What's that Noise?

Yesterday evening I arrived home from a weekend at the Scottish Healing Centre to find several messages on the telephone answering machine from my wife Genie. She's in Holland at the moment and I'd forgotten to mention that I'd be out for the weekend. Picking up the phone all I could hear was loud static. I fiddled with the leads and then tried plugging the unit directly into the telephone socket in the wall, bypassing the splitter for the broadband line. More white noise, so I used my mobile phone (which I hardly ever use) to send a clumsy SMS to Genie explaining the problem with the land line, and went to bed.

This morning during a meeting with Robin (of Robin Baker Architects) I mentioned the trouble I was having with the telephone. What was bugging me was the fact that Genie's messages on the answering machine were clear, so it seemed that the "line in" was good but the "line out" was noisy, and I didn't know whether it was the telephone itself or the line to my house that was at fault. Robin let me borrow his fax machine, which has a telephone handset built in, in order to test the line at home.

Plugging in the fax machine at home I found the telephone line to be clear, and as the outside line was obviously fine, I resolved to buy a new pair of cordless phones online, once I'd finished the work I'd started on my trusty Mac. But as I was about to send an email...

There was a power outage. Even as the computer was shutting down there was an almighty crash of thunder. Heavy rain. Time for lunch, I thought.

After lunch I turn the Mac back on. No wireless connection. Of course, this always happens after a power cut. It's a drag but I know it's only a question of resetting first the router and then the wireless hub and all will be well, although Robin had to replace his router after it got fried by a lightning strike just a couple of weeks ago...

Finally I get the network up and running and am at the stage where I'm ready to order a new phone online. Now something prompts me to check the phone one last time and lo and behold I have a clear line! Everything works.

I'm guessing that the problem with the phone was due to the fact that it's a cordless system that uses radio signals. The signals were probably being messed up by atmospheric static which was cleared by the electrical storm. But at the same time I'm wondering whether simply turning the power to the phone off and on might have fixed it.

If you've had similar adventures with your cordless phone, please let me know.