Switching on the PC when I got home yesterday, I posted to a hot air engine forum then came back a couple of hours later to check for replies only to find the ADSL link had dropped out - no too unusual, but the usual switching router on and off didn't recover it. Lifting the 'phone handset there was a loud Tick Tick on the line. Better report to BT fault line - but what's the number? I no longer keep the bulky phone book or yellow pages which land on the doorstep at regular intervals as all the relevant info can be found on line, but the internet connection is dead - oh dear, a worrying dependence on technology here!
Eventually rung 100 for operator and, after a few hiccoughs as the number recognition system didn't work (I wonder if the Tick Tick made it think it had a line-disconnect type dialling system) got through to a human being. No chance of speaking to an engineer of course but the call centre (probably on Bombay, though none the worse for that) arranged an automatic line test which came back clear - "the fault must be on your premises sir". I explained that I had already disconnected anything which could possibly cause such a signal, leaving just had one handset connected to the master socket and yes, I had tried another handset! The upshot is that an 'engineer' should be calling on Saturday morning - lord know what he will make of the manky wiring we inherited when we moved in some 15 years ago! Anyway, looks like I'm 'off the air' at home for a while.
Being a naturally curious type, I disconnected the remaining handset and listened with a pair of high impedance 'phones (GEC 'Type Approved By Postmaster General" - just for P-TE that one!) to verify the Tick was still there, then exhumed my old Telequipment 'scope. I didn't do a full measuring job ('scope's probably out of cal by now anyway!), but the Tick is a short duration pulse with a sharp leading edge to an amplitude of about 15 volts and slightly slower fall with a 5 volt 'overshoot' in the other direction, PRF is almost exactly 1Hz, I'm pretty sure that cannot be originating "on my premises".
Nosetalgia? While hunting down a 'scope probe, I came across my old camera gear (Pentax MX with a selection of lenses etc - worth anything nowdays?). Taking the flash out of its box, my nose was assaulted by that familiar smell which seemed to accompany the unpacking of any new Japanese electrical gear some years ago, don't seem to get quite the same whiff now and it brought back memories in the way that sometimes only a smell can!
Sorry about that, but I just had to tell someone!
Nick H