liike this?

Thanks to both of you.

Reply to
Micky

Each phone should have a filter at their wall connection, if the line is used also for DSL. No filter going to modem.

If they are already present, replace them. A few bucks each.

RL

Reply to
legg

I am going to feed back what I understood from your description of the problem.

a) You have a Uniden (Chinese) hard-wired all the way phone that goes dumb sometimes - does not speak to the other end. b) This is the only phone in your dwelling that displays this problem. c) You have done the obvious - checked the connections, wiggled the jacks and so forth. No help. These cheap Chinese phones are all-on-a-chip devices, acutely sensitive to any sort of spike on the line and also age out with startling regularity. If no other phone in the house displays this problem, replace the Uniden.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
pfjw

Now that you mention it, I spend almost all my time on this phone, and I will start keeping a cordless phone next to it, so when this one goes half-dead, I can see if the cordless works.

I would think they share very few parts, that the wireless is as separate from the wired as a second wired phone would be.

And I'm betting it won't affect the wireless because I think the only part the wireless and wired share is the phone jack and maybe the internal wires to it.

Hmmm. We'll see how long it takes until it happens again. (on the phone for an hour yesterday with no problems)

I do have another compatible base station with a wireless phone instead of wired. It's around here someplace, in the original box, so it might be possible to find it. It was cheaper to buy two two-phone sets than an phone and 2 other wiresless extensions. Before ebay stops selling them, I should buy one or two more extensions for when mine break. Maybe I'll buy another whole set with a wired base station instead. (I've had the phones 4 - 6 or more years and this is the first problem.)

Thansk. (It's near Gdansk.)

Reply to
Micky

Micky wrote: "Now that you mention it, I spend almost all my time on this phone, and I will start keeping a cordless phone next to it, so when this one "

Do a search for Goodwills or Salvation Armys in your area. Periodically they do get in old SW Bell or AT&T touch tone and trimline sets. Weigh a ton, and come in your choice of beige, beige, or, beige(!), but they're American built and are tough as bricks. ;)

Reply to
thekmanrocks

I know where they all are already.

And I have a couple of those already.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Reply to
Micky

I stick a DSL filter on the old phones as well, just to keep the line impedances in a known state, for DSL integrity where it's needed (not for phone quality).

Early Uniden hand-sets do funny stuff, but am aware of happy campers as well. I don't use wireless here.

Sounds internal - AGC and compression in the voice handling - either something detecting false levels on the mic, or a failing to return to the Rx from Tx states ~flakey mike, cord or even chip. As with most stuff, it's not intended to be repaired.

RL

Reply to
legg

There are Rx and Tx states in a wired phone??

Reply to
Micky

Some cheap phone on a chip wired phones use a single chip to do double duty. But such a problem as you describe seems unlikely even with that eventuality. And even so, that would mean a bad phone due for landfill.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
pfjw

I'll also try unplugging the electricity next time, for a while. The wired part of the phone doesn't need it except to make the bell ring with a louder sound.

But first I'll check out the cordless phone when the corded phone doesn't work right.

Reply to
Micky

Depends on what chips are used. If it has wireless handsets in the out-of-the-box package, it could use the same parts or firmware for cost reasons - just using the wires to sub out the battery. Who knows.

RL

Reply to
legg

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