sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Mitel Telephones & Systems Dialing 9 to get out!

I may be in way over my head here but I'll give it a shot.

I have been dealing with phone problems for months now. Here is the story: Sadly, the phones at the motel got disconnected -change of management -it was just a mess here. Anyway, when service was restored only 2 of the six lines would get dial tone after pressing 9 to get out -that was only from the console too. I couldn't dial out from the phone set to accept all incoming calls, or any of the rooms. We could dial within the motel though. When the phone guy came to check it out he explained to me that when service was restored it went from loop to ground and explained the switches on the trunk cards, it was fixed within seconds. All that time we were able to receive incoming calls. It has only been fixed for about 2 or 3 weeks and just last evening we lost our ability to dial 9 to get an outside line again...this time we cannot even get an outside line from the main switch board. I guess you see that I am totally green and I am not even sure what system I have -The switchboard says mitel P.A.B.X. Console...and the cabinet unerneath it says Superswitch SX-100. I can see from reading some of the topics here that this is a very old system but it is all I have to work with right now. If it is possible for someone to offer me some help on this issue it would be GREATLY appreciated! If it would be WAY over my head I comepletely understand, it was worth a shot! Thanks, April

I forgot to mention as I had not really given it much thought. But I have an SX50 console that might be an option if needed. Thanks again, April

SX 50 console is not compatible with your system. I hate to tell you this but it sounds like the phone company finally caught up with themselves and got the trunks changed back to ground where they were originally in which case the switches on the tunk cards will need to be changed again. The other thing may be that you lost all dial tone for a while and the system busied out the trunk ports as people hit them and there was no dial tone. If this is the case you will have flashing red LEDs on the front of your trunk cards. You can unseat then reseat them

The SX-100 is an analog telephone PABX and the SX-50 is digital. The two consoles are incompatible.

Unless you live where I live (and you don't) the LEC (Local Exchange Carrier aka "Telephone Company") does not change from one type of trunk starting arrangement to another for no reason. In hotel/motel situations, it is recommended that you stick with ground start to help eliminate incoming and outgoing call collisions.

The problem you have now is that to check the ground start trunks, you must provide a temporary ground to the ring side of the trunk to get dial tone from the central office.

I would highly suggest you call your telephone service person back and have them check the trunks again. If the LEC arbitrarily changed your trunks from loop to ground start, they may have changed them back or done something else to cause the problem.

Rcaman

I flipped the switches on the trunck like the phone guy who came here showed me. It didn't make a difference though. When that was the problem before he simply flipped the switches and the problem was fixed. I don't know why the phone company would switch from loop to ground or vice versa, I just figured it had something to do with the phones being disconnected and then reconnected. I don't know...I just wanted to get this fixed...It took over a month to get a phone man in here last time. Is there anything else that I can try?
Thanks again,
April

Since you must verify the condition of the trunks, you may have to change the ground/loop switches per trunk as you test them.

This can get fairly complicated for someone that does not know how the system works. First, the trunk modules are located in slots. Those slots assign equipment numbers to the trunks. Since slot one is reserved for a line card, you could possibly have trunks located in slots 2 to 14. There are 8 positions per slot, however, trunk modules are only 4 per module. Slot one has equipment positions 001 through 008. Slot two begins with position 009 and ends with position 016. Slot Three starts with 017 and ends with 024, etc.

Trunks are assigned ONLY even equipment numbers. So, if slot two is a trunk module, the trunks would be 010, 012, 014, 016. There are only four trunks per module.

What you will be doing is verifying trunk status. First determine all the trunk numbers. Remember, they must be even numbered. Next, from the console, dial *20 (the trunk number, e.g. 010) and then *. If the trunk is not busy, you will receive dial tone. If you get a busy, the trunk is either busy because someone is talking on it or the system made it busy due to an error. Press Release. Repeat proceedure for each trunk in the system.

If you check all the trunks and they are all busy, then you may want to release the trunk busy. Dial *9, dial the trunk number then dial #. This will release the trunk. Press Release. Repeat process for all trunks that are in the system.

If you can't get dial tone doing the above proceedures, then it may be that the telephone company has suspended service. Without the proper test equipment, this is about as far as you can go. It may be worth the cost for you to ask the telephone company to visit the site and verify dial tone and what the trunk is (i.e. Loop or Ground Start.)

Rcaman

Thank you so much for your time and support Rcaman...it is greatly appreciated. It sounds pretty complicated when I read it but following your advice step by step might not be too bad. I will give it a go in a little while. Did I mention that I do have a dial tone when I pick up the phone -I just can't get a dial tone to dial out after pressing 9. Thanks again, It is interesting learning a little about it even if I can't fix it! April

Having internal dial tone tells you that the Mitel system is working. Your biggest problem is going to be localizing the problem without test equipment. It's like changing a tire on an automobile. You hear a bang, the car is making strange sounds and you determine a tire is flat. However, you don't have a jack or a tire iron. Now what?

Call AAA?

Rcaman

RCA has given you a good plan for testing.

As a word of advice:

You'll save yourself a major headache if you call out the guy who solved the problem for you last time.

Just as an additional thought... You may want to start setting aside money for a phone system upgrade within the next two or three years.

I truly appreciate all of you help and support...I will let you know what happens. Thanks, April