How to properly wire 1980's rotary phone...

Hey Guys,

I got a 1980's rotary phone by Stromberg-Carlson. The phone cord coming out the base has 6 wires connected to spade forks. To make this phone ring, I'm using an XLINK bluetooth gateway. It needs a standard RJ11 plug. Since I don't have crimping tools, I found a mount with 6 conductors. So I simply match the colors from my vintage phone to this mount. Then from this mount, I connect to the Xlink.

Everything works fine, but I think there are two more features on this phone that I can't get working.

1. The knob you see in the front is for switching lines, I believe. Why is there no dial tone for line 2? Is it because I would need to split the wires? Or, is there a specific way I have to connect the wires?
2. The way the knob is transparent, I believe it should light up, but it does not.

The phone even comes with a schematic, but to me, it's basically hieroglyphics. LOL! For those who understand these schematics, please see if you can help me get the lighting to work, and understand how the 2nd line works. All I've done is match the colors of the spade forks to the colors on the mount. But perhaps it's not that straightforward? Thank you for your time.

 

Line 1 = tip - green and ring - red
Line 2 = tip - black and ring - yellow
Key - L1 only - white and blue. That you won't use.

Since you are only connecting it to a single line..... use red and green for line 1.
No polarity required when connecting to your adapter.

Lighting ? There is nothing on that phone to light up.

 

Thanks Pj! I figure there's probably not even any lighting feature. LOL! So how would I get the second dial tone? Connect the black and yellow to a separate mount?

 

There really isn't a second dial tone unless you have two separate phone lines.
If you want a dial tone in L1 and L2 position from one line...
Connect green & black and red & yellow.
One line will appear in both positions.

 

Ah, okay, so on the red terminal, I have both the red and yellow spade forks connected. And on the green terminal, I have both the green and black forks. I can now hear the dial tone for both lines. Thanks!

BTW, is there a danger of shorting anything when I trial and error by connecting different color combinations?

 

Ring and Tip is old names from the time of manual exchanges with plugs like the stereo headset plug.
On your, and most other phones the polarity does not matter at all. Ring is usually used with Red wire, and tip with green but again it does not matter. The 2 lines has bot to be connected to a line to bee working, so if you connect the 2 greens together, and the 2 red it will work on the same line.
You may find much! more info here: Classic Rotary Phones Forum - Index :-)

 

The XLINK box provides dialtone and signaling for both lines. The XLINK instructions should detail what is required for second line use.

 

You can connect two cell phones via the Xlink..... if you choose.
You would just need a standard 4 wire phone cord.
The four colors: red, green, yellow and black match directly.
Blue and white is still not used.

 

My X-link BT do only use Red and Green

 

Please check the link in the first post. Description says two phones/lines.
It shows an RJ-11 with four conductors used.

 

A 6 wire RJ12 plug will fit nicely into this jack in mt X-Link tat only connects the 2 in the center :-) Th first post shows wires and jacks, but not the jack of the X-Link. I just tried to share my own experience. I still hope that may help. Kanamit Newer X-Links may have some more functions, but I am not able to see that in the documentation on their home page.