phone strobe - call indicator

[Chris Curry]

Thanks, for the input everyone. I appreciate your time.
Chris

[Fred Voorhees]

I have used the one Vaughn mentioned, it worked great.

Richard

Rich, one question. Would this model work with an existing wall mounted phone? I don't want to do any additional wiring or "adapting". I just want to add a device to my existing phone if that is possible. I have wanted something like this for quite a while and if I can order one through my local Radio Shack, all the easier.

[Jack Hoying]

I have one of the Radio Shack bell-type ringers in my shop which is a lot easier to hear over shop noise than an electronic ringer, but is not painfully loud at other times.

I also have the Radio Shack ringer (two large dish type ringers). It's been in my shop where I work full time for 15 years or more. I can hear it over all the noise in the shop. It doesn't require any extra wiring, just a splitter so you can run a phone line to it.

Jack

[Steve Stube]

My wife has a Pet grooming shop and with cage dryers, blow dryers and the vacuum going did miss phone calls now and then (lost calls > lost appointments > lost income). I installed one of the strobe lights from Radio Shack on the phone line and she catches them all now plus I got a great big thank you. If you have separate rooms to your shop you may need more than one but the phone strobe is very bright and definitely will get your attention regardless of noise level.

[Jim Becker]

Rich, one question. Would this model work with an existing wall mounted phone?

Fred, you need to plug the strobe into a phone jack...hard to do with a wall phone due to the way it mounts. It's really a simple matter to add another jack near your wall phone...I have plenty of twisted pair available if you want to do that.

[Steve Stube]

Radio Shack has backer plates for some phones. If your wall phone is a modular (plug-in behind it), you unplug the phone pulg in the backer plate and replace the phone as before. The backer is about a half or three quarter inch thick and has two plug-in modular jacks in the bottom edge. One plug for the strobe and one for the answering machine IIRC.

[Steve Hooper]

Chris:

I too have the radio shack version. The one I bought allowed me to wire my own lights, so I put two widely spaced "large" lights in.

If nothinbg is running, I can hear the ringer. When running machingery, I can see one of the lights forom any part of the shop.

Steve

[Chris Curry]

Thanks again everyone for your input. I think what I would like to do is partition off the 'office area' so the computer and electronics will not get so dusty. I would put the phone in there and hang a strobe out in the shop. It's not far to go for the phone anyway. If there is equipment runnug in the shop (by someone else) or winding down, I could still hear on the phone. I too would hate to miss that call to dinner. We only get one chance at our house.
The sourcing aside, I was interested in what folks thought about the concept. I don't thingk it would be too much of a distraction and would never rush a cut or want to compromise saftey. I think I'll do it.
Thanks! Chris