9V Busy Box

by Captain B

This easy to build box is my own creation: The 9 volt busy box. It's a variation on the original busy box, except a 9 volt battery is used to simulate off hook mode, thereby keeping all phones on that line off hook. The line will remain off hook until the 9v battery is removed from the line.

To build this, you'll need only a few things:

• One 9 volt battery
• 2 fully insulated alligator clips
• 1 phone line cord (Can be a short phone line cord, too).

How to build: You'll first need to modify the phone line cord by connecting the alligator clips to end of the red (ring, negative) and green (tip, positive) wires. My favorite way to go about this that I think is a bit of an easier alternative is to buy the screw terminal type alligator clips from Raddy Shack. It's pretty hard to go wrong on this, becuase they only sell one size that has the screw terminal on it. (But, you can buy them 2 ways- Pack of 10 not insulated. And, Pack of 4 with red and black colored insulation sleeves). The insulation is needed. Without it, you run the possibilty of getting an electric shock when you touch the alligator clips while connected to a phone line, or other electrical source.

The best way to go as far as a line cord goes is to get Rad Shack's short 5 1/4" modular line cord to spade lugs. That's their shortest line cord with spade lugs. (You can go with longer length, or, shorten an existing line cord you may already have if you like.). These modular to spade lug phone line cords have a modular plug on 1 end and, little metal U-shaped spade lugs on the other. Of course, since the color scheme of insulation sleeves are red and black, you'll need to remember that black represents green (tip). Otherwise, you could get the proper color insulation sleeves by buying a pack of various color jumper wires from Radio Hack.

The alligator clips are about the same size as the ones I mentioned, except the wires and sleeves come in 4 colors: red, black, yellow, and green. (Just like the standard 2 line home phone wiring color scheme). If you buy that, use the green colored insulation sleeve in place of black sleeve. It's really only a matter of color, that's all. Insulation always serves the same purpose anyway.

Now, take a wire cutter and completely cut off the yellow and black wires. Push the red colored wire's spade lug through the hole in the back (narrow) end of the red insulation sleeve, sliding it over the red wire completely. It can be a bit hard. But, have patience and take your time. Once you're done that, do the same with the green wire sliding it through the other (green or black) insulation sleeve.

Loosen the screw on 1 of the alligator clips, and attach the little spade lug onto the screw. Tighten the screw down snug, and slide the insulation sleeve over the alligator clip. (Not completely. Leave the metal jaws of the alligator clip sticking out a bit from the front end of the insulation sleeve). Follow the same proceedure for the other (green) wire. Now, onto how to use this: This is the easiest part. Attach the red alligator clip to the (-) negative terminal on the 9 volt battery.

Connect the green wire's alligator clip to the (+) positive terminal on the battery. Now, plug the other end of the phone line cord (the modular plug) into a working phone jack. All phones on that line will now stay off hook even when they're hung up. The one side effect is that the volume in the reciever speaker on the handset of all phones on the line may be lower. You can also connect up this box at a TNI or Telco can, too. Another variation would be to connect a phone jack to the end of a modular line cord, and connect red and green jumper cables with alligator clips on both ends between the battery and the red and green screw terminals inside the jack connected to the modular phone line cord.

Like with a lot of this stuff, there's more than 1 way to go about it.