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How to connect a landline phone to a car [1]

['Ethan Persoff']

Date: 2022-09-29

Even better: You can even take that same landline phone to the park . You can call someone on a picnic. It's even a land line phone that works on water . I mean it can go on a boat. You can take this phone anywhere. No radio required! Instructions below. Here's this week's audio :

This small peripheral (about 3 by 2 inches in size) allows for 5V to run off a USB-C jack. Connecting that USB 5V in to a portable USB power supply makes this portable. You plug your landline phone through the RJ11 connector marked PHONE. The 5V out is a nice feature, but does not need to be used in setting it up for use. This, along with a Bluetooth enabled cell phone will make any landline phone portable for car use.

The technology you'll be using to make your car phone is a product with a slightly "AS SEEN ON TV" vibe to it. But I've been working with it for about a month and now consider it one of the most well thought out devices I've encountered in over a decade. It's called Cell2Jack.

SOUND TOOL: There's also an audio application for bandpass filtering

An impressive low-fidelity recording technique can be found by using Cell2Jack to send audio through a vintage phone. Record with a Direct Connect Telephone Record Device kind of adapter. Shown above is the adapter connected to the phone via the phone cable. Plug the adapter's TS output jack into a recorder. The Cell2Jack is powered via USB. Here, it is plugged from a USB-C cable into a USB power adapter. The Cell2Jack powers the phone. The whole thing is connected to a cheap extension cord. It's exciting to think about sending audio through the aging components of the phone. The more feedback and RF distortion the better. This is a great vocal filter for narration or distorted singing. Try it out.

Older tech that did something similar: Telephone Line Simulators

Prior to finding Cell2Jack, with my goal to just bring life back to a phone with a working dial tone, I first fell in love with the idea of Telephone Line Simulators. You can find Telephone Line Simulators in use for causing a phone to ring in theater production, too. They are basically a power source connected to a landline phone with some communication pieces built into them. A lot of people like the Skutch Stuff. (That gives me an opportunity to write "Skutch Stuff") – For a long time, I was looking to get a RING-IT! which allows two phones to work together offline. I came very close to a RING-IT! but opted to not get one. And if you want to go top of the line, you can also look into the CELTONE stuff. Those are great boxes:

The CELTONE series is considered the top of the line in 1990s-2000s. If you needed one for a trade show, you could "Rent it for $150/month". Shown above is a TLS3 I picked up used/broken. Haven't looked into fixing it, but really like the ON/RING switch.

I should mention here that the history for how Telephone Line Simulators exist is pretty interesting: TRADE SHOWS! Have you ever been to a trade show in a convention center? How many landline connections do you think they have in that giant room? Maybe five? And how many of those can be used by booth renters? Probably none ! So: Can you imagine having a convention for phone products or Telemarketing gear? Telephone Line Simulators is how those salespersons powered their telephony equipment. This allowed a room of 500 phone based products to be shown in a trade show without any of them needing a working phone line. They'd each just need a telephone line simulator. Neat when you think about it.

So I was first really enamored in getting a Telephone Line Simulator. Cost becomes an issue when you're just wanting to use one to have a dial tone. All of the Telephone Line Simulators were above the $100 mark in terms of cost. High end ones cost $1500. I love a dial tone but couldn't consider anything above $50 to be justifiable. Listeners of this show might recall my dip into Phonal Tonal as an app. But none of them rang my bell so to speak (sorry for the pun). I wanted a Dial Tone on a landline phone. That was until I finally found the Cell2Jack.

In future episodes I plan to work more with Cell2Jack as a recording hub, too, as my old 1960's telephone has some really nicely unstable aged components and bandpass filtering, complete with artifacts and buzz. I'm still figuring out the best approach for this and will report back later with good apps that work well/filter nicely with this approach to sound design. Regards to Cell2Jack for such a smart ecologically intelligent product.

One final thing: In Memory to Rob Hordijk

As indicated in the parenthesis of our show title, this week's show is dedicated to Rob Hordijk. Mr Hordijk, who very sadly passed away this month at age 64 is/was widely regarded in the synthesizer community as a paragon of good ideas. An introduction can be found in the Rob Hordijk wiki, along with this incredible wealth of documentation he constructed over decades. Modular users would often travel to the Netherlands to pick up their own Hordijk systems. Be sure to look up the Benjolin, Rungler, and the Blippoo Box. We grieve his passing and thank him for all the wonderful sound and unpredictability! (Hordijk is perhaps best known outside of modular for his contributions to Nord) – A short film by Franz Schuier via Synthtopia:



SWWE #75: "Dial Tone Music" (Dedicated to Rob Hordijk)

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