Fired Up The 616

[Fabius]

I bought a 616 system about a year ago off of eBay. We have moved into an apartment near our daughters for the winter and will head back to Michigan for the summer. So I thought it be a good time to use the 616.

The unit powered up and the light indicated that it was in day mode. For an incoming line I used Magic Jack (voip). I connected a couple of rotary phones, a WECO Princess and a WECO 302 as extensions. The system worked perfectly. Having read the information on the 616 here on the forum I knew what to expect as the system came up in default mode.
I have the apartment's inside wiring connected as an extension to get service to the bedroom.

The problems I have are external to the 616. Here's what I've encountered:

1) Magic Jack is not 100% reliable. Poor transmission quality occasionally.

2) Bad phone jack in the bedroom.

3) Desk top touch tone pay phone from the 1990s will not   dial out. I can dial 9, get the outgoing line but then the pay phone touch pad goes dead. I believe it's something with the pay phone programming.

4) Since I want to use the apartment's inside wiring I thought I'd go outside to the demark/nij (network interface jack) and open the cable pair back to the central office. I can't find the box. To make a long story short I find out that there is no telephone company cable run in this apartment complex. If you live here you can not get a traditional landline. The apartments were built about 3 years ago. The only phone service (other then if you buy Magic Jack type service) is from the cable company (Comcast). So I plan to call them and see if I can get some kind of a bundle deal.



Life is like a jar of jalapeno peppers. What you do today might burn your butt tomorrow

[dsk]

3) you are probably right, but you may dial 81 instead of 9, is that working?
4) you may hook up an ATA configure that by yourselves, or get help and find another internet telephony provider. 
I am sitting here in Norway, having a free New York number, and use a prepaid  solution at Callcentric. You may probably get better rates, but i cost me nothing to have, and reasonable rates, and I just pay $5 when I see I have nearly nothing on my account. The quality are great, and I call domestic telephones in Norway cheaper than on my landline. They even send out my cellphone number as ID so people do not realize I'm calling via a US provider.

dsk

[dsk]

I have one like this: http://tinyurl.com/qx576o2
dsk

[GusHerb]

If the phone wiring exists in the apartment I'm sure you can get the phone company to come out and install phone service for you even with no wiring up to the building.

If you just want VoIP the Obihai line of ATA's are really good and have a 5 REN # and can easily ring 2-3 500's at once no problem (provided you adjust the bias spring to the looser setting)

Callcentric is a good provider and easy to setup, there's another one I like and use too, voip.ms.

[Fabius]

If the phone wiring exists in the apartment I'm sure you can get the phone company to come out and install phone service for you even with no wiring up to the building.

If you just want VoIP the Obihai line of ATA's are really good and have a 5 REN # and can easily ring 2-3 500's at once no problem (provided you adjust the bias spring to the looser setting)

Callcentric is a good provider and easy to setup, there's another one I like and use too, voip.ms.

The apartment complex is quite large. The nearest pedestal is at least 200 yards away.

I'll check out those other voip providers. Thanks for the info.

[Fabius]

3) you are probably right, but you may dial 81 instead of 9, is that working?
4) you may hook up an ATA configure that by yourselves, or get help and find another internet telephony provider. 
I am sitting here in Norway, having a free New York number, and use a prepaid  solution at Callcentric. You may probably get better rates, but i cost me nothing to have, and reasonable rates, and I just pay $5 when I see I have nearly nothing on my account. The quality are great, and I call domestic telephones in Norway cheaper than on my landline. They even send out my cellphone number as ID so people do not realize I'm calling via a US provider.

dsk

I tried the 81. The payphone is stubborn. One of the problems is that the pay phone is programmed to only accept 7 digits. The only exceptions are 800 numbers and 911.

I will be checking out Callcentric.

Vi takker deg for forslagene.

[dsk]

Bare hyggelig!

I got this one about 1 year ago. Depending on what numbers I dial (first few digits) it adds the needed prefix.
Cant find this on on eBay just now.

dsk

[Fabius]

Bare hyggelig!

I got this one about 1 year ago. Depending on what numbers I dial (first few digits) it adds the needed prefix.
Cant find this on on eBay just now.

dsk

All I could find (at a low price) was this:

http://tinyurl.com/k4cg9av

But it has to be programed first for the number you want to call and can only be programmed for one number at a time. If you want to call a different number the unit has to be re-programmed.

[dsk]

Not sure, but it looks like this:
http://tinyurl.com/qjukymg
and this:
http://tinyurl.com/pprmu9s

dsk

[Fabius]

Everything is up and running as it should. Fixed the bad jack. Took the desk pay phone off the 616 and have it connected directly into the Magic Jack where it works as it should. I'll deal with it's programming later. The next phone to connect is a Ultratec Uniphone 1140 which is a telephone and TTY with digital readout. I just found it at Goodwill for $2.50 They sell on eBay for about $40.

[Fabius]

Since I had another Magic Jack I re-activated it ($35 plus tax for a year) and set up a second CO line into the 616. Tested it by making the first line busy and the calling out. It worked as it should with the calls going in and out on the second CO line. The strange thing is that for some reason my wife wasn't as excited about it as I was.

[DavePEI]

The strange thing is that for some reason my wife wasn't as excited about it as I was.

For some reason wives are like that. My cat is more interested in our new 1937 Bell LIU truck back than my wife is

Dave

[poplar1]

You can make a call on a particular line by dialing 8 + the line port number, for example 82 to dial out on the second line. You can also reverse the line inputs (the new line on 1 and the existing line on 2) in order to dial out on the new line as first choice. That will keep the main number open for incoming calls.

[Fabius]

You can make a call on a particular line by dialing 8 + the line port number, for example 82 to dial out on the second line. You can also reverse the line inputs (the new line on 1 and the existing line on 2) in order to dial out on the new line as first choice. That will keep the main number open for incoming calls.

Thanks. I just tested it and 82 works.

[Owain]

The strange thing is that for some reason my wife wasn't as excited about it as I was.

Perhaps mount an attractive wallphone in the kitchen so she can answer internal calls from you without being distracted from the cooker?