Search "wireless doorbells"

The little battery broadcaster goes out by the door. One or two receivers plug in somewhere in the house and work just like the old doorbells. Cheap, effective. Different volume levels and distance covered.

why did delivery people stop ringing the doorbell? I don’t expect them to hang around and chat, but it would be useful if they punch the bell just to let the people in the house know that something that happened out there.

anyway, since delivery people no longer use the bell and I don’t much care for people in general, I pretty much ignore the doorbell when it rings. The only exception I can think of is when someone has made an appointment to show up, like the piano tuner.

At my millennial children’s house, their doorbell was out of commission then missing for over a year. This did not bother them at all because people are expected to text or call when they arrive at the house.

The ignoring the doorbell system is particularly beneficial during election season. I haven’t spoken to a political canvaser for years.

Back in the day, you would call a person's house phone before going or not going to someone's house. You wouldn't show up unannounced and send a text from the driveway.

You wouldn't call a person's house before a certain time in the morning or after a certain time at night. People didn't have cellphone and if they hypothetically could have had one s/he wouldn't have been expected to be wearing it on a chain around her/ his neck.

Phone service was cheap and the landscape was littered with payphones. I don't how we survived.

In my town you could tap out the number with the hook and not pay for the call at a pay phone.

I remember party lines.

We didn't have one but our neighbor had one. You would pick up the phone to dial out and people would be having a conversation. Then you hang up on them.

I also remember my father quoting parts of phone conversations verbatim.

I forgave him for that a long ago.

Yep. we had party lines. It didn't seem that bad at the time because we didn't know any better. Interesting how it seems our privacy is so much less now than when party lines were common.

Isn't that the truth.

Apparently, even a few years ago, security security systems were on the market at a price point (7-10k?) that took video surveillance inside and outside the house and recorded sound outside of it.

Creepy IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
Phone service was cheap and the landscape was littered with payphones. I don't how we survived.

Unless you had to call long distance. I remember calling home from college out of state and needing pockets full of change for the local pay phone.

Ah, you had to call on weekends or after 9 p.m. or better yet 11 p.m.! Good times.

I don't remember but don't doubt payphones had different long distance rates.

I used to reverse the charges and remember getting an unpleasant wake up call (sic) when a short call was billed at $10 after deregulation.

Did I mention I loathed the deregulation of the phone company as a utility and do to this day? Well, there's that.

We didn't have a party line, but I knew people who did. I remember my mother saying that our phone rang with two long rings because the previous owners had been on a party line and that was their ring. I suppose other people on the line had different ring patters, so that you didn't pick up a call meant for somebody else.

Free unlimited long distance is one of the modern developments that has made me happiest. I live far from my family, but I can talk to them any time.

I lived in Hawaii for a about six months without a phone

There were portable phones at that time but it was before smartphones became ubiquitous.

People didn't expect you to be able to do anything and everything on the internet.

This was when portable phones had antennas.

There was a payphone on my street. I remember people being agast when told I didn't have a number where I could be reached. People still relied on telephones as such and apparently a person not having one bordered on unbelievable.

I think it would be very, very much worse today to be without a smartphone or both a phone and a computer.

I have Ring doorbells on three houses. Easy-peasy and relatively cheap.

Buy the doorbell button. Wire it in if you have wires, use the battery if you don’t. The battery lasts like 6 months and you recharge it like a phone. You’ll get an email when it’s time to charge it. If you wire it in you don’t have to charge it.

Also get the plug in door chime. Plug it in somewhere central. Get a couple if you like and plug them in on different floors. They’ll all ring when someone pushes the button.

Get the Ring app. Do the setup - it’s the easiest setup you’ll ever do. Ring software is excellent. Adjust the sensitivity so it only picks up people on your porch and not cars driving down the street.

That’s it.

If you want, you can get notifications and videos on your phone - no charge. If you want to save the videos you can sign up for a subscription but you don’t have to. You can also talk and listen to whomever is on your porch - no charge. You can add in cameras and all sorts of stuff if you’re interested but you don’t have to.

Slick!

quote:

Originally posted by Doug:
why did delivery people stop ringing the doorbell? I don’t expect them to hang around and chat, but it would be useful if they punch the bell just to let the people in the house know that something that happened out there.

anyway, since delivery people no longer use the bell and I don’t much care for people in general, I pretty much ignore the doorbell when it rings. The only exception I can think of is when someone has made an appointment to show up, like the piano tuner.

At my millennial children’s house, their doorbell was out of commission then missing for over a year. This did not bother them at all because people are expected to text or call when they arrive at the house.

The ignoring the doorbell system is particularly beneficial during election season. I haven’t spoken to a political canvaser for years.

So off topic, how often do you have your digital piano tuned? Did you get a damp chaser installed on your digital piano? Just curious.

Steve, Ring sounds pretty good. How much are the upfront and monthly subscription costs?