On Jan 23, 1:09 am, wrote:
I like to have one telephone in my house that will work when the power
goes out.

I had an old push button phone that got a good dial tone, but wouldn't
dial out. I was told that in very old phones, polarity is an issue.

I bought a new phone today at Radio Shack, and it won't dial either!
The dial tone is fine.

I reversed the wires at the jack, but no help.

I tried the new phone at another jack, no help.

An AC powered phone works fine at the original jack.

I disconnected all my other phones and computers, no help.

Every other phone in my house has an AC power supply and works fine.
My computer modem works fine.

This is California, about 50 miles north of San Francisco, if that
provides any clues.

Can anyone help with this? Aside from not wanting to spend any money,
this is bugging me and i want to fix it myself!!!!

I agree with to one responder.
Rule out bad phone.
Often times other devices (aka cheap junk) can affect the working of
other devices.
Go through your house and disconnect all the other things plugged into
all of your other phone jacks checking your new phone as you go.
The same thing happened to me.
Once I unplugged the bad device everything was fine.
Good luck.