Mixing old with new

[Mark S]

I have several (5)vintage rotary phones and use them all.  I also have Comcast VoIP so I have Dialgizmos for the few I use to dial out.  I do miss the Caller ID feature of new phones, however.  If I'm watching TV or on the computer, I get the Caller ID, but if I'm not, I would like to see who is calling.  Has anyone successfully bought or set up a caller ID box that is inexpensive but effective that I may add to a few of my phones.  Nothing too elaborate as I would probably add only to 2 of them.
Thanks for your help!
Mark

[unbeldi]

Standard Caller*Id units still work fine even though they have come out of style.  They are frequently offered on eBay for a very little money, I have seen entire batches of them for next to nothing.  They were very popular as add-ons in the early days of CLID services when most telephones did not yet have built-in displays.

Sometimes, the callerid boxes invert the polarity of the line, because they often simply wire the two modular jacks in parallel, and then two modular cords connected have inverted polarity.   Some pulse-to-tone converters may be sensitive to that, and simply swapping the line cord conductors corrects the situation.

Some of these units also have memory functions, and it may be easy to recall telephone numbers previously called or accepted, so that it is not necessary to waste the time of rotary dialing.


I have at least the following models, at least those that I documented for myself, some are pictured below:
AT&T Call Manager 100
Bell Atlantic 950
Bell Atlantic Aastra VisionPlus Mini 5050
Bell Atlantic Call Identifier 940MF
Bell Atlantic CIDCO Model SA-60A-10
Bell Atlantic Model 710
Bell South CI-165

[Mark S]

Thanks for your quick and informative reply.  I will note the ones you have and see what's available.  Somei have seen  are very cheap but from China and I wanted to see who has one that they found reliable.
Mark

[unbeldi]

Some units, such as the AT&T Call Manager 100, not in the picture, have a message waiting feature that calls home to an 800 number every so often and at opportune times to fetch the status of a voicemail box.  Although an interesting feature, that can be used with your own Asterisk-based PBX system to signal any other condition as well by intercepting that call, it is clearly not desirable when directly connected to the telephone network.

[poplar1]

Some units, such as the AT&T Call Manager 100, not in the picture, have a message waiting feature that calls home to an 800 number every so often and at opportune times to fetch the status of a voicemail box.  Although an interesting feature, that can be used with your own Asterisk-based PBX system to signal any other condition as well by intercepting that call, it is clearly not desirable when directly connected to the telephone network.

I'm not familiar with that method for checking for new message status. Some older units go off-hook after every call, also at other  times, in order to "listen" for stutter dial tone, which indicates message(s) waiting. Newer units detect FSK signaling to activate or deactivate the MW lamp.

[unbeldi]

I'm not familiar with that method for checking for new message status. Some older units go off-hook after every call, also at other  times, in order to "listen" for stutter dial tone, which indicates message(s) waiting. Newer units detect FSK signaling to activate or deactivate the MW lamp.

Yes, stutter dial tone is available only on systems that have the voicemail system integrated with the Class 5 switch.  But with the availability of independent long-distance service by other providers than the local telco, they needed a system to check for messages on completely separated VM systems.   These units actually know two 800 numbers, one for checking MWI status, another for accessing the messages.

The MWI indicator on these units is set when the device dials the number for testing and receives ringing (aka ringback) indication. If no ringback signal is received the unit turns the MWI indicator off.

[kb3pxr]

Stutter Dial Tone Detection really isn't that good. I was playing with that this weekend. I literally had to take the phone off hook and put it back on hook for the stutter dial tone detector to actually pick up the indication. I hooked my answering machine back up after that, thankfully the initial problem I was troubleshooting turned out to be some sort of strange noise being caused by my fax and not the answering machine.

[Dan/Panther]

I have a Radioshack 200. Had it for just about forever., It works great. I think I paid under 10 bucks new.
D/P

[unbeldi]

Stutter Dial Tone Detection really isn't that good. I was playing with that this weekend. I literally had to take the phone off hook and put it back on hook for the stutter dial tone detector to actually pick up the indication. I hooked my answering machine back up after that, thankfully the initial problem I was troubleshooting turned out to be some sort of strange noise being caused by my fax and not the answering machine.

Well, that is the only way it works, because dial tone is only generated when the switch detects an off-hook condition, but never when it is on-hook.  Caller*ID boxes with message waiting indication usually take the line off-hook occasionally to check.