> Anybody out there have any good ideas on how to eliminate a 60 cycle
> hum from a telephone line.  The hum is directly related to the phone
> wire being run with 500 feet of power cable in the same trench.
 
Shielded cable might not help.  Shielding does little to protect against
magnetic coupling, unless it is a more expensive type with a mu-metal
shield.  The fact that the hum increases when he draws power, implies
that there is some magnetic coupling.

How the pair is twisted is the key.  Most unshielded data cables are
designed with good twist characteristics to control crosstalk.  Many are
designed so that they can be laid in the same trays with power cables in
computer data centers (though electrical codes might prohibit this).
But on the other hand, twisted pair Ethernet isn't bothered much by 60
Hz.

CAT5 is probably overkill for voice and won't be any better than good
twisted phone pairs.

The other two factors affecting crosstalk, are separation (the more the
better), and how well the equipment on both ends maintains an electrical
balance.  Common-mode pickup is unavoidable; you don't want to do
something that turns common-mode hum into differential hum.  A defective
electronic phone or answering machine anywhere on the line can do this.
So can a leaky connection somewhere to ground.  In the worst case,
grounding one wire on a phone line is a sure way to get gobs of hum.  If
this weren't for a telephone, I'd advise using good transformers on both
ends.

Andy



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Author: Ingraham, Andrew
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