Pat, the Editor

For your convenience in reading: Subject lines are printed in RED and Moderator replies when issued appear in BROWN.
Previous Issue (just one)
TD Extra News
Add this Digest to your personal   or  

 

TELECOM Digest     Mon, 15 Aug 2005 23:48:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 369

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    An Exciting Weekend With a Sneak Thief (TELECOM Digest Editor)
    Telephone Exchange Usage in Low-Volume States (Lisa Hancock)
    Stromberg Carlson Company? (Lisa Hancock)
    FSK on Voicemail for MCI (nextray)
    Re: How Long Can a Telephone Extension Cord Be? (Phil McKerracher)
    Re: Start-Up Slashes Cost of International Wireless (John Levine)
    Re: Start-Up Slashes Cost of International Wireless (Joseph)
    Re: Stock Market Ticker Tape Machines? (Reed) (Michael Quinn)
    Re: Classic Six-Button Keysets - Cost During 1970s? (Joseph)
    Re: Classic Six-Button Keysets - Cost During 1970s? (Bob Vaughan)
    Re: Classic Six-Button Keysets - Cost During 1970s? (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: Urgent Help Needed With Internet Explorer IE 6.0 (Paul Vader)
    Last Laugh! Another Huge Money Making Idea!!! (Steven Lichter)

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet.  All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote.  By using -any name or email address-
included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the
email.

               ===========================

Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent.  Chain letters,
viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.

We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime.   Geoffrey Welsh

               ===========================

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: An Exciting Weekend With a Sneak Thief
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 21:22:51 EDT
From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor)


This is a story which makes me _so glad_ to live in a small town
(population 8000) where most people know everyone else, and things are
handled in an informal way. I never realized -- seriously -- how many
people around this town -- Independence, KS -- know me and care about
me and try to protect me.

Here is how it happened: Saturday was a _very hot_ day; temperature
about 105 in mid-afternoon. But here it is mostly a dry heat, so you
don't feel it quite as if it were humid, but still, it was warm. My
house is in the middle of a block; there is an alley next to me. A
young guy I did not know -- still really do not know -- walked up and
down the street a few times over a five or ten minute period, looking
sort of exasperated.  He finally walked into the alley next my house,
and said, "I am sorry to bother you, my ride did not show up, I really
was wondering if you had a bathroom I can use." I told him I did have
one, and he could use it. I also offered him a glass of ice water from
the water cooler/ice maker thing on my refrigerator, which he accepted
gratefully.  Now I am _NOT_ trying to brag, or be 'holier than thou'
or any such thing; but I do sincerely believe in 'doing to others as
you would have them do to you', and _I_ have had situations being in a
strange neighborhood, needing to use a bathroom, being quite thirsty
on a hot day; I knew how _I_ felt on those days, so I thought 'this is
how I was raised, in this small town where nearly everyone always
looks out for their neighbors, etc, I will be damned if I tell this
guy he cannot use my bathroom or have a drink of cold water.' He
seemed very grateful when he left _with my checkbook and a box of new
blank checks_ (but I did not find that out until much later).

I found out about his 'tresspass' not on Saturday afternoon (when he
was here) nor on Saturday night, but not until Sunday about noon when
I came back home from the Episcopal church I attend here in
town. Phone rang, I answered it, and it turned out to be a lady who
idenfitied herself as 'the clerk at Mikies Conoco' up on North Penn
Street. "Did you authorize someone to come in with a check?"  No, I
did not ... "Well, I know you are on the other side of town, and you
may not remember me, but I work part time also for Windsor and I have
been at your home to do the housekeeping stuff from Windsor, and I
could not imagine you ever coming all the way across town to Mikies,
or sending some guy with a check to get cigarettes and cash back."
She was completely correct. We agreed I would make a trip there Monday
morning when the manager was on duty to look at the security video (of
the guy cashing the check, and getting cigarettes).

She called me again, Monday morning to say "the guy came in again
twice last night, the same way, cigarettes and cash back; the
overnight clerk is the son of the manager, and he is sort of new, but
I found two more of your checks here, and he told me the guy had been
in twice last night." I told her I was going to stop at the bank on
the way to the store and get the affidavit Officer John Edwards
(Independence Police Department) had suggested I bring to him when I
filed my report about the theft.

