out of area calls - obviously spam

DO NOT ANSWER UNKNOWN CALLS. 

If you answer the call, they realize that there's someone willing to engage and it will perpetuate more calls.

DO NOT ANSWER UNKNOWN CALLS.

Literally, half the calls on my Caller ID are either "UNKNOWN CALLER" or "TOLL FREE CALLER" or "UNAVAILABLE".  I answered NONE of those calls.  They all went to the answering machine and ZERO left a message.

So assuming you have a traditional landline, because I can't see a digital landline with internet costing that much. You can only block 10 numbers, so your best bet is to get a phone with call blocker or a third party blocking device. 

The phone itself has a call block button, so it must be AT&T that is limiting how many. Yes it is a traditional landline. 

Make and model of phone? Yes AT&T limits the number of calls that can be block using the phone company's blocking service. The phone's ability to block is not controlled by AT&T.

Most of those calls come from numbers will be used by that caller for a day or two, and then they'll move on to a new number.  Blocking most serves very little purpose.  Only the more reputable robo callers use a real phone number.

I would venture to say that 80% of spam calls come from spoofed numbers. 

I have digital phone service which allows blocking 100 numbers.  I realized it was like trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon.  I now just let all unrecognized numbers go to my answering machine and MOST never leave a message.

Is there a solution? They start at about 8:30 am and sometimes are still calling at 8:00 p.m.  We always have at least 15 and the other day it hit 24. You can't sleep in or take a nap. What makes it more annoying is they never say anything. You answer and then you hear this little beep and never a voice.

That's what I keep telling my husband, but he still continues to answer. Guess I'll just have to work on getting him to stop answering. Thanks for verifying what I had felt to be the case. 

Wow, $117 for a landline is way too expensive. In any event, the advice by @skeeterintexas is absolutely right. You need to quit answering calls from unknown numbers. Answering them just lets the robot dialer know that’s a good number to call and just leads to more calls. Blocking the numbers is pretty useless too because they use number spoofing and just call from a different number. I would wager 99% of my calls are spammers or telemarketers.

There's ways with a phone with a good call blocker to not let those call through. One method is the caller has to push a button to be let through. Another is a white list. Check your phone's manual for your options.