Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: msa@rwing.uucp (Mark Anacker) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Unusual Problem With Party-Line Ringing Message-ID: Date: 1 Sep 89 22:20:15 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 26 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 343, message 2 of 7 Hi out there in telecom land... I have a situation here, and I was wondering if anyone out there in this group has any advice. Some friends live in a rural (*really rural*) area of the state (WA). Their phone service is party line, with 3 or 4 others on the line. Instead of the old system of "1 long, 2 short" rings or whatever, the telco sends the rings signal at different frequencies for each party. Thus my friends' ring is 50Hz, instead of the usual 20Hz. They then had to buy a small box that goes inline with their incoming line and beeps when a ring signal of the appropriate frequency comes along. A side effect of this is that the ring signal is not passed through the box at all, making it kind of hard to hook up an answering machine or modem (or anything). Also, since the only audible indicator is in the filter box, you can't hear the phone ring outside that room. What I had in mind was to modify one of these filter boxes so that instead of beeping on a 50Hz ring, it would close a relay and bridge the house side of the line onto the incoming side. This would then allow the ring signal to get to the rest of the house. We've verified that their phones and stuff will recognize a 50Hz ring (also all other rings)., so they should work. I'd like to know if anybody out there has done anything like this already. I know this look like a sci.electronics posting, but it's really telcomm specific. Besides, Patrick seems to know everything about the system anyway :-) Sorry for the length. Thanks for any help.