Telphone Connection Mystery!

[Billy]

I can't get a connection from my 2nd phone line and I'm baffled after troubleshooting using several methods.

First, I went to the box outside and plugged in a phone tester tool and dialed a special number that identifies the number of the line. I successfully identified two lines and found that the red/green is the primary #, and the yellow/black was the secondary. I traced the one line that comes into the house from the outside box and this contains four colors. This one line splits into pairs into a screw block that splits the lines into two by using dual screw bolts that each pair is stranded into.

Finally, I installed a brand new line from the block that contains the yellow/black to a phone jack and threaded it to the jack's yellow/black - but still no dial tone.

Can you help tell me what I've missed?

[CMF]

If you installed the new line to a jack and used the yellow/black, you are not using the correct pair for the jack.Even though you are using the yellow/black pair from the block which is the second pair, the new jack needs to run on the first pair, which would be the red/green at the final destination. So, take the yellow/black wires and connect them to the red/green of the new jack. See if that takes care of it.

Did that make sense?

Maury Wylie, TX

[Reed]

snip

The final jack where you are going to plug in a standard phone should have the Y/B wires connected to the R/G terminals. The phone still expects to draw dial tone from pins 3&4 of a 6 position RJ-11 jack, regardless of what wires carried the signal into the house.

--reed

[Billy]

That did it!

yellow/black -

[Billy]

Thanks - that worked, but then what are the yellow/black jacks (and what are the four other colors) that are included in the jack that I'm using there for?

PS - I'm using a jack supplied with my alarm system and it has a larger cable than an RJ11. It almost seems larger than an RJ45 Ethernet connector.

yellow/black -

[Doug Miller]

They used to be used IIRC to power the ringer and lighted dials; now, all that stuff draws power from the same pair of wires that carry the signal.

The main use now is to carry two lines on a single cable, one line using red/green and the other line using yellow/black. You can buy splitters just about any place that sells telephone wiring equipment that plug into a single jack wired in this manner, and provide two jacks, one for each of the two lines. The splitter does nothing except connect the red/green pair in the wall jack to the red/green pair of one of the splitter jacks, and the yellow/black pair in the wall jack to the red/green pair of the other splitter jack.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

[Stephen Kurzban]

IIRC they were for the "Princess" line of Ma Bell phones some 30+ years ago.

[Stormin Mormon]

Back in the days of the big bulky four pin phone plugs, they sometimes would use the black and yellow to provide power for a lighted dial. There would be a transformer some where in the cellar.

[Stormin Mormon]

Neat! I typed about the same answer as Mr. Miller, before reading his.

Some telephones come with two lines -- the second, or line 2 is hooked to the yellow and black.

[Dave Mitton]

My alarm panel uses an RJ31-X jack and plug. It's 8 pins wide, and the jack has some spring shunts that are designed to allow the phone circuit to connect through the alarm system, but the alarm can be disconnected without disconnecting the house phones.

There is also a pair for the alarm to be able to detect that it's been unplugged.

I can transcribe the wiring info if you need it.

Dave.