What causes the subtle hissing/background noise on phone lines? Is it due to the internal phone wiring pickup noise? Or inherent to analog telephones?
When I press a number to start the dialing sequence, the background low-hiss noise becomes more noticeable. This morning I tried connecting my phone directly to the phone junction box outside, and I noticed the line noise is somewhat lower, to the point where I don't really notice it. (But it's still there ...)
My phone lines are running in the crawl space. I remember last time I was down there, I saw some open connections and the lines were laying on the ground. Now if some of the wires are touching the ground, will that cause the hiss noise? The wires are those more rigid types, probably from the 1960s.. Last year I had a connection problem where I can call in, but can't dial out, when the raining season is here, so I was wondering if there's some kind of short to ground in part of the wire. (But doesn't short to ground will get rid of noise?)
Thanks.
Raymond