question about TT princess phone

[LoveOldPhones]

I have an old yellow princess phone that was in my family all its life.  we got it in 1963.
they were about to throw it out..... along with its yellow sister 2500.
i rescued them both and now they are mine.

before i moved down here to Texas.... the princess was working fine on a regular phone line.
NOW.... in my new place..... it DOESNT work on my regular phone line at all..... but works FINE on
magic jack.

it wont break the dial tone on the regular phone line..... but on MJ it works like a champ.
LOL ....  isnt that just a little too weird?
shouldnt it be the other way around?

does anyone have any explaination for this ?   i know nothing about anything technical in phones.

thanks.

[rdelius]

Your old princess set does not have polarity guard. Reverse the red and green line wires somewhere- (jack or inside the telephone to correct the trouble.
Robby

[LoveOldPhones]

Your old princess set does not have polarity guard. Reverse the red and green line wires somewhere- (jack or inside the telephone to correct the trouble.
Robby

well thats interesting..... is that why my other 2 princess phones wont break the dial tone?  either on the regular phone line or on magic jack?  one is 1979 the other is 1972.
is that what it is when it wont break the dial tone? polarity?

thanks

[Phonesrfun]

Yes, polarity is the most likely cause.

[LoveOldPhones]

Yes, polarity is the most likely cause.

ok thanks very much..... maybe i can sort this out on my own and get them to work.

[Weco355aman]

Most ata devices are reversed inside of ata.  You can use a non standard line cord to correct the problem or revers the red and green leads inside of telephone set.  Phil

[LoveOldPhones]

Most ata devices are reversed inside of ata.  You can use a non standard line cord to correct the problem or revers the red and green leads inside of telephone set.  Phil

thanks.... but whats an ata device?  lol
sorry.....  i'm just a chick with no technical experience at all.  havent got a clue about 99% of what
you guys talk about..
but.... if i can do this on my own .... then i can avoid sending my phones to someone to fix them.
i'll try opening up the phones and swap the wires.

that ....i think i can do.

[Phonesrfun]

An ATA is an Analog Terminal Adapter.

In the olden days, you got your phone line over a pair of wires that was hooked to a central office (CO) direct to your house.  (Overly simplified, but nearly true)

With Internet phones, like the cable companies provide and Vonage, Magic Jack, and a host of others, there is a special kind of router that goes between your intenet modem, and the analog telephone, such as a 500 or princess, etc.  The ATA is the device that supplies your phone with dial tone, the ringing voltage, and the DC voltage to operate.

Whether you get your phone from a CO or an ATA, there has to be a DC voltage for the analog phone to work.  The Touch tone dial relies on a DC voltage to generate the tones.   Earlier phones were connected by phone company installers who knew how to connect the wires the right way to be able to dial out.  If they were reversed, those guys knew to reverse the wires.

When the phone companies got deregulated, and people could buy and hook up their own phones, the suppliers of the phones put an extra device inside the phone called a polarity guard because they knew most customers did not want to understand or deal with polarity reversal issues.

However, there are still millions of legacy touch tone phones out there without polarity guards. 

Companies building ATA's the people who wire buildings don't really care about polarity.  That is why many times the touch tones of yesteryear don't work when first hooked up.  They have a 50/50 chance of working or not if they don't have a polarity guard.

[bwanna]

what he said.  btw, LOP, chicks can know stuff too! 

[Phonesrfun]

what he said.  btw, LOP, chicks can know stuff too! 

I will second that!  Sometimes I use the word "guys" such as "those guys knwe how to reverse the wires"....guys can be a kind of way of saying "Y'all" if I were a southerner.  I do that at work all the time, calling a group of people "you guys".  I hope I don't offend....

[bwanna]

ah, bill, you would never offend anyone. it doesn't bother me when a group of 99% males & 1% me is addressed as "guys". usually the speaker will then say "& donna or & "gal". honestly i would just as soon not be singled out. i do wonder, tho. if the group were all female, save one male. would the male be offended if the group was addressed as "gals"?   

[HarrySmith]

You can sort it out easily. Open up one that works, note position of red & green wires on L1 & L2, connect other phones the same.