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43-785.fm Page 1 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM
Cat. No. 43-785
OWNER’S MANUAL
Please read before using this equipment.
TAD-285
Microcassette Telephone Answering System
with Big Button Phone, Memory, and
Remote Operation
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43-785.fm Page 2 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM FEATURES Your RadioShack TAD-285 Microcas- Selectable Toll Saver — lets you sette Telephone Answering System avoid unnecessary toll charges when with Big Button Phone, Memory, and you call long-distance to check your Remote Operation is ideal for your messages. home or office. With its extra loud ring- er and big buttons, the system is per- VOX (Voice-Activated Recording) fect for anyone who has a hard time — stops recording after 7 seconds of
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43-785.fm Page 3 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM Touch-Tone or Pulse (Rotary) Dial- READ THIS FIRST ing — you can use this telephone with either type of service. We have designed your answering system to conform to federal regula- This answering system has been test- tions, and you can connect it to most ed and found to comply with all appli- telephone lines. However, each de- cable UL and FCC standards. vice you connect to the phone line draws power from the phone line. We We recommend you r
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43-785.fm Page 4 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM CONTENTS Installation ............................................................................................................ 5 Selecting a Location ........................................................................................ 5 Loading the Cassette ....................................................................................... 5 Connecting Power ...........................................................................
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43-785.fm Page 5 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM INSTALLATION 1. Turn the supplied cassette’s hub SELECTING A with the tip of a pencil to take up LOCATION any tape slack. You can set the TAD-285 on a flat sur- face (such as a desktop or counter- Illust. top), or mount it on a wall plate or directly on the wall. Select a location that is: 2. Lift open the cassette compart- • Near an AC outlet ment door. • Near a modular telephone line jack If the phone line jack is not a modular Illust. jack
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43-785.fm Page 6 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM matically plays it back. If there is no CONNECTING POWER outgoing message, the answering system sounds a continuous tone until Use the supplied AC adapter to power you record a message (see “Record- your answering system. ing the Outgoing Message” on Page6). Cautions: • You must use an AC adapter that Note: When the answering system supplies 9 volts of power, delivers has power, if the cassette tape is bro- at least 500 milliamps, and has a ke
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43-785.fm Page 7 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM Follow these steps to record the out- The message is first saved on a digital going message. chip, and is then recorded onto the cassette tape. Wait until the answer- 1. Rotate VOLUME toward HI until it ing system plays back the message clicks. The red light turns on. before you continue installing your an- swering system. Illust. The answering system saves all infor- mation, including the outgoing mes- 2. Lift open the cassette compart- sage,
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43-785.fm Page 8 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM 2. Align the adapter’s power cord PLACING THE PHONE with the left slot on the top and ON A DESKTOP bottom of the mounting bracket. Align the modular cord with the To use your answering system on a right slot on the top of the mount- desk, table, or shelf, plug one end of ing bracket. Pull the other end of the supplied telephone cord into the modular cord through the PHONE JACK and plug the other end large hole in the center of the into a modul
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43-785.fm Page 9 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM 5. Plug the exposed end of the cord Directly on the Wall into a modular phone jack wall plate. Using a drill and screws (not supplied) and the supplied mounting bracket, you can easily mount your TAD-285 directly on the wall. Illust. 1. At the desired mounting location, 1 drill two holes 3 /4 inches apart, one above the other. Illust. 6. Line up the keyhole slots on the bracket with the studs on the wall plate, then slide the bracket down 2. Th
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43-785.fm Page 10 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM 4. Align the adapter’s power cord 8. Pull the handset holder toward with the left slot on the top and you as far as it will go. Hold it out bottom of the mounting bracket. as you rotate the holder 180°, Align the modular cord with the then let it snap back in place. right slot on the top and bottom of the mounting bracket. 5. Insert the mounting bracket’s tabs Illust. into the slots on the bottom of the answering system. Then pull the bracket
