Telephone In Shop

[bookman51]

I had a telephone line run to my shop. Put a phone in. It rings when someone calls me but I cannot talk on it or call out. Any easy solutions? I would guess wired wrong, but what should I look for.

Thanks in advance

Bookman

 

[BillK]

Sounds like it is hooked up incorrectly

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/phone_wiring.html

There are other similar pages. Google "telephone wiring"

 

[Mr_fixit]

it's pretty simple there's only 2 wires. Even if you hook up a phone backwards it will still work corrrectly. ....Unless it's a really old phone, like an old rotary type...or aroungd the time when rotary ones were getting replaced by touch tone.. Could be the 4 wire handset cord that might go between the base & the handset or a bad phone.

 

[Identaltech]

simple things first.
will the phone work in another jack.
do your other phones work and just that jack dos'nt
did you pay the phone bill?
check billk's link above for how to wire the jack
note color codes changed check for which one your home is using

 

[Terry Kennedy]

I had a telephone line run to my shop. Put a phone in. It rings when someone calls me but I cannot talk on it or call out. Any easy solutions? I would guess wired wrong, but what should I look for.

If it is an older phone with a non-detachable cord (non-modular), the best guess is that you have the yellow wire and one of either red or green hooked up. To talk, you want red and green. For ring, connect yellow with red or yellow with green. Many old sets came from WECO set up for 2-party service with ground ring. Even after they stopped doing that, lots of people (including telco employees who did "favors" for friends) rewired the ringer that way because the telco used to count the ringers to determine how many phones you had hooked up (all phones were leased and an unauthorized phone was "cheating" the telco).

If it is a newer phone, particularly a "cheapie chirper" (a throwaway phone given away free with a magazine subscription, etc.) I'd suspect a poor connection (high resistance) somewhere along the cable which passes the ring (high voltage, low current) but not talk battery (low voltage, higher current).

 

[Torque1st]

If it is an old phone it could have polarity guard set on it. With polarity guard the polarity DOES matter.

 

[nadogail]

Assuming you have a modular (Plug In) telephone, a Telephone Line Tester is only about $10 at Home Depot. A tester will tell you if the line is wired correctly, (light comes on) Green is Good, Red is reversed polarity. No light coming on means that station battery is not being seen by the telephone.

 

[bookman51]

It is a new phone (or relatively new cordless) and works in the house, and the telephone bill is paid. I will look for a telephone line tester. From time to time were have telephone problems in the house. I would guess (as someone mentioned) a poor connection (high resistance) somewhere along the cable. I do get a buzzing sound on the phone.

Thanks

Bookman

 

[Kevin54]

It is a new phone (or relatively new cordless) and works in the house, and the telephone bill is paid. I will look for a telephone line tester. From time to time were have telephone problems in the house. I would guess (as someone mentioned) a poor connection (high resistance) somewhere along the cable. I do get a buzzing sound on the phone.

Thanks

Bookman

It doesn't sound like it is wired up correctly. Pull the cover off of one of the existing phones in the house and check that wiring. Your phone in the garage should wire the same. Also can you check where the garage extension is coming from at the house to double check that wiring connection? You should have extra wires in the garage run, so you may want to switch two wires at the garage/house connection then use the same color code at your garage. It's hard to rewire something over the internet, but I think you get what I am talking about. If the house/garage connection is red/black and your garage connection is red/black, then swap both ends out for maybe yellow/green wires but put them on the correct terminals as the red/black was.

 

[KCCHIEFS09]

was new line to shop run from existing DMARC (your phone box )at house and did they mount another DMARC at shop?If so check the new drop they ran to shop whether it be aerial (if old type aerial "2 conductor" the side with raised ridge on it is the ring)or buried to see what color code they used at house and that should be red/green or blue/white but what ever color is terminated at lugs at house should be terminated at new DMARC lugs in new box.The DMARC at shop will then have a house wire attached to lugs in box if red/green/yellow/black house wire they should have used the red/green or if the house is a blue/white orange/white green/white brown/white they should have used the blue white (if other colors were used just use those)that in turn goes to a RJ-11 type Jack so whatever they used in the house wire needs to be attached to the red/green inside of RJ-11 Jack which you plug your phones line into

 

[krooser]

look for a cell phone....

 

[2LTim]

Guys, guys, guys. Stop over thinking this. The most current ever required by a phone is ringing. To talk doesn't take much at all, no matter how old or new the device is. This pretty much rules out a high resistance connection.
If it rings but you can't talk (from the OP, I get the impression it stops ringing when he attempts to answer) he probably has a grounded wire somewhere between the house and the garage.