REN booster circuit

[PerdioPal]

It seems that we are going to be forced to have fibre to the house, no more proper landline.  Phoning the mother in law requires good audio, she can't cope with the wife's mobile "quality" and I would like to keep a few proper phones connected.  The problem is that the telephone connector on fibre routers can just about cope with one 'phone so a REN booster is needed.  They used to be available but no longer, time to make one for myself.  So not to re-invent the wheel has anyone got a circuit of such a booster for inspiration on my design?   No point re-inventing the wheel.
(Or a booster someone is willing to sell)

[Mike Watterson]

A decent Dect phone seems fine and only one charger connects to the POTS port on the router. Some of the Fritz!boxes can be directly paired with Dect handsets.

Dect phones are very variable in quality, but ours seem fine.

The Router POTS port should cope with two or three decent phones as it's the elecromechanical bell coil that was the big load.

[PerdioPal]

"as it's the elecromechanical bell coil that was the big load", just what I want to use. Two Trimphones, a 706, non powered new type 'phone and a DECT set (which is awful as you say some are) for end of garden and "teas ready etc." to the workshop (intercom mode).

[ppppenguin]

The BT REN boosters seem to come up for sale occasionally: https://picclick.co.uk/BT-Telephone-Exte...11837.html
Whether you'll find one in the near future is another matter.

Some thoughts here: https://northcoastsynthesis.com/news/bui...g-booster/

[Mike Watterson]

Get a better Dect set. A triple or quad.

Disconnect ringing and add a loud beeper in any phone with significant REN loading. Or disconnect ringing in all and use quad DECT phones as ringers.

Oddly our DECT is a BT branded BT4500 I got maybe 15 years ago from a wholesaler as a test of the product. They said we could have our own branding. Both handsets are on a 3rd set of AAA NiMH cells! It's excellent, but I bet no-one makes it now.

[Mike Watterson]

Some thoughts here: https://northcoastsynthesis.com/news/bui...g-booster/

and the electrical interface for telephone instruments hasn't changed in decades.

Apart from tone dialling, not much in over 100 years!
Mysteriously some cable and fibre system will even still work with a rotary dial, or the mad pushbutton phones for ancient exchanges that even had a pulse/tone switch, in pulse mode.

With practice and a suitably reponsive on/off hook switch for the handset it used to be possible to dial a number by tapping. Some places (like digs) had a lock on the dial to stop outgoing calls.

[CambridgeWorks]

Several years now we have had one Panasonic base, 2 other chargers with dect around the house plus another dect usually at the bottom of the stairs.
These are all Panasonic, last pair bought on Facebook locally and easily programmed into our system with info available online.
Works well into my fttp 150/150Mbps hub telephone port.
Nice clear audio as well
Rob

[ppppenguin]

I've used Panasonic DECT phones for many years. They work very well indeed with good audio quality. But we've been using the landline less and less, most calls are spam. We've now got a SOGEA line so the Panasonics have been put away until we might need them to use with a VOIP adaptor.

It feels quite strange to be without a landline. From SPEedwell 7579 of my childhood through to the now defunct 020 8343 8121 that I inherited as 0181 343 8121 when I bought my present house in 1998. Ruth and I have mobiles on two different physical networks so we stand a fair chance of making emergency calls even if something goes badly wrong.