atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Telrad Telephones & Systems Broken Phone extension

I am the new technology coordinator at a small school district. I am fine with the computer systems and the newer phone system at the high school, but I also have to support the older system at the middle and grade schools and I am finding myself a little out of my depth. My current problem is I cannot get a dial tone or any service for our maintanence person. His office is in the bus garage, and we have an underground line running the 50ft or so from the middle school to the bus garage. When you plug the phone in the speakerphone light comes on and blinks briefly about once every two seconds or so. We have tried swapping out phones and using a toner I know you can get signal from the bus garage to the junction box where it comes into the middle school. My next step will be to cut the line there and put in a mdoular jack and plug, so I can test the phone to that point, but I'm not really confident in that because if there were a problem with the line it seems like nothing would happen at the phone at all; the blinking speakerphone light seems to nix that. Anyone have an idea what to do next?

Your set is (out of sync) which is a wiring problem. Is the system set up as dual port? At any rate check your wiring and if it's a paired port setup you will need to check the paired port as well.

I was told that it is a paired setup when I started, and that it basically means if I unplug one phone, and this phone happens to be the 'master', then it's pair won't work until the master is plugged in again and it also been has to be unplugged/plugged back in. So maybe I need to find where the master for this phone is and make sure it's hooked up correctly? Or is it something else? It seems odd that even in a paired system a phone all by itself in the bus garage would be setup to be dependant on another one.

That is incorrect, when you set the system up as a dual port they use the same port but have different DN's that work independently . However if you have a wiring problem on one of them it will affect the paired port and cause you problems. I would check both station's wiring and I'm sure you will find a problem on one of them.

[This message has been edited by dtmf (edited August 02, 2004).]

Do you have the PCP Programmer to look at the system programming and to find out what type phone that goes in the bus garage?
Also your toner only does 1 pair the older Telrad phones are 2 pair.

Just change the pairs by flipping the wires on the jack. flip the wire on the black to the yellow and the yellow to the black (there usally the white orange and orange white pair) leave the red and green alone. This should solve you problem. Make sure the phone is unpluged. And be careful not to touch the two wires togethier and you should be fine. If that don't work. Then try the other steps already posted.

It's a digital "4 button" phone (closer to 24, but they only count programmable). I think they still sell them, but barely. The wiring going to the phone is basically cat 5, with the extra two pairs taped off (put in before my time). I have no idea which other phone it's paired with.

I do know that the toner was only checking the one pair. I think I can set it to check the other, which I will do tomorrow or Wednesday. We definitely do not have a PCP programmer. I am the tech department for the entire district (3 schools, 1100 students, 100 staff, 500 computers (about 1/2 macs), 14 servers, ~125 phones (1/2 Cisco IP, 1/2 telrad)).

As for the paired phone, it has been out since just before school let out this summer (about three weeks before I started here). So if it looks like a wiring problem cutting line and putting a modular jack there may be a good idea after all- it would at least allow me to cut the problem in half. If a phone works at the junction box I know it's in the 2nd half, if it doesn't I know it's in the first or it's a problem with the other phone.

It still seems odd to me that it could be a problem with the line but the phone would still have power at all.

[This message has been edited by ccsd (edited August 02, 2004).]

The easiest way to resolve this it to go in the programming maint and look at the port you are on and the type of phone. Any port can be any type of phone but if its programmed for a type it has to have that type phone. Start your trouble shooting at the system termination. Remove the jumpers cut down a jack and plug the phone in there see if it works. If it doesn't change phones if that doesn't get a station card (ELD). If you need a remote programming kit you can find them at www.oneringtelecom.com if you need tech support by phone its there also. You will need to know the system type and the software level.

That phone has been there a couple years with no problems (though I was told it took some doing to get it working the first time), so I don't think it's programmed for the wrong type of phone, but I will go ahead put the jack in. I just wanted to ask around before I started cutting wires.

[This message has been edited by ccsd (edited August 03, 2004).]

If it's been in and working for a couple of years then I would strongly suspect the wiring going to that station, you could hook up a test jack at the port to be sure it's the cable or port, just pull the old cable off and punch down the test jack. That would tell you for sure.