Partner phones and Alarm system

[clandunn]

I have a partner system installed in a local charity office (posted before about phones not ringing for those who frequent this forum ;-)

anyway.. they have finally decided that they want to have the Partner Phones hooked up and in place permanently.
Right now, the phone lines come out of the Cable co. box and go to a 66 punch down block. They have 3 lines (2 phone and 1 for dedicated fax),
the Alarm system is set to use line 2 and the fax line. The alarm is supposed to be able to take the line over if someone is talking on it, or a fax coming through.
My main point in posting here is to see if there is something I need to do in hooking up the Partner to ensure that the Alarm still has access to the lines no matter what.

should I leave the punch down in place:
line 1 --> partner
line 2 --> 66 --> Alarm
|----> Partner
line 3 --> 66 --> Alarm
|---> FAX

or would it be better to put the alarm on a port on the Partner and give it "priority" on that line?

thanks!

 

[TouchToneTommy]

NEVER use a single line extension for an alarm. If the phone system dies, or you have a power failure, the alarm (which has a gel cell battery to keep it running) will not have dial tone to contact the monitoring center. Keep the connections as is, from the phone company to the alarm input, from the alarm output to the phone system CO line port.

 

[clandunn]

Tommy:
thanks! That's kind of what I thought, but wasn't sure if setup that way, the alarm would still be able to 'take over' the line if it needed to call out.
The wiring for the alarm was done by someone else, and of course, nothing well labeled..
time to get out the sharpie/labeler.


cheers!