Anyone tried the Viking RG-10A Ring Booster?

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 29, 2005 Posts: 20

First post here, but I couldn't seem to find an answer by searching.

First, let me say that I understand the REN number and I've read the article posted at http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html.

When I first installed Vonage at home, I had 7 phones connected and I experienced a lot of line noise and buzzing during calls. I unplugged my fax machine and my computer/modem and that made everything crystal clear.

What I want to know is if anyone out there has had similar problems go away after installing a Viking RG-10A Ring Booster? I badly want Vonage for my office but am afraid that 8-10 phones will create a huge problem with call clarity, etc. Or does this device only enhance/boost the ring but not the actual signal of the line when you're actually talking?

FWIW, all of my phones are "modern."

Posts: 646 · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 4:26 pm Post subject:

Doesn't a ring booster only boost the ringer? Phones typically don't ring while you're talking on them, so I don't imagine having one would benefit your call clarity.

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 29, 2005 Posts: 20

Ok, you're right. I found this though:

http://www.vikingelectronics.com/products/view_product.php?pid=294

Supposedly boosts line signal by 16 volts. Any ideas?

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 4:33 pm Post subject:

Will you be running all 8 to 10 phones on a single line with no station to station calling? You may want to consider spending more money up front for a small PBX system.

I would have expected that your original problem was the actual wiring and not the additional devices, but I could be wrong. The only way to test would be to connect those devices up more directly to the adapter. I would additionally expect that although you might have more devices in an office setting you would have substantially less wiring than a normal house, but again, I could be wrong.

I believe the RG-10A is only going to boost the ring signal. I believe you need something like a VIKING TBB-1 to boost the actual line voltage during a call. It may also be controllable to some degree in your adapter.

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 29, 2005 Posts: 20

I know the PBX thing makes sense but truthfully we can't spend that much money even on a small system right now, which would run about $1,300 even if I did it myself.

In lieu of that, I decided to get about 8 to 10 of these:

http://telephones.att.com/telephones_ui/phone_store/dsp_product.cfm?itemID=1562&parent=514

You can connect up to 16 phones and it will handle up to 4 incoming lines. It basically functions like a PBX system as far as I can tell but should be extremely easy to set up and also rather inexpensive at about $80/phone.

Posts: 46 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jun 03, 2005 Posts: 46

Nope, it's just a 4 line phone that can handle 16 different intercom stations. Meaning that you can have 16 of these phones in your system and as long as line one is the same # on every phone they have the ability to intercom each other or all at the same time.
Ex-boss had me hook a couple up for him.

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 29, 2005 Posts: 20

Ok, I used the wrong term.

But if you set up your call hunt/rollovers and voice mails correctly, you've basically got a 4 line system and you can use up to 16 phones to place/answer calls, right?

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 29, 2005 Posts: 20

Ok, I went over everything again in my head and I'll just spring for a KSU or PBX system, I'll just add the voice mail module later.

I am still interestedin this line booster thing at home though. Does anyone out there know if it will cause damage to my Linksys RT31P2 though?

Thanks again!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: May 25, 2006 Posts: 1

I tried the Viking RG-10A ring booster as I needed to hook my VOIP line to a bunch of phones in my house. My main telephones consist of Nortel Venture 3-line EKTS (Electronic Key Telephone System) with common line-1 signaling. These are fairly sophisticated KSU-less phones that will intercom, share telephone directories, transfer calls, intercom, etc., all through a shared line 1. My wife and I each have one in our home offices, two bedrooms and the kitchen have this phone (5 in total). In addition we have three cordless phones (V-Tech 5.8GHz) and two POTS phones on the line. Each Venture phone has a rating of 0.68 REN, the cordless phones are 0.0 and the POTS are 1.0, giving me a total of 5.4 REN. I think this was a bit too much for any of the VOIP adapters to handle, especially when hooked to line one of the Venture phones. Caller ID wouldn't pass through the phones and the ring was very, very abbreviated. I added the Viking RG-10A booster and everything worked perfectly! Good strong rings and Caller ID that came through perfectly.

I purchased my RG-10A from www.thetwistergroup.com for $171.04 including shipping (yow!). Seems expensive but it made phones that originally cost over $500 apiece work like a champ.

Randy.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 14, 2007 Posts: 3

I have 3 lines...with a Uniden phone connected to the wall jack on the same floor where the TA is connected to the Analog jack in the wall. I get DIAL tones on all 3 phones...but I get bad voice wuality choppy voice...entither party can hear for 3-4 secs..and then works for sometime again repeats itself..
BAD...how canI resolve taht w/o spendin on the Booster $171....

Does anyone know a setting on the Motorola TA VT 2442...which can boost the signalon the analog line?