Can anyone explain why my phone (a BT phone from the 1970’s) occasionally makes a “pip” noise, much like a few milliseconds of ringing? There is no evidence of a call on 1471. Confusing the hell out of me!

Probably a missed call from Gladys Knight 😆

I walked into that one!

Fault with line somewhere I’d reckon.

Is it plugged into an extension or the main socket? If it’s a fault in any extension you’ll have to pay for the fix, if it’s the main socket then it’s supplier’s (e.g. BT) problem.

Maybe it’s BT testing the line, sending a ping, and for some reason your phone picks it up whereas others don’t.

Put your tinfoil hat on, “they” are listening…….

if it’s the main socket then it’s supplier’s (e.g. BT) problem

It appears not so, supplier is only responsible for the wiring, BTO wanted to charge my supplier to fit new faceplate when I had a non traceable fault on my line.

A few Mr angry from ABZ emails soon got the charge removed

In very old phones, the ringer was driven by a ~40V supply on the bell wire, generated via a capacitor in the Master socket. This isn’t needed on modern phones and best practice is to disconnect it from any extensions as it can interfere with ADSL. I’d guess it’s something relating to this, a rogue voltage appearing momentarily on that line which is making your antique phone blip. (I’m surprised it’s still working TBH.)

Could you elaborate on what phone you have and what your wiring is like? Is your master socket a GPO job of a similar vintage, or is it a modern NTE5 linebox? Any extensions?

I don’t have call waiting, but does call waiting show up on 1471?

The phone is a British Telecom “Statesman 9101R” and is plugged into a modern Master Socket (BT OpenReach) and there isn’t anything else plugged in (or extensions). I’ve used the phone for 20 years in many different properties and it has always worked perfectly and never done this before. But we have just moved house so a fault on the line or master socket seems most likely. Worth a call to BT to get it sorted, so thanks for helping a probably diagnosis.

Holy crap, I used to have one of those.

What cougar said.. But it’s probably worth getting bt and your isp to conduct a line test, that’s free.
Or try plugging in a different phone, if the noise is eminating from the phone it might be a sign that it’s faulty.

Just check it’s not a nearby smoke detector with a low battery.

My parents’ phone used to do this; every day like clockwork it went “pip”. We assumed it was some kind of testing bleep or something.

A modern one.
Thought it was like our round spinny dial one, the bell tings with temperature changes.

If its happening with any regularity, its the exchange testing the line by applying conditions to measure for voltage, earth leakage etc. When everyone had old phones it was quite common to hear them ting, it doesn’t affect modern phones.

It does this to get an early warning of cable damage/water ingress in the large cables leaving the exchange, the insulation is paper and they are kept dry by air pumped from the exchange. If the air is leaking out or water getting in, the whole cable goes down, the biggest are 4800 pairs so if a group of lines start getting small fault conditions, they can go and fix it before the cable goes down.

^what Spooky said,if your calls are clear and crackle free and your bb is constant and trouble free,could also be somthing as simple as the phone is on its way out,does it do it when you lift the handset up?

Just check it’s not a nearby smoke detector with a low battery.

A couple of months back, I was pulling a load of unused cabling out of a network patch panel in our server room to tidy up. Whilst I was elbow-deep in wiring, an alarm went off. A regular beep – beep – beep sound. I thought, “what the hell is that?” (what have I just broken?) It seemed to be coming from behind the rack, high up.

Tried to trace it, ended up with the stepladders out, ceiling panels out and my head in the roof with a torch trying to work out where it was coming from. Then just as I seemed to be narrowing it down, it stopped.

Nothing seemed obviously down, so I left it at that, but it bugged me. Spoke to a couple of the other engineers who were equally mystified. Then I was sat at my desk a few days later, when I heard the same beep – beep – beep alarm go off.

It was a bloody lorry reversing outside.

Worth a call to BT to get it sorted

By now he will have realised the error of his ways. And that those two ideas can’t co-exist.

Hat off to you 🙂 and I thought I was retro