[GreenKeys] O/T - 24v to 48v POTS Telco converter for added ring?

Sat Jul 31 18:34:13 EDT 2021

Hey guys,

Sorry for the late reply and all of the great responses back :) !  So yesterday I finally pinned down the problem.  Okay, so the bell on my Automatic Electric is a ground ring bell… seems like most rotaries were back then - at least on the independent lines, because of partly lines.  Ground ring also saved from draining voltage on the larger circuit, due to the many bells being on the circuit -- or at least back then it did.  Modern telephones no longer use ground - usually seen as three wires coming out of old telephones… instead now you see only two.  Prior to asking here, I had tried bypassing the call blocker with the ground circuit, but still no dice.

So a little background - bet most know here, but anywho… Big Ma Bell (AT&T) exclusively used Western Electric, which meant that most of the nation, back in the day, used Western Electric equipment.  The independent companies though, including my area in southeast Nebraska (again, back in the day, before all the stinkin’ mega-mergers via deregulation back in the ‘90s) -- Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph, used Automatic Electric equipment.  Somewhat the same, yet somewhat different.

Yesterday I came across a video on a Western Electric telephone that allowed the bell on it to ring on modern POTS circuits, on the “new” Big Ma Bell network, since most networks today have lowered the voltage on their lines, since bells are rare and high ringing voltage is no longer needed and whatnot... along with the fact that modern circuits on current day landline phones that don’t require as much voltage as the old ones did.  On the WE at least, fixing it was as simple as moving a wire to bypass the ground ring altogether.

Automatic Electric phones aren’t as simple though… they use frequency ringers, from what I can gather.  WE may too, but AE is apparently notorious for that (party lines, rural areas, etc.).  I couldn’t find any info about doing the same to my AE phone (as they are a bit rarer).  Most AE forums say that you have to change out the ringer for a straight line ringer on the AE’s.  Yikes!

Okay… well, last chance I had (yesterday) was to go downstairs, dig into my old rotary telephone collection and see if I could find an AE phone that had modified wiring ‘cause the all the previous phones I tried a couple of nights ago - including WE, ITT, etc., all did not ring on the call blocker.

Well, what do you know - the first AE I came across had an an 80’s-era modular plug converter at the end of the line.  Promising!  Opened it up and found it was wired for the 80’s network!  Nice ;D !  Plugged it into the call blocker and even though it had the same ringer as the other one I was trying to get working, it rang!

So comparing apples to apples on the wiring (opened them both up to compare), I found a modern solution on the rewired AE from downstairs... as simple as switching around three wires and eliminating the ground ring.

Did the same modification on my usual AE deck phone right beside me here and it finally works ——— yay ;D !!!!!

I may end up doing a video about it on YT, since it seems like no one knows about this wire-up… many independent bells were small - thus the knowledge may not be there anymore.  Milage may vary on this mod - but I have no other exchange on a different network to test it out :/ (Big Ma).  At least we still have callback and the ability to use rotaries here ;p .

Long story short - all fixed and working now :) .  Thanks again for all the help — this has always been an amazing group ^^ !  Elmers as you all would be in the ham radio world ^_^ .

A quick history on LT&T… they were one of the first companies to use the Strowger Dial, I believe the first to have a phone book — called the “Secret Service” and claims to be the first to have a 911 system, although there was one other company that may have beaten LT&T by a couple of days on that… there’s still debate ;p .  LT&T was quite ahead of its time, actually :) .

Here’s a short video about the company -- I may have had a hand in making it… maybe ;p :...

https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/series-media/nebraska-stories-video/season-10-video-15886/final-call-for-lincoln-telephone-50007854/

Ah how I miss the company — now we’re stuck with Windstream :( .

Anywho, thanks again for everyone ^_^ .   Cheers ^^ !!!

(the support line for this call blocker — the guy I was talking to over the period of two days was… erm, interesting… he was a bit argumentative on a lot of things - including on callback... basically almost called be a liar -- but as I had tried explaining to him multiple times, we here are on a former independent exchange, so yes - Big Ma may not have had it, but we still do….. his reply back after realizing was that we must be on some old equipment through the exchange… hahah - all the better for me then ;p ~)

> On Jul 31, 2021, at 4:42 pm, John W9DDD <w9ddd at tapr.org> wrote:
> 
> I may have that Panasonic .  I'll have check, 308 kinda rang a bell. For some reason I was thinking about looking for it a week ago.
> 
> John, W9DDD
> 
> 
> On Jul 30, 2021, at 12:33 PM, Cory Heisterkamp <coryheisterkamp at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> One other option would be to pick up an old Panasonic Easa-Phone PBX, such as the 308. It converts pulse to touchtone instantaneously, has generous ring current for the old mechanical ringers, and allows you to call between other sets in the house if connected to separate ports. No modification to the phones are necessary, and it can be hidden out of sight. I have ours connected to an OOMA VOIP box over WiFi and it works pretty well. -C
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jul 30, 2021, at 9:51 AM, john at toebes.com wrote:
>>> 
>>> You can also look at the Rototone which I converted my Western Electric 500 so that in addition to generating touch tones, it also adds speed dials and codes for * # and last number redial.
>>> https://www.oldphoneworks.com/rotatone-pulse-to-tone-converter.html
>>>  
>>> While on the subject of connecting to Asterisk, has anyone found a decent FXO port  to work with it?  I’ve seen the combo Grandstream boxes with the FXO port (I already have one with two FXS ports).  There used to be a Piranha USB-FXO adapter and the Sangoma USBfxo, but they no longer seems to be available…
>>>  
>>>   ● John Toebes
>>>   ● 919-622-2041
>>>  
>>> From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net <greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Jeffrey Angus
>>> Sent: Friday, July 30, 2021 4:18 AM
>>> To: GREENKEYS BULLETIN BOARD <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
>>> Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] O/T - 24v to 48v POTS Telco converter for added ring?
>>>  
>>> That's because your call blocker doesn't comply to phone company standards.
>>> To get your POTS (analog) phone to work with it, get a Dial Gizmo.
>>> DialGizmo - Pulse to Tone converter for VoIP lines changes decadec dialling to touch tone
>>>  
>>> 
>>>  
>>> It's what I use between my Asterisk PBX and my '50s vintage Bell wall phone.
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> "I am a river to my people."
>>> Jeff-1.0
>>> WA6FWI
>>> www.foxsmercantile.com
>>>  
>>>  
>>> On Friday, July 30, 2021, 02:38:04 AM CDT, E. <hanyou at xsmail.com> wrote: 
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> Hey all you Telco guys - need some help!  So I’ve just bought a call blocker for my POTS.  Normally at my deck, I have an Automatic Electric model 80 (rotary) here and it has always worked great on my phone line.  Hooked it up today to the phone blocker and welp, the bell won’t ring and it won’t really dial out.  Measured voltage on the phone side of the call blocker and it measures 24v, unlike the 48v going in :/ .  Question… would the unit in the link below be the cure-all to this low voltage blues?:
>>>  
>>> https://vikingelectronics.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/product_manual/TBB-1B.pdf
>>>  
>>> Really want to run the phone through the call blocker as opposed to going around it, since there’s added benefits(tm).
>>>  
>>> Thanks to anyone who might know and be able to help out on this :) .
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