Old phones

[hydralique]

Exactly . . .

When Ernestine and Vito ran the company they made sure everyone could always count on their instruments, from La Crawford right on down the list.

 

[wayupnorth]

As a former telephone company employee, yes, your corded landline phone will work in a power outage as long as the lines are intact all the way to your home. In Maine, there are 2 central switching stations that every call placed or received is routed thru. They have huge banks of batteries and the 2 of the biggest DC diesel generators I ever saw. Smaller switching stations also have the battery back-up and smaller generators. In 19 years in this home and numerous outages of power, not once did I ever loose phone service.

 

[stan]

Hi Guys

This turned out to be an interesting thread! I've learned !
The service tech came out yesterday (I was at work, so my partnered delta with the situation) he wasn't able to make things work, so they just put the old modem back, so the phone work again. I frankly wasn't able to see a difference between the new, and old modems, except that the new one wouldn't understand the old phones dialing out. If I'd been here I would have just kept the new modem in, and tried the "Dialgizmo" (provided I could keep the old modem, just in case)

The thought of my land line transmitting wireless in the future make me furious!
I've kept my land line all this time for just that reason. I don't get angry about too many things, but if you want to see me turn into a crazed maniac, just try to take away my dial phones, my land line, my, carburetor, mechanical fuel pump, and of course my top loading washing machines.

Here is a pic for Ralph of the transmitter.

 

[stan]

One

More

 

[stan]

The

Old fuse that was in the basement

 

[d-jones]

Old fuse that was in the basement

That's the kind of thing I love to see. Little relics of the past quietly holding on for decades, each one telling a little story about the buildings age and history, but only to those that know what they're looking at. I'm glad you saved it.

 

[whirlaway]

Its Called a protecter

What you are looking at was replaced by the grey plastic box on your house.The middle bakelite knob unscrews and inside are carbons,that when higher voltage goes across them they go to ground.Thus protecting your phone,I still have my original one in my basement that was installed in 38,I did this work for Ma bell for 30years.I still have the twisted station wire in my house,works fine and 302 and 354 setsin use everyday.When Isabel hit us I never lost service,even though my reg power was out 12 days.We even had the generators running our huts from our cable trucks just to keep service.My neighbors of course lost cell phones and cordless phones.If you have a landline always keep an old reg bell phone in a closet in case you need it dial or tt.

 

[rp2813]

Hey Stan, you've got the retrofit in that E1 handset, which is the only way to go.  The original transmitters for the E1 were vastly inferior.  What you have in there is an F1 transmitter capsule, just like the type in F1 handsets that are found on model 302 phones and many D-1 and B-1 bases.  Ma Bell never let anything go to waste, so Western Electric designed a retrofit package that would update the many E1's still in service with the new and improved F1 transmitter.

 

Initially field techs were instructed to do the F1 transmitter retrofit whenever they found an E1 handset with the original type of transmitter, and  eventually as parts supplies dwindled they were instructed to replace the entire E1 handset with an F1, but a lot of E1's survived.  I think an E1 is far more easily cradled on your shoulder than an F1 type, and that's why I don't have any 302's deployed in parts of the house where they would get used regularly.

 

Trust me, if you still had the original "bullet" type transmitter in that handset, nobody would be able to hear you very well, and you'd get nothing but complaints from distant parties.

 

Sadly, I don't think copper has a snowball's chance of survival in the current telecom climate.  Combine that with a former Comcast lobbyist being in charge of the FCC who is sympathetic to telco and broadband providers, and the consumer is basically screwed as far as monthly charges and quality of service are concerned into the foreseeable future and likely well beyond.

 

[tolivac]

Copper is going to have a hard time--COST!!!!and even possible theft of it.Communications companies are now running fiber optic cables instead-lower cost-and NOT vulnerable to EMP.
NYC writer--Again the infranstruture can again be repaired faster than you think.Lines and components can be replaced-even if damaged by EMP.That is why there are spares.The EMP pulse theory is overplayed.Our system can be sectionalized-they are components in the grid systems to do this. Pole line components called "reclosers" act as circuit breakers to protect line systems.They work with "Sectionalizers"-reclosers are set for "3 shots" if they are tripped from a fault more than that-get out your flashlights.The sectionalizer will isolate that faulted part of the line until it can be repaired.This is done without human interface-Reclosers and sectionalizers are common pole eqquipment.Look up they are there.They are small devices that look like smaller pole transformers-and control boxes at the base of the pole.Underground systems have these in cabinets that look like ground mount transformers. Manually operated isolation switches are on some poles-designed so they can be operated by a special tool linemen have..At our transmitter site-we hade an insulator failure one night.The site had NO power for like almost 8 hrs-the system here was in an isolation and protection mode.The 115Kv primay switches to our substation were opened by remote control from Duke Power.Our genset was locked out,too.After the insulator was replaced-back to normal.
Remember the carbon block "fuses" on Telco circuits-find them at older radio station transmitter sites for the STL feeder lines from the studio.Now that transmitters site audio is fed by 900Hmz STL systems the TELCO feeders are no longer used-even for backup as they used to be.And some transmitter remote control systems used these.Now they are digital remote control systems.
Oh yes-just today we had a close call-afternoon shift spotted a rope tornado not far from our 115Kv primary feeders-luckily they weren't hit.No antennas or transmission lines were hit,either.We had some severe storms in the area on Friday evening.Missed all this-was asleep!!

