AM radio on my fios phone

[zcatzz]

i have fios tv and phone bundle. all the phones pick up a 1320 kHz AM radio station.

some days it is unbearably loud - so much for crystal clear fios phone.

do i need a DSL or NID? will verizon install it at the main trunk line entering the house for free?

[DavidGo]

You must live near the AM station transmitter.  Call the station and ask them if they will add filters in your house.  The FIOS (fiber optic) portion is probably fine. The interference is being picked up by the copper phone wires in your house, or in the phones directly.

 You can test the phone by  plugging a single plain old phone with a short cord into the telephone test jack located in your cellar near the FIOS boxes.

Good luck

[CharlesH]

DavidGo is correct. Some how, your wiring is picking up am radio.

[kvelling1]

Make sure all telephone wired connections in/for your home are CLEAN, DRY, and TIGHT.

If there is any bluish-green fuzz (copper oxide) clean it off completely and make sure the connections are tight --and particularly DRY.

Copper oxide indicates that water has been present.

The copper oxide could act as a 'crystal detector' a popular form of radio receiver about 80 years ago.

Message Edited by kvelling on 12-16-2008 09:23 PM

[zcatzz]

More info: there are 2 separate phone lines in the house. 

1 phone line is analog (original) and works fine, phone line # 2 is FIOS and has the 1380 KHz AM station interference.

a phone plugged in to either box on the outside of the house (POTS test jack) works fine.

same phone plugged in inside has the interference (i.e. not phone issue).

DSL filter did not work (all non filtered phones unplugged).

no evidence of copper corrosion (blue-green oxidation) and i either clipped or twisted any long, loose wires to minimize antenna action.

i believe the only option is to switch the other phone line back to analog.

have not tried an RFID yet.

the AM station is nearby but has never been a problem until FIOS TV/phone was enabled in July.

technician said FIOS operates near 1380 KHz frequency. can anyone confirm?

please help. 

[mattheww50]

AM interference on a telephone line is almost always a RFI issue. It is a matter of either filtering the lines, or shielding the exposed telephone wiring. In today's telephones there are numerous semiconductor components that can act as diodes and convert the AM Radio Frequency Interference into audio.

There is probably nothing in FIOS that is anywhere near 1380Khz.  Bandwidth considerations make FIOS TV spread over about 1 Ghz, even the lowest Internet speed would need 2000Khz, and digitized phone service is typically on an ISDN B-channel, again, nowhere near 1380Khz. The signals actually used in the FIOS optical fiber are optical, literally hundreds of Ghz...

What actually happens is the unshielded phone line somewhere between the ONT and the phone is picking up the 1380Khz. signal quite well.Sometimes that actually happens inside the telephone when a combination of components happens to be resonant somewhere near 1380Khz, or cause the connected line to be effectively resonant at 1380Khz.

To be blunt, the odds that it is actually FiOS related are very remote. I'd be tempted to replace the phone cable from the ONT with a shielded cable (and ground the shield at both ends) and see if it simply goes away. Generally DSL filters are sufficiently 'low pass', that a 1380Khz signal won't get through very well.

[zcatzz]

re. Matthew50's comment that the problem is not FIOS related:

all the hardware (i.e. phones, copper wires, outside analog phone box) worked fine (no AM radio) before FIOS installation.

after FIOS installation to one phone number, the same copper wires and phones have loud radio intereference.

the second, non-FIOS phone number is fine/unchanged.

obviously the problem is located around the ONT.

shouldnt the verizon tech run a new shielded, grounded wire from the analog box to the ONT?

i want my crystal clear analog phone service back.

[CharlesH]

If you are sure that your cabling is clean an not the issue, verizon can get a Fiber Tech to come out and check the connection to the ONT.  The tech will advise a fee for any inside-wiring that needs to be done. 

[Telcoguru]

You have flat wire acting like an antenna picking up the am station. You need to replace as much flat wire with twisted pair wire , install radio noise suppressors or vary the length of the flat wire so it won't pick up that station.

[zcatzz]

but does it make sense that all the same wire before FIOS was AM free, and once they inserted the ONT (i.e. installed FIOS) it started picking up AM.

from what i can tell from the outside wiring, they just put the ONT in serial.

i did not have AM radio interference until they installed FIOS phone service.

i currently have 2 separate phone lines, 1 analog and 1 FIOS.

i could switch the outside wiring back to 2 analog lines.