Hi Pat,
With your vast experience, I was wondering if you can help me. I just installed a Cisco CallManager Express system. Everything is working great with the system. The problem is we set the lines to groundstart. Now we would like to have the main line also going to an analog phone just in case we have a power failure or the CME goes down. Is there an analog phone we can purchase that has groundstart capabilities? If so, please point me in the right direction.
Kindest Regards,
Damian P.C. Jones IT Manager Great Northern Cabinetry, Inc.
749 Kennedy Street P.O. Box 207 Rib Lake, WI 54470 (715) 427-5255 (715) 427-5227
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for your compliment about my 'vast experience'. In the olden days of Ma Bell, asking your service rep for a 'ground start' style telephone would produce one promptly from a technician who would show up with it on request. You can purchase one from various suppliers, but their names escape me at the moment and it would not come as inexpensive as you could simply build one. Please recall all you need to do to have a 'ground start' phone is to touch the 'tip' side of the line to ground momentarily, like for one or two seconds, then remove that connection. Sort of like you press a doorbell for a second or two, then release the button you were pressing. I do not know how large your installation is, but I am sure you know where to find a connection to 'ground', such as a cold water pipe. Use a phone with a temporary push to connect switch on it such as one of the older 'two line twist button' phones. You know, the ones with red/green wires as line one, or turn the little twist button the other direction and yellow/black wires connect with line two. In this instance, 'line two' (yellow/black wires) will not do anything unless you want an actual line two. What you will concern yourself with are the blue/white wires in the cable which make temporary connection when the 'twist button' is used in its _third_ position, which is temporary push down/release (sort of like a doorbell button). In fact, when Bell was in business, what they did with those blue/white wires was have them temporarily connect to buzz or signal another phone somewhere on the line. But what you are going to do is use the blue/white wires to make a temporary connection to ground. When you press, then release the twist button (its third, press/release thing), you will bring ground onto the pair for for second or two needed to establish a ground start connection.
I did that many years ago when my uncle was the proprietor of a Walgreen's Agency drug store in Whiting, IN. He had a pay phone in the front of the store and a private phone (Whiting-68 was the number as I recall) on the wall in back by the pharmacy. To use the pay phone, people had to put a nickel in the phone which tripped the ground, and presently the operator would answer and get the desired number. I found a two line/twist button phone somewhere and hooked it up in his pharmacy office instead. Turn the button one way, you got the Whiting-68 pharmacy phone line. Turn the button the other direction and you got the pay station in the front of the store, To _use_ the payphone however (without having to run up to the front of the store and put a nickle in) you would depress that little button for all of a couple seconds until you heard a sort of 'clack' or static on the line, then release the button and wait for the operator to respond, same as if you had been in the front of the store, on the payphone. I just went to the phone terminal box in the basement of the store and jumped the white wire (of the blue/white pair) to the yellow (ground wire) of the payphone. Either way, (person in front with a nickel which tripped the finger in the coin box to temporarily in turn trip the ground to make the connection) _or_ uncle in back in his pharmacy office twisting the button to the payphone line position then tapping the buton with his finger to temporarily touch blue to white down to the basement where white met yellow. *In theory* it was only supposed to be an 'answer-only' extension to the payphone which was always ringing because kids from school hung around the fountain area at the front of store making calls and getting calls from their buddies. The fountain clerk/store cashier was not always able to get to the pay phone to answer in time, and uncle would have to run out to the front and get the payphone.
It worked fine for a couple weeks then one day I was in the store and the telephone inspector came around to see my uncle and asked him what had happened. Uncle played sort of dumb, he claimed to have no idea what was wrong. The telephone inspector went to the basement, looked in the terminal box, snapped off _my_ side of the ground wire, came back upstairs, disabled the twist button/two line phone, went over to the pay phone, lifted the receiver, waited for the operator to respond and said to her 'give me the Business Office'. I thought it sort of prudent at that point to make myself scarce so went outside the drugstore where I could spy through the window and see what was going on. The inspector told the Business Office he had 'corrected the problem'. Then he came outside, saw me and asked 'have you seen anyone fooling around with the pay station?' This inspector had a very large, red, bulbous nose; he appeared to drink too much ice tea, IMO. I assured him I had not seen anyone 'messing around' with the phone, and he replied "I sure would like to catch the little bastard; if you see who it was, tell him to stay away from the phone." I told him I would make certain to tell the 'little bastard' not to mess with the phone any further.
But now days, Bell is out of business as you know. Feel free to tap the proper wire to ground anytime you want to get a groundstart phone to produce dial tone. You cannot get in trouble for it any longer. PAT]