I hooked up a phone!

[deedubya3800]

My aunt and uncle have recently moved into a new house and they had been wanting me to find and install for them a old dial telephone once they got moved in. I showed them several pictures, and they picked out a Western Electric D1 with an E1 handset. So I found them one in really good shape and a 684BA subset to go with it. I also ordered cords from House of Telephones for it and they just came in, so I took it all down there yesterday.

They were very excited about it, and I went to work on it while my aunt cooked supper. Did you know there are 22 connections to make when wiring a handset, mount, and subset all together?! Wow. I got it all wired up, hooked it to the wall jack, and something was wrong.

They have their telephone, television, and Internet service through Charter. The wall jacks in the house are all hooked up to a cable that comes up through the floor and connects to the back of the modem. I did some checking and figured out that something is shorting out those jacks because with that cable connected, the modem shows a phone off the hook. Connecting the phone directly to the modem, everything worked fine. It even responds well to pulse dialing! I wasn't expecting that.

So they've got their phone, even though it's not mounted where they want it, but until the man from Charter can come back out and see what the problem is, it'll have to sit on the table near their modem.

[rp2813]

They picked a nice phone!  I presume it has the retrofitted F1 transmitter assembly, otherwise they're going to get grief from everybody they talk to on it.

Great troubleshooting work.  If they've got inside wiring coverage with Charter, it shouldn't cost them anything to have the problem corrected.

[Stephen Furley]

Yes, nice 'phone.  What's wrong with the original transmitters?  As far as I know I've never heard one, but they're strange looking things.  The F1 transmitters are readily and cheaply available if required, even unused ones, as are the holders required to fit them.

The F1 does seem to have been a very good transmitter for its day, and better than many later ones from other makers.

[deedubya3800]

Yes, they did! My aunt is very excited about it. I just called her the other day to see if Charter had be by yet, and they hadn't. She said the only other person who has called them is someone trying to sell them a home security system.

Oh, yes, both mine and theirs have F1 transmitters. I've never actually seen or held the older "bullet" type, but I hear nothing but bad things about their performance. They're nice to have from a historical perspective, though.

[AE_Collector]

Did they not have any phones in use throughout the house previously? Just one plugged directly into the modem? I know they just recently moved in so maybe they hadn't used the phone service until you got there with the "New" NOT phone.

Terry

[deedubya3800]

That's right. Until I brought them their 202, there wasn't a phone in the whole house aside from their mobiles. But I also took my 202 with me to help rule out problems.

[deedubya3800]

The house had had BellSouth service before they moved in, but they are currently with Charter, and despite their website safely stating that pulse dialing is not supported, it works perfectly in their house.

They were having a problem, though: It took several tech visits and my insistence that something in their house was shorted out, but they discovered that the extension to the room they use as their office was shorted and it was making the modem think the phone was off the hook at all times if it was hooked up to the wall jacks. Hooked directly to the modem, however, the 202 worked fine, both in and out.

I don't know if they got the jack working in there, but at least their phone works perfectly now. I'm about the only person who ever calls them on their home phone, aside from the occasional person trying to sell them something.

[Babybearjs]

Charter sounds like cable one here in Idaho. we also have the "Package" and I've had absolutely no problem with using dial phones on their service. the tech even said the cable modem was "reverse compatable" (rotary) and everything works and rings fine... we have an AE 187, WE 211, WE 354, WE 440, WE 444E and 2 ITT 2576 on the system... all the phones ring with no problem! Congrats on putting in the 202 for your parents... Mines in storage, I might even pull it out at a leter time....