I am looking at it now. If I remember this right, according to the adapter I have, you would need an old corded phone. First, take the curly cord phone jack out of the phone (not out of the receiver), plug the curly cord that is connected to the phone receiver into the phone jack on the adapter, and then there should be another cord on the adapter that looks like an old headset cord and plug that into the microphone jack of the recorder. I hope you can understand what I am trying to explain. I think I'm right about this but its been like 15-20 years since I used it. So, memory might be foggy. I know it sounds complicated. Good Luck!