I was sitting in the office of the bank manager (vice president Karen
Stoner) -- [don't be impressed, in banks Vice Presidents are a dime a
dozen]. Karen is the manager of our branch, but she also works on the
teller line now and then, and everytime I go in she always greets me
and is super friendly. [Again, don't be impressed, that's how folks in
this town are: either we interact through our work, through community
organizations to which we belong, through church, they are a next door
neighbor, or some combination of the above. Its not like I am a rich
old geezer customer tossing around piles of money at the bank, I am
not. I live from one social security check to the next ... barely ...]
And our Bank of America here in Independence has all of eight employees
total.

I told Karen about this young guy who tried to rip me off; in fact had
done so, and I needed an affidavit for fraud, theft of checks,
etc. She was getting it drawn up (she is also a notary which is
important) when my cell phone rang again. It was Mikies Conoco again
 ... "hey! he came back again! he is at the front counter now, I told
the clerk to stall him a little while, are you coming over here soon?"
I told her I was in fact on the way then, would be there in five or
ten minutes at most. I told Karen I would be back ASAP and hustled
right out the door where our community taxicab driver Jeff had been
waiting for me. I told him let's get to Mikies right now, pronto.

He took off, but pronto was not fast enough. We pulled into Mikies, I
climbed out of the cab as fast as I could and went in the store, where
Officer Edwards, the store manager and her clerk were waiting for me.
The clerk spoke first saying, "I tried to stall him as Sandra (the
store maanger asked me to do. But then he turned around and saw Sandra
whispering in the telephone (she had placed a call to 911 then she
reached me (while I was in the bank). He saw her talking on the phone
and he took off at a gallop. My boy friend and one of his buddies saw
the guy split from the store on a run and they tried to go catch him,
but he was too fast."

The boy friend and his buddy watched all this and one of them said to
the clerk (about me) "Is this the dude that guy tried to rip off?" and
they were by the door, going to go look for the guy again, but the
manager and Officer Edwards said, "that's okay, a couple other
officers found him down the street; he is in custody; over at the
jailhouse now, waiting until I get back to interview him."  The
manager showed me the security video tape and I identified him as the
guy who had been over to my house Saturday afternoon looking like a
sad, starved and very thirsty puppy who I had served on the 'do unto
others as you would have them do unto you' principle.

Edwards said "go back to Karen's office and get the affidavit, then
come by the jailhouse and ask for me; I will take your statement."  I
went back to Bank of America (the Independence branch to which I
usually go), got Karen to finish up the affidavit and we stood there
chatting for a few minutes. 

She said "you always pay all your bills by computer; your SSD deposit
and your Google AdSense deposits are always credited automatically;
always like a clock; Social on the fourth Wednesday of each month,
Google either a day before that or maybe one or two days after
that. Then you come either here to our ATM or you go by First National
Bank ATM a few blocks south and take out a hundred dollars for
spending money and you then authorize us to pay all your bills. Do you
ever write a manual check?"  I told her it was very rare; since the
brain aneurysm my handwriting has pretty much gone to hell; it was far
better to turn it all over to the bank to handle my bills, etc.  She
was reviewing my account on her screen as we chatted. She then said,
"Suppose I just note here on the computer comments the phrase
'question/confirm any manual checks written by customer'; that way in
the future no one will be able in a Bank of America at least, to try
and rip you off like that again. When you get bills, we pay them, when
you come around, you use the ATM. Oh, and if you see your mother
anytime soon, tell her I will see her at the next AWOL meeting." (She
and my mother are both on the board of the local animal welfare
shelter which is known as AWOL [Animals With Out Love]).

I left her office and walked a few blocks over to City Hall, (where
our police station is located in the basement); they called Officer
Edwards and as he came out to get me, two other officers were taking
Timothy Garotte (pronounced 'gah-RUTH', a French name) in handcuffs to
the jailhouse next door to City Hall. A thirty-year old resident of
Independence, Timothy did a 'stretch' at Winfield (Kansas State
Prison) for theft and forgery a few years ago, was released, and about
a month ago had done the same thing to someone else. On that second
time, he was bonded out of jail to wait for his trial, and _while on
bond_ had chosen me as his new 'mark'. Officer Edwards said he did not
think Timothy would be able to get bonded out this time around.
 
