> The phone company seems more than willing to allow me to draw > 2mA indefinitely. Only until they notice !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They will absolutely not let you do this if they care. This looks like a VERY faulty line to test equipment. It also may trip some operator access equipment. Did you actually try ringing in from else where in this condition ? :-) Note that if you had used a swicthing power supply you could have used almost 10 times less input current. And even then the phone company will be very upset. Just because to CAN draw current, doesn't mean you can draw current. And do check whether anyone can ring in :-) Russell McMahon -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.