I had two lines brought to the house. They used a new (at least to me) Telephone Network box and there are only red and green hook up. The one line will be just for voice and the other is for fax and 56k modem.
On a normal two pair you have red, green, yellow, and black. My question is (just talking about one line now) where do the yellow and black connect to?
Thanks ChrisW
They don't. They are for back-up or a second line on a four wire cable.
I agree with Colby. The Yellow/Black are usually for a second telephone line. Very occasionally they might get used if the Red/Green went faulty (but in that case it's likely the whole entrance cable is damaged). Also occasionally the Yellow/Black might be used for miscellaneous purposes. For example on two party telephone lines, which are rare these days it is necessary to have a ground wire to the telephone set for the ringer/bell. So the installer would use one of those to the part line telephone, for that. The Red/Green is normally the 'telephone pair' which goes back to the telephone exchange /switching centre on which you get dial tone, do your dialling (well it's usually touch-tone these days) and receive ringing when someone calls you. With private/indidvidual lines you don't need a ground connection to each phone set. But the telco will usually have a 'protector' either just inside or outside the house/building that is grounded for the purpose of shunting anything unauthorized voltages or minor lightning to ground for safety.
What was throwing me was that the old lines were party lines (which were stopped back in 1982) on the house and I knew that it was not just red and green.
Again thank you group for your help.
ChrisW
ChrisW wrote:
You would have had at minimum a yellow wire as well, which on some phones on a line acted as ringer returen.
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