{"id":2016,"date":"2006-10-29T18:05:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-30T00:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lordandrei.com\/blog\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2006-10-29T18:05:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-30T00:05:00","slug":"diy-the-phone-the-cable-and-other-crazy-stunts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lordandrei.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/29\/diy-the-phone-the-cable-and-other-crazy-stunts\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY, the phone, the cable… and other crazy stunts…."},"content":{"rendered":"

Tired, Punchy and my head hurts<\/p>\n

First the news… Yes… it’s been a week since I’ve posted. Work, Baby… Family… you do the math.<\/p>\n

Today was filled with a DIY project that was filled with so much promise. And met with failure. We have a room with no phone jack that direly needs one.The room has a cable jack… But we don’t use the cable.<\/p>\n

I had an idea… what if I ride the phone signal on the unused cable from a room with both phone and cable to the room with just cable. I got two wall plates that each had a phone jack and a cable connector<\/a>. I got a 3′ long coax cable to sacrifice for connecting the back of the cable connector to the back of the phone jack. I figured I’d cut in half, strip the cut end and attach it like I was wiring a phone. I also got a little multimeter… hoping that might help. Granted I know nearly -0- about electronics (I’m a software guy)… so the multimeter was more of an amusement.<\/p>\n

I walked into the parking lot of the hardware store. Booty in hand. I was looking at the multimeter walking about 2 feet from the row of cars and pickup trucks. BANG!
\nDid you know that a 15 ‘ 2 inch diameter wooden dowel, hangs more than 2 ‘ out of a pickup truck and right at forehead level<\/a>? Neither did I. This would be the part where my head hurts.<\/p>\n

Well, I got home… Watched Rothlisberger forget that black doesn’t mean Steelers on the West Coast. And tinkered. I cut the coax and stripped the cut ends<\/a>. On each plate I attached the copper core {D} to the Pair 1 ring terminal<\/a> (red) and the copper screen {B} to the Pair 1 tip (green).<\/p>\n

My first test was to connect the two plates with coax. Then attach one plate to a phone line and the other to a phone. This would test two things.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Was I wired correctly?<\/li>\n
  2. Would coax carry a phone signal?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The test worked.<\/p>\n

    So, I ran phone wire in one room over to where the cable jack was on the wall. I connected a small piece of coax to my makeshift jack and connected the other end to the wall jack. Then I connected the phone line to my makeshift jack. Then I picked up a good phone. The phone still worked.. so I hadn’t shorted out our phone. Theoretically, my phone line was now on the cable in the house.<\/p>\n

    I went to the cable jack in the room with no phone. Hooked another piece of coax to it and to my 2nd jack. I assumed that both cable jacks in the house were on the same line. This assumption proved wrong. Nothing came over the line. My guess is that there is a splitter somewhere before where I am patched in and the signal is not propagating.<\/p>\n

    the idea seemed good, but I’m back to square one.<\/p>\n

    Ah well. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.<\/p>\n

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