sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring ground on telephone wire

I was wondering... I looked at the telephone jack my dad bought for me to install today and it seems there are 3 slots to punch down in. My question is what is that third slot for? Last time I looked telephone cable only required two slots (red/green and yellow/black). I assume that third slot is for ground. Is that the way the world is headed; phone soon will require a ground, or what?

That's a 6 position jack.
Very common........lol.

Some phone lines STILL need a ground. ie: party lines and ground-start lines for example. Getting rarer every day, but....

some electronic key systems needed all three pairs and you can use the three pairs for SOHO KSU less Multi line phones to deliver three pots lines

(actually there are 6 "slots to punch down to not three )

thanks for the clarification. I thought that the two sides would be considered as line 1 then there would be line 2. I suppose thinking of it like this the mext pair would have to be line three. What are the situations that require a ground.... for instance what is a party line and can you explain ground-start line better than what I'VE FOUND ON THE INTERNET?

Search "ground start" in the Telephone Service category.

A party line was when more than one "party" shared a telephone line. The ringing was coded for more than 4 party.

In the independents, we didn't have no fancy ringin', and I barely remember party lines since I swear I was only 5 years old when I worked for the telco :-) We used to have a checking operator (CKO) that you passed your number to. Of course, it could be any number, as long as it matched the format. In fact, in the blizzard of '78 I worked as a DA and CKO operator for a couple of days, boring. Anyway, the advancement was 2-party lines. There, the ground was used in the phone (pre divestiture) to indicate which party was calling long distance. Voila, no CKO!

We had all bridged frequency ringing vs. divided ringing, so the ground didn't apply.

We were authorized for 1,2,4 and 8 party lines. They kept dropping the surcharge so one day I decided to sell "upgrades" to my rural customers.
I suggested that if they didn't upgrade, we were pooling lines and they would have a cross ring*.
I'm ashamed to say I sold about 10 upgrades that week.

*Cross ring in bridged ringing is like distincitve ring today. The single ring was for parties 1-5 and the double for 6-10. 3 or 4 parties in an 8-party line has to have the double ring.

Carl