Newbee and Electric Power Question

[Lewes2]

First off, I apologize if this is a duplicate.  i wrote this once but lost it, I think, while editing. 

As the subject notes, a newb here.  On a whim, I purchased for my wife's birthday an orange SC 500 dial phone which were popular when we got married.  It's in great condition and works fine.  (yeah, old!) 

So the bug bit, hard - been reading this forum and telephone ads - Purchased two more phones, a WE 302 (lots of info and spare parts out there) and a red WE 2500 for my office.

My wife just informed me that she wants a 202 - in her words, a Fred Astaire phone. 

My question:  We dropped Verizon and run the entire house phone circuit on VOIP Vonage - using their router. We also have a cordless system on the same circuit. 

If we keep adding phones on our system, do I need to "inject" additional power to the phone circuit in order to have all the ringers ring at them max volume?  Is there such an animal to inject power?  I know there is one for running a remote wired, wireless router. 

For one of the phones, I am running a GE add a line power line carrier.  Does this inject additional power into the circuit or does it simply provide connectivity. 

I hope I've explained this question well enough for someone to provide an answer. 

Thanks much and looking forward to participating in this forum.

Chuck

[paul-f]

Welcome Chuck!

You're among friends and fellow sufferers.

It's good that you have accepted you fate and recognize that the affliction is both progressive and virtually uncurable, and that you are already planning ahead for acquiring more phones.

At some point, it may make sense to separate the display, talking (use) and ringing functions of phones.  My family reached its limit on listening to multiple phones ringing and we now have a central ringer (WE 392) that can be heard throughout the house.  Ringers on the individual phones are switched off or disconnected.  Problem solved.

There are devices like the Viking RG-10A Ring Booster that do what you describe.  Perhaps others have experience with them and Vonage.

We rotate the phones that are connected, and keep others either on display or boxed in storage.  You'll find stories of how others use their phones elsewhere on the forum.

[Lewes2]

Hi Paul - thanks for the warm welcome and the info on the Viking.  I'll tuck that nugget away for when and if it becomes necessary.

Received the 1941 302 yesterday I purchased off ebay.  My wife is totally enamored with it.  Brings back memories of her childhood growing up in old house built in the 1890s.  In fact, she likes it better than her Orange 2500.  She complained that the cordless phones are drowning out the cool ringers of the old phones.  We'll have to fix that!

I have questions regarding the 302 which I'll ask in a separate thread.

Chuck

[HarrySmith]

Hi Chuck! Welcome to the asylum!
We are all victims of Phonitis so it is good you have already resigned yourself to it!
Paul is correct, you & your family are probably not going to want all those ringers going off at the same time! You may want to consider a Panasonic PBX to use with them. Besides making them all useable with the pulse dialing you can program it to change how & when they ring. A search here for Panasonic will pull up a lot of info.

[Dan/Panther]

Welcome Chuck;
You'll enjoy it here. Never met a better bunch of sick, addicted people in my life.
D/P

[Lewes2]

Thanks Dan and Harry for the warm welcome.  It's nice to be among warm, friendly people with a shared interest.  (Obsession?)   I like and value forums - when I was rehabilitating an old 1994 Jeep, the Jeep forum was like a million page technical manual.  So much knowledge!

I've always had an affinity for electronic things growing up with my Dad who was a Ham.  I was the official "holder of the wire" as he was soldering.  His thing was converting old WWII aircraft radio equipment, which if I recall, operated at 400 cycles, to 60 cycles.  This was back in the early 50s when he was stationed at Sandia Base. 

Enough! 

I have several WE 302 questions which I'll post separately.

Thanks again!

chuck

[andre_janew]

I recently purchased a Western Electric Trans 2012A.  I had it hooked up to a rotary phone and when I picked up the handset I got a loud buzzing sound.  This transformer has, according to what is written on it, an output of 6 to 8 volts.  I'm not sure what it was used for, but I don't think it was for testing telephones.  If it were, I would have heard normal dial tone instead of a buzzing sound.  By the way, the phone is fine and I didn't harm it!

[poplar1]

It can be used for the lamp in a Princess or older Trimline. The buzz you are hearing is Alternating Current, which  isn't suitable for talking.