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Odd Voice Heard On A Phone Line (Days Of The Week Listed Backwards)

zoltan_g

Devoted Cultist
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
202
Hi all,

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything here and I wasn't sure where to put this, it's not quite an IHTM.

It happened to my parents and I wondered if anybody else had ever experienced anything like it.

I was speaking to my Father recently and he mentioned that sometimes their phone line is disturbed by odd clicking sounds almost like the sound of a reciever being picked up. I thought nothing of it and told my Dad to speak to BT as it's probably a cabling or phone exchange type issue.

A little while after this he said something quite odd had happened, he'd just finished a conversation, the other person had hungup and he was about to do the same when he heard a loud click on the line, after which the line sounded quite 'hollow' for lack of a better word, as if there was somebody there. My Dad thought that was odd and listened, upon which he heard a voice, which he said sounded almost mechanical or recorded.

The voice proceeded to list each day of the week in reverse order starting with Friday, it then counted backwards from 7 down to 0 after which it was silent and then disconnected.
A few days later it happened again, in exactly the same way.

I'm a bit baffled to to be honest as to what it could possibly be, some kind of bizzare line test? Line fault somewhere? Inter dimensional crossed line? Bored Men In Black?

Any ideas?

--------Zoltan
 
Just a theory, but perhaps it was a maintenance technician doing some work on one of those telephone junction boxes?
 
Mythopoeika said:
Just a theory, but perhaps it was a maintenance technician doing some work on one of those telephone junction boxes?

I've no idea, it happened on two different occassions at different times, one of the bizzarre things that happen I guess.
 
Hmmmm. I was in touch with someone I regularly call and for the first time ever, heard what sounded like a plummy recorded operator voice repeating the phrase 'Please hold the line'.

Good advice - way better than 'Remember you're a Womble' or something.
 
The most obvious explanation to sounding like there's someone listening is that there is someone listening.

At the height of the troubles in Belfast ..and with left leaning public figures in Britain during the Thatcher years in particular.. it was often reported people hearing such amusing glitches as their own voices being played back to them, as well as all the clicks and silences you describe.

It's concievable someone, rightly or wrongly, is being bugged.
 
The police is listening on some phones in the neighbourhood?
 
Did you have a games console on?
The exact same thing happened to me, clicking, strange backwards sounding voices etc. The only thing I could think of at the time was that we had the x-box on and were playing FableII, where there is an option to use a microphone and chat to people. However the game was on "pause" and we didn't have our mike connected, but who knows what you might pick up?
 
Reminds me of a call the other day. Phone rang, I lifted it and said"Hello?" A mechanical American voice said "That is not an appropriate response". I put it down thinking" What would have been one?"
 
Mythopoeika said:
Just a theory, but perhaps it was a maintenance technician doing some work on one of those telephone junction boxes?

But if it was that, why name the days of the week backward? That's weird...
 
Isis177 said:
Reminds me of a call the other day. Phone rang, I lifted it and said"Hello?" A mechanical American voice said "That is not an appropriate response". I put it down thinking" What would have been one?"

"Bugger off"? :lol:
 
Could be an answering machine. We used to have one that you could dial into remotely and use the keypad to make selections from menus, like listening to messages, setting the date, etc.
 
I've heard those clicking sounds quite often, could it be to do with cordless phones :?:
 
I don't know why the OP's father heard it over the phone, but I'm familiar with the recitation as described.

This very sort of recitation exercise is - or at least was - a common procedure for certain specialized situations.

The famous 'Miller's Law' in psychology states that the normal capacity of working memory is 'seven plus or minus two':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two

This was the key thing that recommended days of the week as the subject matter for the recitation exercise.

Reciting days of the week in reverse order (with or without reciting them in progressive order) was a common tactic for checking memory and orientation when performing an initial intake or diagnostic interview with someone:

- who may be mentally ill
- who has suffered a head injury, a possible concussion, or seems to be in shock
- who is suspected of having suffered a stroke or an episode of dementia

For example, this sort of exercise is cited in:

An Introduction to the Study of Mental Diseases
By Francis Merriman Barnes

Accessible at:

https://books.google.com/books?id=C... OR "reverse order" recording OR tape&f=false

Additionally, forward / backward recitation of key terminology word sets is (or at least was) a common exercise in language training (e.g., TEFL).
 
Hi all,

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything here and I wasn't sure where to put this, it's not quite an IHTM.

It happened to my parents and I wondered if anybody else had ever experienced anything like it.

I was speaking to my Father recently and he mentioned that sometimes their phone line is disturbed by odd clicking sounds almost like the sound of a reciever being picked up. I thought nothing of it and told my Dad to speak to BT as it's probably a cabling or phone exchange type issue.

A little while after this he said something quite odd had happened, he'd just finished a conversation, the other person had hungup and he was about to do the same when he heard a loud click on the line, after which the line sounded quite 'hollow' for lack of a better word, as if there was somebody there. My Dad thought that was odd and listened, upon which he heard a voice, which he said sounded almost mechanical or recorded.

The voice proceeded to list each day of the week in reverse order starting with Friday, it then counted backwards from 7 down to 0 after which it was silent and then disconnected.
A few days later it happened again, in exactly the same way.

I'm a bit baffled to to be honest as to what it could possibly be, some kind of bizzare line test? Line fault somewhere? Inter dimensional crossed line? Bored Men In Black?

Any ideas?

--------Zoltan


The first thing that sprang to my mind was something like those number stations, you know on the radio. Somehow being transmitted over the phone line.

As for the clicking though... I've heard something similar on a desk phone at a place I used to work... it used to click (almost like a buzzing sort of click) in a strange sort of way just seconds before it rang. I always just assumed it was something... telephone-y and technical.

Either that, or I was being bugged. Doubt they would have got any entertaining conversations from me, though.

:c4u:
 
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