As he walked out the door in handcuffs in the custody of two officers,
he glanced at me. All I could think of to say was "Timothy, I am so
ashamed of you ... I treated you the way I would have wanted to be
treated, and you did this to me in return."

Edwards found a couple of my checks in Timothy's possession, along 
with a reciept from Walmart. They _think_ he cashed one of my checks
over at Walmart as well, and Edwards suggested "watch your bank
statement or talk to Karen and tell her to watch for it; where the
local merchants deal with that sort of thing on an informal basis with
the victimized customer first in mind, an outfit like Walmart will
just keep trying to ACH you until they get their money. "   Karen
agreed: "Walmart is bad like that; they will probably place you with
an agency and listen to no reason at all; take this copy of the 
affidavit and police report so that when Walmart starts hassling you
about whatever Timothy 'purchased' in your name, you can get them to
call off the dogs." I will be watching my BOA account on the computer
very closely for a few days. I understand under 'check 21' Walmart
does not even send the actual check around any longer; just a computer
tape. Meanwhile, Mikies Conoco Station and the Ace Hardware store 
downtown consider the matter closed, for which I am grateful. I'd like
to see how Walmart decides to deal with it; I've not had a good fight
with them in a long time now.  

My brother, the well-to-do commercial artist in Chicago said to me
when he was here to visit a couple months ago, "What I have noticed is
that everyone in Independence seems to be, ... so ... innocent."
Well, yes and no ... there are still small town values and ideas here,
everyone still gives out their phone number as four digits only, and
the Timothy Garotte -style people are at a minimum. After all, our
Montgomery County Jailhouse only holds at capacity about 50 prisoners,
and when the County Jail gets more than 20-25 prisoners at any time,
they right away start talking about building an expansion to it. 

And that was my weekend, how was yours?

Patrick Townson

------------------------------

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Telephone Exchange Usage in Low-Volume States
Date: 15 Aug 2005 13:40:56 -0700


In many places in the U.S. the demand for telephone exchanges is very
high for a variety reasons.  This has result in area code splits and
overlays.  NJ started off with one area code and now has nine.

But some states still only have one area code.  I understand some
states are not growing very fast in population, indeed, some rural
towns are losing population.  This includes:  Alaska, Idaho, Montanna,
North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.  (Not counting some other
single-code states).

Given the rural/low growth aspect of places in some of these states, I
was wondering if telephone service may still have some old fashioned
features to it.  For example, would such areas have:

1) Traditional party line service, since it's not worth the cost to
upgrade lines out to people's farms?

2) Five digit dialing in some areas not well populated or served by
community dial offices?

I believe everything is ESS nowadays, but that pays for itself by
eliminating the need for technicians to visit remote unattended
switches.  Probably some community dial offices have been converted to
concentrators or feeders to a larger CO elsewhere.

Any other comments about _today's_ rural telephone service would be
appreciated.

[public replies please]



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I also understand almost everything
these days is ESS ... and the days of 'community dial' (or less than 
seven digit dialing) has become as rare as the California Condor. 
Kansas is a relatively rural area; at one time we had just two area
codes, 316 for the southern half of the state and 913 for the northern
part. Kansas City metro area was area 816 but one could dial seven
digits for either side of the state line. Then they chose to confine
913 to the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City, and other north places 
went to 785.   A couple years ago, 316 was given to Wichita only and
a few other nearby suburbs, and the rest of us in the more rural area
of southeast Kansas were switched to 620. Around here, there are still
party lines (not in Independence itself, but in 'rural' such as Tyro,
Kansas, Caney, Jefferson, Liberty. The way they handle the billing
and routing is all those towns have different prefixes but the first
digit in the suffix is different in each case. Everyone in Tyro for
example is 289-4xxx everyone in Caney is 289-2xxx.  The only places
'big enough' to have more than one prefix are Coffeyville (251 and 252),
and Independence (331 mainly, but a few cell phones in 330 and the
City Offices on 332 along with Cessna Aircraft and one other company).
There are some 'area-wide' prefixes used by TerraWorld and Prairie
Stream Communications (712, 713, 714) but no one other than me has
ever heard of those or use them except in very rare cases. TerraWorld
as an ISP uses 714-0005 as its dialup for 56-K in several small towns
around here; they use 712-0005 as their 56-K dialup for Coffeyville, 
Caney and Tyro.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Stromberg Carlson Company?
Date: 15 Aug 2005 12:48:19 -0700


Would anyone know any history of this company?  I know that they once
made telephones, radios, and PA systems.  I understand "Comdial"
phones are an outgrowth of them.  I presume they are long out of
business.

