From: srinivas@elements.rpal.rockwell.com (Sampath Srinivas)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: PHONE WITH ANSWERING M/C FOR INDIA
Date: 23 Nov 92 16:04:35
Organization: Rockwell International Palo Alto Lab
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Reply-To: srinivas@rpal.rockwell.com
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In-reply-to: txd6871@tesla.njit.edu's message of 23 Nov 92 20:53:23 GMT


   From: txd6871@tesla.njit.edu
   Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
   Date: 23 Nov 92 20:53:23 GMT
   Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology

   I am thinking of buying a speaker phone with answering m/c for
   India. As per as the phone goes, I understand that there is
   no problem for the change in the frequency, except that it
   gets heated up slightly.

Yes, the phone will work fine. Make sure it has a tone/pulse switch
coz you have only pulse dialing in India. 

Some additional info: Strictly speaking, connecting phones in parallel
is illegal in India.  Basically your second phone will load the line
(since the parallel impedance is much lower) more than Indian cable
specs allow.  Furthermore American phones are of lower impedance than
Indian phones and this compounds the problem.

Rememeber that the problem can be detected from the exchange by
measuring the impedance of your line. Sometimes a P & T dude may come
and check for parallel connections and disconnect them. If he comes
and disconnects them and and you reconnect them etc etc you are
setting yourself up to have your line disconnected. Its happened to
some friends of mine. The hassles they went through to get the line
back would make a good book.

I recommend that you set things up so that you can quickly remove all
traces of an extension, for eg take a disconnectable parallel tap off
the main junction box (the box where the conventional Indian phone is
connnected to the line coming into the house) -- if on occassion, your
telephone line behaves funny, disconnect your extension till it is
back to normal. This is what we have done in my house. 

Over all though, problems with parallel lines seem to be rare (i,e
doesnt happen every day).

   But for the answering m/c, which involves
   a motor, do you think that 50 hz, will create problem? Does anybody
   has an experience with an answering m/c in India ? 

The motor is not the problem -- since most ans m/cs work with DC
provided by a battery eliminator. But all answering machines don't
work equally reliably in India for reasons I am not sure of. I know
that a little Panasonic single Microcassette model works well - I took
it to India 2 months back. Its a standard model you get everywhere,
can't miss it -- costs about $40.  Problem is that msg length is
limited to 1 minute because of the microcassette design. In that sense
full size tape models are better and so you might want to look for
that kind of thing.

Panasonic phone-cum-ans-m/cs should presumably work in India too, if
an all-in-one is what you want. I heard from the net some months ago
that there are some brands that do NOT work in India and so you would
do well to play safe and take a Panasonic.

Look at the power input of the machine -- if it is some standard think
like 6/9/12V DC, 300 ma then you can just chuck the 110V AC battery
eliminator they give you and buy an equivalent eliminator for 220V in
India.  You *could* buy a 220/100 converter of course but the problem
is that they don't fit well in the wall sockets there (not to mention
the weight of the eliminator hanging off the back). You don't want a
machine which goes off everytime some one sweeps the corner with the
wall plug!

One argument against buying an Indian eliminator is the poor smoothing
quality -- you could get around that by buying a universal eliminator
over here in an Indian store -- these take 220/110V input and give
1.5/4/4.5/6/9/12V 500mA output with a variety of jacks! Cost about
$6.00 US in Singapore where I bought them.

Note that some answering machines that you see in stores here take
inputs like 15V AC -- the adaptor converts from 110V to 15V.  These
machines may indeed rely on the 50Hz freq in some way and are probably
well avoided.

   Also, I heard that there is a connection available from the 
   snap-in connector(available with the phones here)to the cable
   box available in India. By this we can avoid cutting of the cable 
   and separating the two wires for India use. Can anyone please
   highlight on that ? 

Basically what you need is a '2 cable to modular female' adaptor.
Yes, they are newly available in India -- made by Delton Cable and of
very good quality. However, I didnt exactly see them everywhere and so
you might play safe by buying 2-3 of these adaptors to take along.
Radioshack would have a variety of models. Its very straightforward,
connect the red and green lines coming from the adaptor to the red and
green or red and black lines on your Indian telephone line.

   Also is there special phones available for 220V, or it is the same 
   phone that is sold by the american stores.

Pretty much the same phones, from what I saw in Singapore. In
Singapore you get the same models/brands as here for a very good price
-- only difference is that they are conveniently universal
any-voltage-is-fine (i,e 220/110V) models. 

If you are going that way - try Muhammad Mustafa in Serangoon Plaza
(that info is enough for any Taxi driver to take you there).  The
prices in Singapore used to be a bargain, I am told.  Nowadays they
are good, though nothing great -- usually the prices match low Sale
prices here.

   If it is the same then no point in buying from an Indian store.
   American store prices are cheap. Only the adapter has to be bought
   for converting the voltage.

Like I said you can postpone buying the adaptor to India, but you
might play safe and take a 220/110 adaptor along. Make sure the
adaptor is rated for continous use (look at the label). If it is rated
for non-continous use but has a rated wattage of 50W or more then it
should be fine too since the machine takes next to no power.

Sam
--
---
 Sampath Srinivas                                 srinivas@rpal.rockwell.com
 Rockwell International Science Center, Palo Alto, CA         (415) 325-7174
Organization: Doctoral student, Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA