[PLUG-TALK] Landline telephone question

[Galen Seitz]

On 2/15/22 12:36, Rich Shepard wrote:
> Is there a reason why two telephones could not be connected to the same
> incoming line (using an RJ-11 splitter) as long as only one is used to
> answer or make calls?
> 
> My experiences over the years using corded handsets on landline phones has
> been less than satisfactory. The sound quality from the headphone connected
> to the cordless handset leaves much to be desired.
> 
> An inexpensive home office call center phone (keypad and headet) will leave
> both of my hands free to type or write while I'm on the phone. Yet, when 
> I'm
> not at my desk I'd prefer to use either the corded or cordless handsets 
> on a
> different phone.

Rich, you must be forgetting the olden days.  Not only is this possible, 
it is/was quite common.  Every phone jack in your house is wired in 
parallel.  There's nothing preventing you from connecting a phone to 
each jack.  Our house has six jacks, so six people could simultaneously 
participate in a call made or received to/from another number.

Way back when the phone monopoly was being ended, there was concern 
about non-Bell equipment being connected.  In particular, there was 
concern that the load from multiple ringers on a line would create 
problems.  Thus the creation of the ringer equivalence number (REN).

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringer_equivalence_number>

Of course when electronics replaced the physical ringer, the load on the 
line was greatly reduced.  If you look on the bottom of your phone, you 
will probably see something like REN: X.X.  My phone here has 0.1, which 
means its ringer load is one tenth of an old Western Electric model 500 
telephone.  More than likely the load is actually lower, but the REN 
only shows a single fractional digit.

galen
-- 
Galen Seitz
galens at seitzassoc.com