I've never seen a home audio product, but have seen commercial PA
systems and telephone sets made by them in the 1950s.

I get the impression they were a modest sized company in both
telephones and audio products.  I don't recall seeing too many of
their ads in old magazines compared to other electronic outfits.



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They also made motion picture
projectors like Bell and Howell did.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: nextray@yahoo.com
Subject: FSK Signal For Voicemail on MCI 
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 20:00:00 


I have MCI as my local carrier and subscribe to MCI's CID and
voicemail service.  I recently purchased a new phone that has a
voicmail indicator.  However, when I have voicemail, the indicator
does not work.  The manual for the phone states I need a FSK signal
for the indicator to work.  Emails and calls to MCI have proved
fruitless when I ask if MCI supports FSK for VM notification.  No one
seems to know what I'm talking about.  Does anyone here know if MCI
local service provides a FSK signal for VM?

Thanks.

------------------------------

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Start-Up Slashes Cost of International wireless
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 19:24:00 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 20:27:27 -0600, jared@nospam.au (jared) wrote:

> Calls from wireless (USA) ... calls to wireless in most parts of the world
> attract a charge to the calling party ... substantial though nowhere near
> what the big USA telcos charge (from landline or wireless).

Generally wireless international long distance does not differentiate
between wireless and wireline terminations if only because the
wireless operators generally charge a good deal more than wireline
companies.  Where wireline long distance companies might put a cost of
only 5 cents/minute to call from the US to a UK wireline connection
and 30 cents/minute to call a mobile terminated call the wireless
operators will charge 29 cents/minute to call the UK with no
differentiation between terminating to a wireline or wireless
termination.  Those who make lots of international calls have learned
to use alternative long distance providers such as Gorilla Mobile
<http://www.gorillamobile.com> or One Suite <http://www.onesuite.com>
where they get much better international rates even to wireless
terminations.

------------------------------

From: Phil McKerracher <phil@mckerracher.org>
Subject: Re: How Long Can a Telephone Extension Cord Be?
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 21:29:07 GMT


John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> wrote in message
news:telecom24.366.5@telecom-digest.org:

> I think the limit is about 18,000 feet.  Then you might have trouble
> carrying DSL over it ...

Correct, but that's the approximate limit for the total length from
the switch to the telephone. Beyond that, the signal is typically
attenuated too much, mainly by cable resistance, and gets buried in
noise.

As someone else has pointed out, you need decent cable, routed clear
of sources of interference (such as power cables and cordless phones),
otherwise interference will be a bigger problem than loss of signal.


Phil McKerracher
www.mckerracher.org

------------------------------

Date: 15 Aug 2005 23:15:59 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: Start-Up Slashes Cost of International wireless
Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA


> Calls from wireless (USA) ... calls to wireless in most parts of the
> world attract a charge to the calling party ... substantial though
> nowhere near what the big USA telcos charge (from landline or
> wireless).

That's sort of a red herring, and it's definitely a topic that has
been argued to death between people in North America who think that
caller-pays mobile is a ripoff since the actual per-minute rates that
people pay are much higher than they are here, and people in other
countries who think that "free" inbound calls that overcharge their
friends are great.  (You can probably tell which way I feel.)

It's true, US mobile carriers charge ridiculous prices for
international calls.  Fortunately, calling cards with reasonable
international rates are widely available, and it is not hard at all to
program your phone's phone book to make international calls using a
calling card with a US 800 number.  At this point, the mobile carriers
are clearly depending on the expense account crowd who don't care what
their calls cost, and probably making private reasonably priced deals
with their big customers, but sooner or later they'll figure out that
their overall revenue will be greater if they offer prices that will
encourage their users to make more calls.

