Need 66-block help. 1 POTS line, 8 jacks

The idea behind wiring blocks is to provide a permanent termination for installed wiring. You will want to punch down all 3 pairs of each of the

white/blue to bb blue/white to dd white/orange to ff orange/white to hh white/green to jj green/white to ll

Repeat the wire color sequence starting with nn for the second cable. Be neat.

One side of your our incoming line will loop from aa to mm and on to all the left side connectors for the white/blue pair, The other side of the incoming line will loop from cc to oo and on to all the left side connectors to the blue/white pair.

You will then use jumper clips to connect aa to bb, cc to dd and on down the block until you have installed 16 jumpers connecting the 8 phones. These clips make troubleshooting easier by allowing you to disconnect individual jacks.

Thanks for the reply! I'm very sorry, but I still do not understand. I think I understand a little better though, but I still have a few questions.

First of all, what is the difference between white/blue and blue/white, etc? Secondly, you said "The order for the first cable will be...white/blue to bb". In my representation above, "bb" represents 2 places to punch down. Are you saying punch the same wire in 2 places? Thirdly, if the incoming lines loop from aa to mm and from cc to oo, it seems a waste of time to punch down the jack lines in between. There's nothing to bridge them to. Lastly, if what you say is correct, then my 50-pair 66 block can only support 8 jacks? Is that true (for my case, where there is a 3-pair cable per jack)?

Thanks again, Jack

The below is from nps-vip.net/tester/colors.htm it explains the color coding better than I can.

"If you look at the top 2 wires closely you will notice that one wire is mostly white with a regular band of blue. This is the Tip. The second wire is mostly blue with an regular band of white. This is the ring. Ok so the bands are kind of hard to see. But when seen in longer lengths and twisted, you can make out the colors easier. The wires are twisted to prevent the signal on one pair of wires from "leaking" into the others."

Sorry I was not more clear. Since you will be using bridging clips you will only be punching wires on the outside positions. The inside positions are where the clips go. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/66_block

On the left side you will flip your punchdown tool to the non-cut side and loop the incoming line to all the leftmost positions matching the blue pair. Complete the circuit with clips.

Like I said in the last post "The idea behind wiring blocks is to provide a permanent termination for installed wiring." Just because you are not using the other two pairs now that does not mean that they will never be used. The practice is to terminate all installed wiring to the block.

Yes with 3 pair 8*3=24. I usually use 4 pair so 6 jacks per 66 or since I usually use 110 that gives me 20 jacks per block. 5 pair is quite common so that gives 5 per 66.

Thank you very much! It makes alot more sense now. I will try it tonight when I get home.

-Jack

No, this is not the right way to wire up a block. You'll have a rats nest on your hands trying to get all the handsets wired into that left/right row mess.

What you should do, as Lewis suggested, is punch all the wires from each handset down along one side. Then punch a line down along the other side for each tip/ring pair needed. The use the metal bridge clips along the center to carry the signal over from one side to the other.

This will mean you'll punch the incoming line from the demarc down at one point and then run a pair of lines for each of the 8 handsets. It's not uncommon to take a wire and punch it THROUGH a connection instead of terminating it there.

If you have a real punchdown tool you'll notice it has two sides to the tip. One has a cutter blade and the other doesn't. It's that second side you use to punch down a line without cutting it.

Using that dull side of the punchdown tool you can use a longer section of wire and loop it from one post to another. If you've terminated all three pairs from your handsets you'd loop the wire to each active post and skip over the unused ones.

And make note, your DSL modem has to get a clear line directly from the demarc. But your handsets shoud NOT get this same line. The handsets should ONLY get a line that's been through a DSL filter first. You can use just one filter.

What I've done before is wire a pair of jacks near the block and put a filter in between them. They make fancier ways to do this but a plain old in-line filter and a pair of boxes is often a lot cheaper.

So bring the pair in from the demarc to the block. Run one pair to the DSL modem's jack. Run another out to the filter. Then run that pair back to the block and distribute it to the handsets. If you need to use another handset at the DSL modem then remember to put a filter on the line after the modem.

-Bill Kearney

Cruel, Bill. :^)

Back to the subject at hand, I used 66-blocks in security systems many years ago. Besides the good advice others have already offered, the OP might want to do something similar to what we did. When dressing the wires to the block, bring each wire past the intended row to the bottom of the block, then bend it around a finger and back up to the terminal. This will leave a loop of extra cable -- very handy should it become necessary at a later date to rearrange the block.

BTW, we used 66-blocks that came mounted to a backboard with a metal cover. A stick-on, magnetic switch concealed beneath the cover provided tamper protection.