Does anyone have any ideas on how to extend the usable distance of a Panasonic door phone to a KXTDA phone system WITHOUT increasing wire guage? I've got a few 1200-1400 runs to deal with. We've heard degradation of performance after 800 feet on CAT5. I was thinking of trying to find some load coils like the ones used in a POTS circuit by a telco. Ideas?

Sorry, I can honestly say it's never come up before...

One alternative we recommend for extreme runs is using Viking door boxes and controllers.

As have I. Thanks for reading though.

Thought about Viking but hadn't bothered looking. Do these work with KXTDA (i.e. can connect to doorphone ports on PBX)? Or do they only work with their controllers?

The performance at distance will increase with the awg of the cable. The distances should be in the manual and I don't have one handy at the moment so here is a link to one;

[Link: wedophones.com]

The Viking essentially acts as an unused co. It does not work through the proprietary door phone card.

Are you running one CAT5 for each doorbell? You can get effectively larger wire gauge with the same wiring by doubling up on the conductors...if it uses four wires. I don't remember. If it uses 2, you can connect all the pairs together for a much thicker apparent wire gauge.

Thanks, guys. I've got a series of outbuildings, all more than 1K feet from the PBX. Was looking to avoid increasing wire guage and was hoping to use other pairs of CAT5 for other purposes. BUT will probably relent and will in turn stick this extra cost up the client's a**.

Hey, is it true jacketed wire scrap can be sold for $.70/pound?