Recent threads on connectors and soldering and such brought this to mind... Heard this story from a Brit I know...... Seems a lady complained that her dog would bark hysterically for a minute or so prior to her phone ringing. Repairman showed up and found: Telephone used an earth ground for the return current. The earth ground was the usual metallic stake in the ground in the yard. The ground was normally dry. Her dog was chained to the ground post with a metal chain. When the phone range, it would complete the circuit to ground (90 volts or thereabouts ring voltage) via the dog Who of course resented this and barked And urinated on the ground post which allowed a good ground to occur, and the phone would then ring normally and the dog would go back to sleep. The moral-- Quite often problems can be solved by pissing on them. Enjoy William K. Borsum, P.E. -- OEM Dataloggers and Instrumentation Systems &