Telephones - PANS

Telephones - PANS

Pretty Amazing New Stuff

Over the last 15-20 years there have been many different electronic PBX phone systems available on the market. Many of these have now reached the end of there "commercial" life having been superceeded by more modern systems with enhanced facilities, greater capacity and smaller physical size. A great many of these systems have found there way onto the secondhand market and can be found in the pages of "Exchange & Mart." Whilst no longer "up to spec" for todays offices they are more than suitable for use as a Home PBX or Intercom. Several brand new PBX's are also available with good facilities at quite reasonable prices. These smaller systems tend to be limited to a maximum capacity of 2 Lines and 8 extensions (2+8) but for around £300 offer the same functionality that would have cost £3000 or more only 5 or 10 years ago.

The basic requirements for installing a PBX are:-

A suitable location for mounting the CCU (Central Control Unit) also known as KSU (Key System Unit).
A powerpoint to supply the mains power for the system to operate.
A cable from the point at which the telephone line(s) enter the building to the CCU location.
Cables from each of the extension locations to the CCU location.
Documentation for the system.
There are many variations to the phone socket wiring and with some systems incorrect wiring can lead to permanent damage. Also many of the older systems are less than user friendly when it comes to programming, requiring various combinations of keypresses to enter the system data. Thankfully many of the newer systems use LCD displays on the phones to communicate with the installer offering the various options in plain English.