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From: doug@letni.uucp (Doug Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers
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Date: 28 Sep 89 16:59:02 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 422, message 1 of 12

In article  Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup.
portal.com writes:

>Several of us got tired of this and wired up a neon flasher. It's
>quite easy to make: You get a standard neon bulb (NE-2?) and a 10K
>resistor. Solder the resistor in line (not across) with the neon bulb.
>Remove the eraser from a Jet Eraser (or use a pen casing) and mount
>the bulb in the casing. Run the wiring to your phone tip and ring
>lines. When the phone rings, the neon light flashes. It does not
>interfere with the operation of the phone. Note that this only works
>with traditional phone systems. It probably will not work with the new
>electronic systems.

>Now when the phone rings, we look and see who's phone is flashing. Not
>a perfect solution, but better than before....

Good idea, but not exactly FCC spec ;-)  I have a commercial
product from Radio Shack called the "Phone Flasher" it's basically
the same thing as what you described only it's a real live
consumer product. Cost was 7.95 a year or so ago.  I have also
seen these little critters in Target so I suspect that they are
pretty widespread.

There are several variants of them as well one that has a Xenon lamp in it,
instead of Neon, another with a "tunable pitch" noise-maker in
it, and lastly one that provides you a 120VAC outlet that comes
on when the phone rings and goes off a few seconds after it stops.
I guess if the Neon or the Xenon version wasn't enough light you could
always connect that one to your Bat-Signal(tm).   Oh yeah,
I have one of those in my garage connected to a 12vdc transformer
attached to a car horn, never miss a call when making lots of racket
out there anymore ;-)

If its of interest I can dig up and post RS catalog numbers for
all of them.

Doug Davis/1030 Pleasant Valley Lane/Arlington/Texas/76015/817-467-3740
{sys1.tandy.com, motown!sys1, uiucuxc!sys1 lawnet, attctc, texbell} letni!doug
 "Everything in this article is a Jolt Cola hallucination and in no way
   exhibits any signs of being remotely connection to any reality."