[PLUG-TALK] Telephone Test Set

[Rich Shepard]

   One of the lines here intermittently loses the dial tone, or shuts down in
the midst of a conversation. Verizon charges a lot of money if they send a
tech and the problem is inside the house. Therefore, I'd like to isolate the
problem to inside or outside.

   One way to do this, the Verizon tech rep told me, is to open the junction
box on the side of the house when that line is dead and hook up a phone to
the dead line. If it's dead outside, too, then it's their problem and they
fix it at no cost to me.

   Does anyone have a test handset I could borrow to try this the next time
the line is silent? I can't see needing to buy my own since I'd have highly
infrequent use for it.

   On the same topic, could the issue be really old (e.g., 12 years; ancient
in today's technology world) telephone sets? I have two, 2-line phones here
(Panasonic) and when that line's dead it's dead on both. Perhaps the phones
have exceeded their planned lifetimes and gone belly up.

Rich