The Green Oxide Mystery or Another attack of the MIBs?
As you all know I have been attempting a replication of Brad’s latest motor. Two days ago we had a violent thunderstorm, coincident with my landline phone going dead…no dial tone all phones silent. A little tinge of fear about MIBs quickly vanished as I headed out to the pole on the property and removed the metal cap to measure the voltage. It was only around 4 to 5 volts, way down from the expected 48 to 52 volts, the normal reading. I disconnected the wires at that junction and the voltage came up to 55 volts , a tad above the normal 48 to 52 volts expected. I put a test phone on the line and had a dial tone. So the line to the street from my pole was intact despite running through some trees, which I thought might have stretched and broken the wires internally during the high winds as it seemed to be still rigidly strung. I had previously disconnected all phones, fax machines etc. thinking the lightning might have taken something out, partially shorting the line. This was not the case, the line was still shorted. I disconnected the line at the basement box, then I was able to get a dial tone there. But when I put the RJ-11 plug back into the box connecting all internal house wiring, the voltage again dropped to around 5 volts. Well at least it wasn't the underground cable which zig zagged over 300 feet through the yard on it's way to the house. Rather than disconnect all five lines that ran in various directions through the basement up to receptacles on the first floor and ring each one out, I decided to take one last look around. Coiled behind a speaker cabinet in the bedroom I found a short length of connecting cable with a very suspicious green oxide on the RJ-11 contacts. It was from a phone that had previously used the cable but had been disconnected and the open end of the connector was lying on the floor. When I disconnected the cable, the voltage came back up to 55 volts, and the phones worked throughout the house once again. Then I recalled that a few days ago wifey thought she smelled some possible cat marking in that area, so sprayed the area with some kind of powerful deodorizer.
So was it the cat marking by Queso, the deodorizer spray, or did the MIBs sneak into my house and spray something corrosive on the RJ11 jack?
Queso was home at all times so only Queso knows for sure.
---------------------------
"Secrecy, secret societies and secret groups have always been repugnant to a free and open society"......John F Kennedy
|