R's,

John

------------------------------

Subject: Re: Stock Market Ticker Tape Machines? (Reed)
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 15:31:23 -0400
From: Michael Quinn  <quinnm@bah.com>


Someone wrote:

> This ticker could be considered the last successful Teletype product
> of the almost-all-mechanical genre.  The Model 37 and Model 38 page
> printers achieved few sales and never got completely debugged.
> Everything after that used a lot of electronics instead of complicated
> mechanisms.

Only within the last 20 years did the US Navy move away from
electromechanical Teletype Model 28s and variations thereof. When I
was the communications officer aboard the then state-of the-art fleet
flagship USS Blue Ridge in Yokosuka in 1987, we had at least 50 of
those clunky noisy boat anchors.  They had more more moving (and
malfunctioning) parts than a British Leyland MGB, but a good teletype
tech could assemble a working teleprinter blindfolded after an atomic
bomb explosion.

(By way of perspective, our then also state-of-art message
communications processing system featured a shock hardened rack
mounted 1 MByte hard drive with tape backup.  We had to replace it
once at a cost of $100 + K as I recall).

Regards,

Mike

Springfield VA

------------------------------

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Classic Six-Button Keysets - Cost During 1970s
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 19:17:33 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 21:01:08 -0400, Michael Muderick
<michael.muderick@verizon.net> wrote:

> I don't know the cost of all the features, but they were a la carte.
> However the hunting feature was done at the CO and there was no charge
> for that as far back as I can remember.  Remember, it meant another
> completed call for Ma Bell, rather than a busy signal, so it was to
> their advantage to give hunting away free, lest someone decide to opt
> out of it.  

And something I've always wondered about is the use of multiple lines
in countries outside of the US such as in Europe and in Asia.  Often
I'd see numbers advertised or on signage on the order of 123456/7
meaning that you could reach that business by dialing either 123456 or
123457.  Does this mean that these step-by-step/Strowger or other
electromechanical exchanges did not have trunk hunt and that this is
just a North American "invention."  I can't think of any other reason
for listing for the public both numbers if they were sequential other
than the facility for automatic trunk hunt was not available.

And as far as "hunt" goes Telco (Southwestern Bell in particular) did
not want to give me hunt on a residential line with sequential line
numbers when I had two lines.  Actually it doesn't matter if it's
sequential or not.  Even #5 Crossbar had "jump" hunt readily
available.  In any case they didn't want to provision my residential
line with hunt capability.

------------------------------

From: techie@tantivy.tantivy.net (Bob Vaughan)
Subject:  Re: Classic Six-Button Keysets - Cost During 1970s?
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 02:31:32 UTC
Organization:  Tantivy Associates


In article <telecom24.368.10@telecom-digest.org>, Robert Bonomi
<bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com> wrote:

> In article <telecom24.367.8@telecom-digest.org>,
> <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:

>> Back in the 1970s, a standard fixture in almost every business (and
>> even in some wealthy homes) was a key telephone.  This has six buttons
>> along the time so that the phone could handle more than one outside
>> line, intercom lines, and HOLD function.  I was wondering what basic
>> key systems cost in the 1970-1975 time frame.

> Commonly known as a "1A2" system.

There was an earlier version known as 1A1, and apparently a 1A, 2A, and 2B
before that.

The 1A1 units that I have seen, were built as a complete unit, where
the 1A2 systems were modular, using plug in cards for the various
features. I have no information on 1A, 2A, or 2B systems.

>> From what I saw, the pricing was a la carte--every little feature was
>> a charge.  One large organization did not bother with line lamps to
>> save money.  The "wink-hold" feature, where the line lamp blinked
>> slowly when the line was on-hold, was optional.  I never saw a system
>> without a HOLD button, but apparently even that was optional.  (I
>> believe later systems, such as ComKey had package prices).

> The button itself, and the mechanical actions related there were universal.
> whether the back-end equipment recognized 'hold' and kept the circuit busy
> was the 'optional' part.  Took some additional cards in the card cage.

