Recommendation for ATA for ringing GPO bellsets.

[crestavega]

Hello
this must get asked a lot but
can anyone give any recomendations for a "current" VoIP ATA unit that will:

1. make a GPO bell set (such as the 706 & similar) ring properly, with the "traditional" UK cadence


2. accept loop-disconnect dialling

3. ideally is quite cheap, because I need a few!

I have a few old phones that I'd like to bring back into service, including an external bellset (so that you can hear the phone ring from the garden).

[dagskarlsen]

You may use a Grandstream HT802. some about UK setup: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/british-ata.41043/

It may cost less than another ATA to get a ring current generator, on your UK 3 wires after mastersocket it should be an easy solution. The Grandstream HT802 has 2 lines, but my experience by using several lines from grandstream or others is theat the other lines will ring once or twice after you hav goone off hook on one phone.

My experience is that each line of an ATA will ring 2 ringers without problems (Except for old German phones that draws extremely high ringer currens).

The Grandstream HT802 is the only ATA that I have got relible on reading rotary dials.

More about ring boosters: https://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=22865.0

[Nickthedentist]

The x-link works for me.

[crestavega]

Thanks all.
I guess I may need an adapter whip for the UK telephone connector also.

Please can you provide a link to the particular X-link in question?

anyone know anything about "Addpac AP200" which I appear to have acquired at some point? It seems to be a very early voip ATA which is only programmable via RS232 console, and I cannot find a decent manual online.
cant even work out how to reset the thing... it appears to have a Furuno configuration in it at the moment (plugging in to terminal reveals it reporting errors that it "cannot resolve host furuno.em-corp.com"

anyone know of a similarly cheap two-way voip - PTT radio gateway? might be quite fun to attempt to bring r/t in as a voip extension on my pbx

[dagskarlsen]

The x-link is a great way of connecting phones to your mobile, not sure if it may give you UK ring-cadence. Works with both rotary and push-button phones.

https://www.myxlink.com/ All the alternatives need an adapter. The most easy will be to make it by using a mastersocket.

[Graham G3ZVT]

The x-link is a great piece of kit by all accounts, but it links to a mobile via Bluetooth which I don't think is what you want.

We need more information.

You mention that you have an existing PBX (PBAX?), can you tell us exactly what you have and what you intend to do with an ATA.

My guess is you want to put ATAs between various extension ports of the PABX and the phones/bells You would need ATAs with both FXO and FXS ports like the Grandstream HT813 (the HT-802 has no FXO port).

Full disclosure:
I have lots of experience of doing this, but with equivalent Linksys/Sipura products not Grandstream, and Linksys/Sipura ATAs don't support LD dialling.

[crestavega]

We have a single paid-for SIP trunk, = a voip phone service. This is analogous to the old phone line.

instead of a telephone sitting at my end of the SIP trunk, I have my own PBX. this is a piece of software (freePBX) running on a Linux PC.

The PBX therefore can do all sorts of things (just like a PBX if days of yore), one of which is to service as many extensions as I wish.

I would like to use old telephone equipment on this voip system, and (correct me if Im wrong) I think I can do this simply by treating the ATA as the VOIP extension. The old analogue telephone equipment then hangs off the ATA.

ultimately it would be interesting to brng in a radio gateway ....

[Graham G3ZVT]

OK, we're largely on the same page, I have been running Asterisk/FreePBX on a Raspberry Pi for many years, and before that Asterisk/Trixbox on x86 hardware.
The HT802 should be ideal, not least because each unit has two independent FXS ports, thus supporting two extensions.
The pulse dialling support is undocumented, and was added by a request to Grandstream by a member of this Forum, although they expect the Bell System's 60% break and 40% make ratio rather than our 66:34, so sometimes you have to adjust the dial pulse contacts closer together to increase the dwell time for reliable dialling.

The PTT radio gateway sounds intriguing, but I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve, I mean an ordinary DECT phone is radio, and full duplex!

[julie_m]

I used a card in my Asterisk server that could take a mixture of FXO (to connect to an exchange line) and FXS (to connect to a phone) modules. That was capable of ringing a GPO 746, understood pulse dialling (even for menu driven stuff!) and the ringing cadence can be configured.

It was a clone of a Digium (now Sangoma) card.

[dagskarlsen]

Surprisingly, the HT 802 has accepted all my rotary dials with a dial speed between 9.? and 12 pps, Even with a make-break ratio of 50/50. I have not measured the ratio on my British phone, but it works. I do have a Freepbx too, most for learning, but I am not to happy with it. Still you may e.g. call and get the Norwegian time (in English) at sipbroker *011170 170 was the old Norwegian telephone clock.

[crestavega]

Originally Posted by Graham G3ZVT

I have been running Asterisk/FreePBX on a Raspberry Pi for many years,

interesting. I think I need to "downsize" my linux PC box to this for reasons of space & economy. Which version of Linux are you using for this?

Originally Posted by Graham G3ZVT

The PTT radio gateway sounds intriguing, but I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve, I mean an ordinary DECT phone is radio, and full duplex!

Im not sure either really. I guess I want an extension that goes to "radio" then VOX-operated PTT, using a simplex radio channel. or even a split for the repeater
start with 2m
recvr part of it can read in DTMF codes off-the-air in order to dial out.
what could possibly go wrong?
definitely a vanity hobby project for no practical purpose. fortunately I don't think there is any such thing as a ROIP gateway for £30 so the local airwaves are probably safe for the time being.

Ive ordered a HT802 anyway so we'll see. amazing that Grandstream modded a product in response to forum user demand. are Grandstream anything to do with Grandstand that used to brand pocket LCD games, CB-radios, etc etc.?

[crestavega]

I think I had in mind the Norwegian coastal radiotelephone service which used to exist on certain marine vhf channels. cant remermber how it worked now but you could basically have telephone calls over your boat's VHF.
maybe its still in existence.
I remember that tthere were little map-cards to stick by the radio so it was probably regional per channel

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by crestavega

interesting. I think I need to "downsize" my linux PC box to this for reasons of space & economy. Which version of Linux are you using for this?

Current Asterisk Version: 13.13.1
FreePBX 13.0.197.31
Both very old and long out of support, a consequence of it being run on a first generation Pi. Not too bothered as it does everything I want.
By the way, the SD card is only used for initial boot, everything runs off a 250GB hard drive.

Yes I remember the "Link Calls" in the Trawler Band (alway charged in Swiss Francs for some reason)
And the American MARS Hams doing overseas "Phone-Patch" for the US Navy.