Thanks for the response, BobK. I appreciate your assistance.

I do have a few solid state relays but I'm not sure if they'll work in this application. I think I have some schematics for hooking this up; I'll stumble through and if I encounter a problem I may ask for some help...

As far as my project goes, I'm helping an aunt with a resuce/service dog. In order to get certified the dog has to perform higher-order functions like dialing a phone in an emergency situation. So essentially it's a dialer circuit with pre-programmed numbers, a large button or two to initiate the call, a small speaker, maybe a small LCD and a microphone, all packaged in an enclosure.

There are special phones that can be purchased, but at $300, I found that rather offensive and agreed to build something homebrew, convinced that this type of device could be made for well under $50 in parts. So I'm progressing slowly through this, learning as I go.

Next up is connecting the relays, and adding the switches and microphone. That should keep me busy for a little while.

What are you building?