The phones could be wired up without a KSU, and would operate as a
regular phone, without lights, or hold. The ringers in the phones were
wired to a dedicated pair, and could be strapped to any line, or to
multiple lines via a diode matrix.

The basic KSU had a power supply for the lamps, and a line card for
each line, which handled the hold function, lamp control, and ring
indication. The basis line card was a type 400. Lamp voltage was
normally 10vac.

The wink-on-hold feature required an interruptor, which plugged in to
the KSU, and provided the pulsed lamp voltage for lines on hold. This
was normally powereed by the 10vac lamp supply, although other
voltages were available.

I worked at a radio station where all the lamps, and interuptors were 
powered by 24vdc from a bank of batteries, which also supplied all the
control circuitry within the studios. The PBX (Western Electric 711B
step-by-step dial PBX) was powered by another bank of batteries at -48vdc.

>> Anyway, would anyone know what typical pricing was in the 1970-1975
>> time frame, for the following:

>> - "Hunting" feature so busy calls would go to the next line.

> Handled entirely in the C.O. nothing in the 1A2 had anything to do with it.
> (the CPE was irrelevant, unless you had 'trunk' circuits into a true PBX.)

>> - Two lines, two keysets, line lamps that would blink on ring, but not
>> wink-hold.

KSU without interruptor.

>> - Wink-hold feature.

KSU with interruptor.

>> - Basic manual intercom (push-button to sound buzzer).  Sometimes there
>> was a SIG button on the phone, sometimes there was a tiny panel with
>> pushbuttons mounted next to the phone.

KSU with a type 401 manual intercom card in place of a line card.
Signaling was handled by using either a spare button on the phone, or
add-on button(s) wired to extra pairs, and a add-on buzzer powered
from the lamp voltage supply. The buttons in the phone could be
changed from latching to momentary by removing a screw.

>> - Dial intercom, one common channel, one digit automatically sounded
>> desired buzzer.

There were several types of dial intercoms, depending on the number of
stations desired. The smaller ones could be cards in the KSU, or a
seperate unit.

>> - Other features of the six button keyset?

You could wire the phones to do many different things. We used to use
the buttons on the phones to provide contact closures to other
(non-phone) devices, and the same for the lamps.

>> - If a residence had a key system was the cost cheaper than a business?

>> Around the 1960s the Bell System came out with a fancier system known
>> as the "Call Director".  Did this have any advanced features or did it
>> just offer more line buttons?  I know the basic Call Director shell
>> was used as a PBX operator's console, but that was a different phone
>> and included an additional lamp for supervision.

> One of the big features of the call director was idiot lights that
> showed the on/off hook status of multiple extensions. A limited number
> on the phone itself (10? 15?)  plus expansion sections with additional
> 25(?)  lines/indicators.

> I don't know what equipment was behind it -- had to be considerably
> more than just a 1A2 chassis, probably Centrex -- but all the call
> directors I ever saw had the capability to do a two/three button
> 'transfer' of an incoming call, to a specified extension.

This would have been a Call Director in a PBX type environment, with a
busy lamp field.

The basic Call Director was simply a 1A2 type phone, with additional
buttons/lamps. The earlier ones simply added additional 6 button
strips, and the later ones were 10 button strips. Earlier call
directors were commonly 18 or 30 buttons, and later 10, 20, and 30
buttons.  There were also some custom monster phones.

There were some wiring differences between the 6 button strips, and
the 10 button strips.

Normally each line used 3 pairs of wire, 2 for the phone line, 2 for
the button (A1/A), 2 for the lamp (L/LG).

For a 6 button phone/5 line phone, this would be 15 pairs, plus one
for the ringer, leaving 9 spare pairs for add-on devices such as
buzzers, speakerphones, etc, using a 25 pair cable. Some phones were
equipped with 15 or 18 pair cables instead.

For 10 lines, this would require 30 pairs, not including any pairs for
ringer, or add-on buzzers, etc, but by bussing all the A1 leads
together, the spare A1 leads for lines 2-5 could be reused as A leads
for lines 6-9.  The same trick was used with the LG leads, thus
reducing the number of pairs needed to 19 (plus one for the ringer),
leaving 5 spare pairs for add-ons in a 25 pair cable. Additional 25
pair groups were added for additonal 10 button rows.

