What I am trying to find out is how do I create my own docking
> station for a cell phone.
> I know sparkfun had an article for a rotary phone
>
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but that just seemed way to complicated, or maybe it is supposed to
> be. I dont know.
The Sparkfun phone has some complication to handle the rotary dial, but the circuit for a tone dial wouldn't be any simpler. The internals of a cell phone are completely unlike those of a landline phone. The signals are different, the voltages are different, the voice encoding and decoding are entirely different. (A landline phone does no coding at all, cell phones do vast amounts.)
The Sparkfun kit is built around a GM862 module which is basically the entire guts of a GSM phone. With some electronic skill I wouldn't think it would be too hard to build the necessary circuits to connect a GM862 to a regular phone and handle the signals for two-way voice, dial, and the ringer, but it's a lot more than hooking up a few wires.
R's,
John