My uncle has a pair of Oticon OPN S1 MiniRITE-R Hearing Aids. Oticon has confirmed that these are equipped with Telephone Coils. I am trying to help him get them working on his home landline, but I live 1500 miles away and his only sources of communication are his landline and the US Mail. He is 92, and isolating completely due to the pandemic.
He is having terrible trouble communicating over his landline phone. After looking into it a little, it seems that some modern landlines use a piezo-electric speaker element that does not produce enough magnetic flux to be picked up up by the hearing aid’s T-coil. It occurred to me that I could send him an refurbished ITT phone from the 1960’s that would certainly have an “old fashioned” voice coil speaker element.
I have 3 questions that I’d like to ask for help with:
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Is my idea that an older phone would work better with a T-coil possibly correct or completely wrong?
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Are there T-coils in both left and right hearing aids, or only one side?
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I cannot figure out if his aids have a configuration program included for the T-coils.
A) Is there a way to determine whether there is a program included?
B) Is there a way to force the aids to use the T-coil?
C) I’ve read where attaching a small magnet to the landline’s earpiece can force on the T-coil; is this true for the Oticons?
Thank you so much for your help. He is by himself; his wife is in rehab after surgery, and I’m quite worried about how he’s getting along.
DaveD