by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
An audiologist explained:
I have a client who needs to use a neckloop at work, but his multi-line work phone is over 15 years old and doesn’t have a jack for his neckloop. Any suggestions?
You bet. I’m assuming that your client is using a passive neckloop such as the Williams Sound neckloop?
There may be other solutions, but this one will work with almost any desk phone (analog or digital) as long as it has a handset cord that unplugs from the phone base.
To make this solution work, you need two other pieces of equipment. First, you need a Mini-recorder control from Radio Shack (part no. 43-1237) which costs $19.99.
You unplug the handset cord from the base of the phone, and plug the mini-recorder control phone cord into the phone base instead. Then you plug the phone handset cord into the jack on the mini-recorder control. Set the switch on the mini-recorder control to “REC”. Now the phone is back to “normal” and can be used normally, but has the mini-recorder in-line ready for instant use as desired.
Second, you need a personal amplifier such as the PockeTalker. Plug the mini-recorder control’s 1/8″ plug into the MIC jack of the PockeTalker and the neckloop into the EAR jack.
Now, whenever you want to make or receive a phone call, you simply put the neckloop over your head, switch your hearing aids to t-coil mode, turn the PockeTalker on and set the volume to a comfortable level and lift the receiver.
You hear via your t-coils and neckloop. Thus you don’t have to hold the phone’s receiver up to your ear, but you do have to speak into the mouthpiece.
A good thing about this gizmo combination is that it uses standard parts. Thus it will work with almost any desk phone (digital or analog) as long as the handset cord can be unplugged from the base (really old phones don’t have this). Furthermore, since this gizmo combination is light and portable so you can use it almost any place when you need to hear on a phone. Cool, huh?
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