>> Six button keysets are rare to see today, having been replaced by more
>> modern systems.  Even the Bell System, before divesture, had developed
>> several new lines, such as ComKey and phones with more buttons
>> (identified by a larger square button with the light within it.  Both
>> wall and desk sets had a long row of buttons along the top of the
>> phone.  These were out early enough that they were made in rotary dial
>> as well as touch tone.

The phones with more buttons sound like late version Call Directors.

I found a collectors website, with a listing of many many types of
Western Electric phones, including many that most people have never
seen or heard of.

http://mysite.verizon.net/paul-f/we500typ.htm

               -- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine --
Bob Vaughan  | techie @ tantivy.net 		  |
	     | P.O. Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309 |
-- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? --

------------------------------

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Classic Six-Button Keysets - Cost During 1970s?
Date: 15 Aug 2005 11:06:12 -0700


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have seen a few very elaborate and
> very complex (regards wiring) six-buton sets. One of the strangest I
> ever saw had six buttons (five lines plus hold) but the 'lines' were
> very special purpose: from left to right, the hold button (red
> plastic) was followed by 'intercom' for an open-loop arrangement (just
> battery to provide talking voltage on to a similar set in a place
> called 'radio station booth' and also 'box office' and 'stage left'
> [anyone using one of the instruments at 'radio booth' or 'box office'
> or 'stage left' could talk to or be heard by persons at the the other
> instruments by going off hook]) the fourth button (or third 'line')
> was 'extension 263' from the building PBX. ...

Such arrangements were actually quite common.  The common talk circuit
light would go on if anyone was on it.  Either other keyset buttons
could be used to sound a particular buzzer or there was a little plate
next to the phone with tiny buttons on it.

We don't see it nowadays, but in old movies you'd often see a boss
press a buzzer and a secretary or aide would come inside.  You could
use a key telephone buzzer for that arrangement, though you could of
course wire one up yourself.  I once inherited a desk that had a
forest of disconnected push buttons underneath it.

Other intercom arrangements were dial.  I think they may have had some
large ones needing two digits.  Obviously there are a variety
tradeoffs between using a key system which requires lots of cabling to
each station set but no attendant vs. a PBX which requires an
attendant and a switchboard.  I've seen very small outfits have a
switchboard and larger outfits with a key system, with every phone in
a sprawling facility having the line buttons.  I guess it depends on
traffic, both internal and external.  My uncle worked in a
modest-sized factory served by a key system.  A frequent use on that
was the loudspeaker (intercom 6--"Joe pick up line 3").  I don't think
the shop floors used the phones that much.

Occassionally you'd see key systems with various colored buttons, such
as blue or deep-yellow in addition to the red hold button.

> They told me they had to pay Illinois Bell seventy five cents per
> month for the intercom loop, which I presume was to maintain the
> power supply and the wiring of same. They paid a dollar per month
> for the rental of the operator-style headset and about the same
> amount for the beehive lamp. PAT]

I was thinking that's pretty reasonable until I realized that was in
1960 dollars.  Still, it's not really that bad in that it's all
maintained for you as part of the telephone.  To go out and buy your
own parts and build your own system would be costly in terms of time
and materials.  For the person wearing the headset it's a big
convenience to answer/use the telephone or intercom quickly and
simply.  I don't know if power supplies were solid state back then but
any needed maintenance was handled by the phone co.



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But the most ancient arrangement I ever
saw was a phone with the six buttons in a separate box next to it.
This one was in the clock tower at Holy Family Catholic Church on West
Roosevelt Road in Chicago, back in 1972 or so. A relatively ancient
wall phone (with a side ringer, yet) and the feed to it coming from a
somewhat newer but still ancient side box with six round buttons on it. I 
was employed with someone else to get the tower clock started once
again (it had been inactive for many years at that point). Taking the
cover off the side ringer caused much dust and cobwebs to fall out,
and a typewritten note inside the side ringer dated 1929 said 'this
phone comes from the terminal box in the basement of the rectory on
Hoyne Street (about 100 feet away I guess). And the side box with the
line buttons had a note dated 1946 which said the pairs went to 
the inside terminal box in the basement of the rectory also where they
appeared on 'strip 2 row 3'.  

