"Matt J. McCullar" wrote in message
t...


... a friend of mine and he told me about a
somewhat similar experience that happened to him when he was a kid, about
25
years ago. He lived in a house with somewhat ancient telephone wiring
and,
for some reason he never did figure out, the telephone would emit a very
brief "ghost ring" right before it would ring for real. That is, it was
an
electromechanical phone (this was early 1970s) and before the first
"genuine" ring, the phone would first put out one very brief "ping."
Apparently there was something in the telephone network that would send
out
a very brief "pip" that would ding the bell just once (the actual ring is
a
constant string of pulses).

I had an El Cheapo phone on my nightstand for years. It was a one-piece
unit that I laid face-down to hang up. It always gave out a chirp right
before the ring, which I imagine was related to the ghost ring your friend
heard.

In addition, that phone emitted an offbeat three chirp pattern every evening
about 10:45. If my wife and I were there together, one of us would usually
wisecrack about the FBI and phone taps. I imagine it had something to do
with testing the line. I had forgetten all about that.