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43-785.fm Page 11 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM 1. Set P/T to T. SETTING THE RINGER SWITCH Illust. To set the volume of the telephone’s ringer, set the ringer switch on the back of the answering system to LO or HI. 2. Pick up the handset and listen for a dial tone. To turn off the telephone’s ringer, set 3. Press any number other than 0. If the ringer switch to OFF. You can still the dial tone stops, you have make out-going calls. If you hear an touch-tone service. If the dial tone extensi
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43-785.fm Page 12 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM ANSWERING SYSTEM OPERATION To have the answering system not an- SETTING THE swer calls, rotate VOLUME to STOP. ANSWERING SYSTEM The red light turns off. TO ANSWER CALLS Rotate VOLUME toward HI until it SETTING THE NUMBER clicks. When the red light on the PLAY OF RINGS button stays on without the answering system sounding a tone, the system is You can select the number of rings the ready to answer calls. answering system waits before it an-
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43-785.fm Page 13 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM (If you have two messages, the light SETTING THE SYSTEM’S blinks twice followed by a pause, then VOLUME blinks twice more, and so on.) If you have more than four messages, the Adjust the answering system’s VOL- light blinks continuously. UME to a comfortable level. (This does not affect the volume of the message To play the messages, press PLAY. the caller hears.) The answering system beeps, re- winds, then plays the messages. Illust. To paus
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43-785.fm Page 14 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM The answering system beeps once and the red light turns off. The tape fast-forwards to the end of all the mes- sages and resets to answer calls. The system beeps twice and the red light blinks again. To replay the messages, simply press PLAY again. 14
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43-785.fm Page 15 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM TELEPHONE OPERATION You can make and answer calls with For example, if you subscribe to Call this telephone as you would with any Waiting, you can put your current call other phone. Read this section to on hold and answer another call on learn about special features. the same line by pressing FLASH. Press FLASH again to alternate be- Note: When you receive a call, the tween the two calls. telephone rings and the lighted ringer bar flashes. Not
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43-785.fm Page 16 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM Dialing a Stored Number MEMORY DIALING To dial a number stored in standard Your answering system has two types memory, press MEMORY, then press of memory — priority and standard — the memory location number. The that let you store and easily dial up to telephone automatically dials the 13 numbers. number stored in that location. You can store up to 3 numbers in pri- ority memory and dial them with the press of a single button. Priority mem- Il
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43-785.fm Page 17 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM REMOTE CONTROL OPERATION While you are away from your home To play back your messages from a or office, you can use a touch-tone remote phone, follow these steps. phone or a pulse phone with a pocket 1. Dial your phone number. tone dialer to: If the answering system is set to • Set the answering system to TOLL SAVER, it answers on the answer calls second ring if there are mes- • Play your messages sages. If there are no messages, the answering
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43-785.fm Page 18 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM ERASING THE MESSAGES If you want to erase the messages af- ter playback, enter the remote opera- tion security code within 8 seconds after the four short beeps at the end of all the messages. After the answering system beeps, hang up the phone. Note: After you erase messages by remote, you cannot recover them (even if you press SAVE as soon as you get back to your answering sys- tem). 18
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43-785.fm Page 19 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM TROUBLESHOOTING We do not expect you to have any problems with your answering system, but if you do, be sure you installed the tape correctly and turned on the system. If you still have a problem, this chart might help. If not, take the answering system to your lo- cal RadioShack store for assistance. Problem Cause Solution The answering sys- The system is turned off. Turn on the answering sys- tem does not answer tem by rotating VOLUME and r
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43-785.fm Page 20 Monday, August 16, 1999 7:54 AM Problem Cause Solution Recordings sound You were too close to Rerecord the message. distorted. the microphone or you Speak clearly into the spoke too loudly when microphone at a normal vol- you recorded the outgo- ume from about 12 inches ing message. away. The tape head is dirty. Clean the head using a tape head-cleaning kit (see “Cleaning the Tape- Handling Parts” on Page 23). The tape is worn out. Unplug the adapter from the AC outlet
