Panasonic 616==Ringers and Call Waiting

[poplar1]

Most of us who have Panasonic 616 (KX-T 61610) key systems use them like PBXs with single line rotary and Touch-Tone phones...i.e., to dial a 2-digit code to reach another extension, to dial 9 for an outside line, or to answer an incoming outside call from any extension ("TAFAS" or "Trunk Answer From Any Station").

RINGERS:

There is a recommended limit of 6 "standard" phones per "group." This would mean a REN of 6.0 or six WE 500 phones per group. If you are using older ringers such as the 8A ringers in metal subsets, then these have a REN higher than 1.0 each, so fewer should be used at once.

The "group" refers to a set of extensions (ports) that ring together. For example,
Ext. 11, 15, 19 and 23 are a group
Ext. 12, 16, 20 and 24 are the 2nd group
Ext. 13, 17, 21 and 25 are the 3rd group
Ext. 14, 18, 22, and 26 are the 4th group.

So you might want to consider the recommended limits. I had always heard that you could have 2 standard phones per station port, but now I am questioning that. In any case, I'm sure most of us are well below the recommended 24 ringers per system (4 groups with 6 ringers each). My dog is already complaining (howling) when only 5 or 6 phones are ringing!

The Spec indicates "Ring Voltage....90 Vrms at 20 HZ depends on Ringing Load"

By the way, when the power is off, the 6 lines 1-6 are transferred to ports 11-16. If you have only one line, your "power fail" phone would be the one plugged into port 11.

EXTERNAL CALL WAITING:

If you have call waiting on your outside line, flash the hookswitch, you then get Panasonic dial tone, dial "0" to answer the waiting call. You can switch back to the first caller by repeating flash-(dial tone)-"0."