GE 916 Wireless Phone Jack System ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I had a visit from our housing management regarding phone extensions. Many units in our housing complex do not have phone extensions upstairs, and plans are being made to install these extensions. One candidate is the traditional wiring, and the other is the GE 916 wireless phone jack system. It is rather cheap - retailing at $80 (additional extensions are $50), and claims compatibility with answering machines, cordless phones, modems, fax, RCA DSS Receiver (what does this have to do with the phone system?). The limitations mentioned are that modems are limited to 14.4 Kbps, and it will not work with caller-ID units. What follows is a description of the unit, and how it works, summarized from their literature.

A. The system includes a base unit and an extension unit that plug into a regular two-pin electrical socket. The base unit has two telephone jacks - one to connect it to the wall jack, and the other to the phone. The extension unit has a single jack, to which we can attach any telephone, or related device. How it works: Communication with the base is established using FM frequencies transmitted over the electrical wiring in the home -- this clearly does not use typical cordless technology. At most one extension may be used at a time. For conferencing, the base unit and one extension may be used. There are facilities for transferring between extensions, and if one extension is in use, the others give a busy indication. Security: If a neighbor uses a wireless phone jack, there could be some interference like static or a background noise. Each unit has a security code button. First, press the security button on the base unit, and then, within five seconds on the extension unit, and a light flashes once if a compatible security code can be established. This may be repeated until a compatible code is found. In general, it seems cheaper and more versatile than an ordinary phone jack, with some limitations. The main concerns here are of privacy. I plan to visit my neighbor to see if they can pick up my dial tone using my extension unit plugged in their house. Another wireless jack unit is also being acquired for my neighbor, so we can see if there is any interference. The idea is similar to "carrier current" radio, however there's lots of harmonics and they don't stay in the wires apparently. The harmonics are also modulated so someone with the right kind of receiver close enough could listen in. I saw one article on the GE "wireless phone extension" interference in a recent CQ magazine. One carrier is at 3.03 MHz (so there could be harmonics a 6.06, 9.09, 12.12, 15.15, 18.18, 21.21 (i think that's the frequency that the article author first detected the "birdie" from the unit ...) etc. There's probably more to this.

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