I recall the actual clock (the four faces of it on each side of the
tower was on the ninth floor (walking up the inside stairway) and the
bells were below it on the 8th floor, the stairs and floor at that
point full of pigeon 'stuff' and the bells had a note on them saying 
the construction of the clock and bells came from a company in 
'Southwick England' ; I think it was the Southwick Clock and Bell
Company. A notice on the bells said they had been installed in 1905,
and that 'for proper care of the bells, the sexton must rotate the
clapper one-quarter turn every _75 years_ '. Since this was in the
1970's, I guess it was about time to rotate the clapper which we did.
I could find out no information about Southwick Clock and Bell
Company; they were many years out of business. But some detective
work got me to the 'General Time Company' offices in Chicago where the
people there told me they had inherited all of Southwick's business
and maintainence files many years before that. We _thought_ we had
the bell chimes working once again but then they got stuck and would
not quit chiming the hour over and over and over and over, about a
hundred times while we climbed back up there and turned it off
manually. But we got the clock mechanism working again for what it was
worth. The clock motor (where the telephone was located) was in the
now long since abandoned sexton's office in the tower on the fifth 
floor; the motor had a very long shaft on it going up through the 
ceilings, etc with a universal connector to turn the hands on the
four sides of the clock three or four stories further up.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader)
Subject: Re: Urgent Help Needed With Internet Explorer IE 6.0
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 18:10:53 -0000
Organization: Inline Software Creations


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was something to do with www.coolweb
> and 180Search as I recall. I also took no chances and did a complete

Yikes! Both of those are about as bad as they get. There's at least a
couple variants of coolwebsearch that are best removed by applying a
flamethrower to your hard drive -- they are *that* persistent. CWS is
so nasty that it spawned a remover just for all its variants,
CWShredder:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html.

Another good place to look is doxdesk.com/parasite - lots of useful
manual removal techniques. It's quite likely that the spyware has a
reloader process running -- you will need to boot into safemode and
look for odd entries in your HijackThis log. Pay careful attention to
run items. If you don't get the reloader, you're wasting your time
removing the spyware, because it will grow right back. A clean
reinstall of windows is probably the only way to be sure you nailed
it. *

* PV   something like badgers--something like lizards--and something
       like corkscrews.

------------------------------

From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com>
Reply-To: Die@spammers.com
Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc.  (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co.
Subject: Last Laugh! Another Huge Money Making Idea!!!
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 00:54:32 GMT


This guys says you can make thousands in just hours.  His his number
is 800-667-2497, E-mail is greg@gettingpaid.com.  There is a
conferance call number: 512-305-4663, Pin: 228862#, plus his home
phone is 530-209-4956.

The only good spammer is a dead one!!  Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2005  I Kill Spammers, Inc.  A Rot in Hell Co.

------------------------------


TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm-
unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as
Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums.  It is
also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup
'comp.dcom.telecom'.

TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational
service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents
of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in
some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work
and that of the original author.

Contact information:    Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest
                        Post Office Box 50
                        Independence, KS 67301
                        Phone: 620-402-0134
                        Fax 1: 775-255-9970
                        Fax 2: 530-309-7234
                        Fax 3: 208-692-5145         
                        Email: editor@telecom-digest.org

Subscribe:  telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org
Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org

This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then.  Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!

URL information:        http://telecom-digest.org

Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/
  (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives)

RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html
  For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308
    and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from                  *
*   Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate  *
*   800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting.         *
*   http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com                    *
*   Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing      *
*   views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc.                             *
*************************************************************************

ICB Toll Free News.  Contact information is not sold, rented or leased.

One click a day feeds a person a meal.  Go to http://www.thehungersite.com

Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.

              ************************

DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO
YOUR CREDIT CARD!  REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST
AND EASY411.COM   SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest !

              ************************

Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your
career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management
(MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35
credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the
skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including
data, video, and voice networks.

The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College
of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the
College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has
state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus
offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum.  Classes
are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning.

Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at
405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at
http://www.mstm.okstate.edu

              ************************

   ---------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list. 

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.

End of TELECOM Digest V24 #369
******************************

Return to Archives**Older Issues