 

[davetranter]

A bit more on Exchange power arrangements

'Wayupnorth' (Reply#31) mentions DC gensets. I think all of ours had been replaced before I took an interest in power arrangements. Before the development of high current silicon rectifiers, some exchanges had large motor-generator sets, while smaller ones had Mercury Arc Rectifiers. In my day, all gensets were AC, and ran the entire building, including 'domestic' power, heating and lighting. There was always at least one 'redundant' transformer/rectifier unit (just known as a 'Rectifier' in G.P.O. speak) to provide for routine maintenance downtime or emergency. Rectifiers varied in size from a few tens of Amperes in small exchanges to a row of 2000A cubicles in large buildings. These (mostly made by G.E.C.) were very reliable. At one local exchange (due (I'm assuming) to a miniscule difference in output voltage) one 600A rectifier cubicle ran 'flat out' at 600A for 12 hours per day (the second rectifier would switch in as the load increased just after 8am, and would switch out again sometime mid-evening) and ran all of the evening/night load (about 350A) as well. This situation went on for many years, and was still the case when I left the company. We never had any trouble with it. The exchange staff loved it because they could dry wet clothes in Winter, simply by throwing them on top of the cubicle for an hour or so, it was MUCH warmer than our 'restricted by Government Regulations' heating system, which hardly ever came on!!
There was (of course) a third (redundant) rectifier, which I NEVER saw in operation. This was a typical G.P.O. setup. the maximum demand of the exchange was probably 1000A, so it was equipped with three 600A rectifiers. I think I have the spec of the diesel set for that exchange somewhere, but it will take a while to find....

Hope I haven't bored too many people too much ;-)

All best

Dave T

P.S. The control and telemetry systems for the exchange power systems was deliberately kept 'low-tech'. It was mainly resistors, capacitors, and relays, with a bare minimum of semiconductors. This provided 'reliable' central monitoring capability for use in case of 'national emergencies' etc.

 

[circlew]

The protector shown in reply #34 is much like the one in the basement of the rental house I'm living in. The house was built in 1938, and I think it's original. It is no longer connected, as the former owner had to have new phone wiring installed when she got the ADT security system.

My own house (being renovated still) was built in 1952, and I remember a rectangular metal box about 3" square and 8" long on the side of the house. The phone man told me it was the protector. Later it was replaced by a plastic box serving the same purpose.

The immediate area I live in is served by Frontier Communications (the former Rochester, NY Telco). They purchased this area from Verizon, which had previously been a GTE area. The service is very good, and has been since Verizon was in charge. When it was GTE, the service was bad, with numerous outages and problems.

Most of the Cincinnati area is served by Cincinnati Bell. They have installed fiber optic lines in many areas, especially where many businesses are located. At one of the central offices near the library I vistit, they store about 15 or so trailer mounted Cummins diesel gen sets. They send them out to remote locations in event of a power outage. All their central offices have permanant gen sets in place. During Hurricane Ike in 2009 (yes, a hurricane in Ohio), nearly 90% of Cincinnati area residents lost power, but phone service was still working for most. My phone was only out for about 15 mins. though power was off 2.5 days.

My cousin Linda lives in Seminary, MS (Hattiesburg area), and when Hurricane Katrina hit she never lost Bellsouth phone service. She said her power was out for nearly 3 weeks, and no cell phone service either. That area has all phone lines underground.

The phone I use most is a WE 2500 in beige. It has a date on the bottom, and I think it's from 1986. I also have a WE 2554 wall phone not currently in use, and a Comdial 2830, which is for a 1A2 key system. I'm going to modify it to work on a single line service.

 

[wayupnorth]

We were the third Verizon phone company off shoot to be purchaced from them and all 3 ended up declaring bankrupsy. I would not be surprised Frontier ends up the same from probably being sold a bill of goods that was essentially Ma Bell's old stuff from the 19th century. It costs a ton of money to do new lines, especially fiber optic especially in a state as big as this one is. Big name phone companies only want to handle cell service. They want nothing to do with landlines. See their constant ads on tv. No wonder cell prices keep going up.

 

[NYCWriter]

Typical Corporate America ...

... no longer investing for the future, because corporate leaders these days no longer have any long-term vested interest in the companies they're running.

And every dollar spent must be offset by at least two dollars earned, and furthest into the future you're looking is the next quarter.

Very sad.

 

[48bencix]

Att to eliminate landlines

I plan to keep my landline until ATT eliminates it. Here in Sacrmento they are building a new 911 call center which will allow operator to answer 911 cell phones directly. Currently they are answered by California Highway Patrol. I am bothered that the system is not more comprehensive that it is. During an emergency my landline will correctly identify my address, even if I am unable to talk. Also I do forget to charge my cellphone. Does it bother anyone that the voice quality is way better on a copper connection designed for voice? Voip and cell are pretty crummy in my opinion. I know those services could be better quality, but there doesn't seem to be a standard for audio fidelity.

I would like fiber to my home, but even though I have ATT copper, Comcast Cable and Surewest fiber right outside my house on poles, there is not much competition. The only way to get a reasonable price is to switch every year or two. They all want you to bundle. However I am happy with Dish and antenna for TV. Ultimately fiber is the best for bandwidth. The modem does require power in the home and hence the need for back-up power there. So just to get phone you will have a bill from the voice provider and a power bill.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...abama-florida-for-digital-tests-to-lose-rules