OT dialup internet and electric fence (kinda long)

I'm on dialup internet service because I'm unwilling to pay the big prices to get satellite or cable service. Cable company wanted more than $1000 to run the cable the 800 ft or so from the highway to my house. They say Verison has wireless service in my area, but it's about the same as the satellite. Anyway, my dialup service has been getting worse and worse over the past year or so. Phone company has been reworking the wiring around here, so sevice will come out of one of those phone serice boxes you see sitting around. It's less than 1/4 mile from my house. The service was supposed to get better when that switch was made, but it did not improve at all. So...been trying to figure out the problem. I had noted a "tick" sound in my phone which you could hear while talking or also in the dial tone. So today, the repairman was at my mother-in-laws house up the road because the contractors doing the switchover work had messed up again and her phone was out. My wife mentioned our horrible connect speed and the "tick". He asked if we had an electric fence. That made a light come on in my head, as the electric fence runs right by the pole where the phone line junction box is that puts the line underground to my house. I unplugged the fencer and when to the house to check out the internet. The connection improved by at least 4 or 5 times. Not that much on the meter, but at least it seemed 5 times faster. What to do??? since I need the electric fence. I spent most of the day trying different things. I even but 50 ft of shielded cable in the fence at the phone pole with the shield grounded and the fence in the center wire. No luck with any of that. I also made sure all the splices were good and not a twig or weed was on the fence anywhere so there would be not arcing. Most of the fence was down stream of the phone pole and I discovered that if the fence was disconnected about 50 ft past the phone pole, all was well. Just as it was if the fence was off on the upstream side of the pole. So I changed the feed on the fence to come from the other direction and put a break in the wire where the disconnect was made after the pole. So now the fence feeds both directions with a break near the phone pole. That solved the problem. I suppose the fence was generating some RF that was picked up by the phone line. There are two of those junction boxes (or boosters or whatever they are) in the phone cable atop the pole. I think at least one of those is new. If high speed internet ever gets here at a reasonaly price, I will get it, but for now it looks like I can make it with the dial up. I was about ready to try the Verison wireless.

I have Sprint wireless broadband at home, sometimes it is fast, other times it is like two tin cans on a string.
Jim

The electric fence and the phone ground on the same plane. The "tick" means you have a high-power, pulsed charger. Most phone cable is non-shielded. Sounds like your fence charger, telephone J-box, and power distribution are very close together. RF interference seems evident. You mention using some "shielded" cable/wire. When using shielded cable you only ground ONE END, shield in the field or the end of the line, not at the source.

Hope this helps,
Charles

I grounded both ends of the shielded cable. Maybe that is why it did not work. I put it at the location where the electric fence is near the phone box. The fence is around 3 feet from the phone cable on the pole. The fence and phone cable (underground) run more or less parallel for about 300 ft, probably averaging 5 feet or so apart. The charger and my electrical service are several hundred feet from the phone box. This phone box is on the pole where the line connects to the underground cable that goes about 800 ft to the box on the house. The fence charger is a 4 or 6 Joule high powered charger. The phone cable is not shielded. The phone cable is in PVC conduit where it runs down the pole to underground. I wondered if it would help if the phone cable was in a metal conduit instead. Of course I have not control over that as the phone company would have to change that out.

I am an electrician and have worked on manufacturing equipment for three years. There are alot of control circuits (120 vac, 24 vdc, and analog) that are sensitive to the 480 vac primary power. Analog signals (like telephone) are usually shielded cables and grounded on ONE END. Experimentation yeilds the best results on which end has the least interference. Also, primary and secondary circuits work best if not parallel to each other. If they have to cross, try to do it at right angles (perpendicular). Seems it is more convienent to run them parallel. You may have to relocate the line further away or move the charger.

Charles

> The fence and phone cable (underground) run more
> or less parallel for about 300 ft, probably
> averaging 5 feet or so apart.

That was the cause of your problem. When the fencer puts out a pulse it has to charge the capacitance of the fence. You had quite a bit of fence past the parallel section being driven through it and so quite a bit of charging current flowed there. That current induced current in the phone line, which was the tick you heard. By breaking the fence and feeding it around from the other side you drastically reduced that current. The optimum place to put the break would be in the center of the parallel stretch.

Since I reworked the fence and fed from the other end, all seems to work OK. The dialup connection is as fast as it ever was before the electric fence was there. I think the fence has been there about 5 years, but this year, it was extended on the far end, putting more load on it and I suppose compounding the problem. Also about a year ago, the charger was changed from a 2 joule to the 6 joule that is there now and as I think back, the problem probably got worse around the time of the change in chargers. I did not think the more powerful charger was necessary, but the person that leases my pasture field thought it was. There is another permanent fence that the electric fence is attached to, so the electic is basically to keep the cattle from pushing on the somewhat old fence. Anyway with the change in the fence, I think the situation is OK for now. Thanks for all the comments and help.