Stan@li.psi.com (Stanfield L. Smith ) (05/28/91)
ATTENTION Telephone equipment collectors/aficionados, HAM's,
TDY support people and those involved with junior
telephone groups.
In a past life, I bought, sold and refurbished all types of teletype
equipment. As a result I have a collection of equipment and spare
parts that I am willing to donate to any person/group that can make
use of them.
The following is by no means a complete listing:
Model 15 teletypes - Newswire vintage, 5 level baudot, gears for any
standard speed. Approximately 25 units with covers, very few tables.
Model 19 teletypes - Same as the 15, but on a larger table with a TD on the
side and tape punch on the keyboard.
Model 28RT - This unit is about 5 ft tall and the girth of a household
icebox. It contains two complete and independent sets of automaticq tape
repeaters. These units were used for message store and forward.
Model 32ASR - This is a 5 level baudot machine capable of 75 words per
minute. Looks like a Model 33 but has a 3 row keyboard.
Model 33ASR and KSR - 110 baud ASCII machines.
Model 35ASR and KSR - 110-150 baud ASCII machines. Intended for heavy duty
continuous use. Have extra typing units for sprocket feed paper.
Miscellaneous - Support supplies, gears, motors - everything needed for
ongoing support of teletypes.
If you are interested in any or all of this, or know someone who is, please
contact me.
Stanfield L. Smith stan@seadog.cns.com 516-737-2238
Lake Ronkonkoma, LI, NY (50 miles east of NYC, near Islip Airport)Dan_Jacobson@att.com (05/28/91)
On 28 May 91 01:29:41 GMT, Stan@li.psi.com (Stanfield L. Smith) said:
> Model 15 teletypes - Newswire vintage, 5 level baudot, gears for any
By the way, is it true that some "Newsradio" stations nowadays just
pipe in teletype clicking to make their newsroom more newsy sounding?
E.g., WBBM-AM in Chicago has this sound.Floyd Davidson <floyd@ims.alaska.edu> (05/29/91)
In article <telecom11.406.1@eecs.nwu.edu> Dan_Jacobson@ihlpz.att.com writes: > On 28 May 91 01:29:41 GMT, Stan@li.psi.com (Stanfield L. Smith) said: >> Model 15 teletypes - Newswire vintage, 5 level baudot, gears for any > By the way, is it true that some "Newsradio" stations nowadays just > pipe in teletype clicking to make their newsroom more newsy sounding? > E.g., WBBM-AM in Chicago has this sound. It was usually "canned" sound. Nobody would really want to work around that racket. The tty machines in well designed places were in rooms with sound proofing, and nobody had to listen to them. (At least that is the way it was in the middle 60's when I worked around that kinda stuff. Maybe earlier than that it was real.) Floyd L. Davidson | Alascom, Inc. pays me, |UA Fairbanks Institute of Marine floyd@ims.alaska.edu| but not for opinions. |Science suffers me as a guest. [Moderator's Note: In the old days of Western Union public telegraph offices, the clerks and 'telegraphers' had to hear that noise all day long from several machines behind the counter where they served the public who came in to send messages. PAT]
Dan_Jacobson@att.com (05/30/91)
I have painstakingly put together a summary of e-mail replies to article <telecom11.406.1@eecs.nwu.edu> wherein I wrote: > By the way, is it true that some "Newsradio" stations nowadays just > pipe in teletype clicking to make their newsroom more newsy sounding? > E.g., WBBM-AM in Chicago has this sound. >>>>> On Wed, 29 May 91 08:24:28 EDT, Scott Dorsey >>>>> <kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov> said: Scott> Yup. In the Tidewater area, WZCL has a tape cartridge with Scott> the teletype sounds, while WCCO uses a synthesizer called the Scott> "Eventide Harmonizer" to generate the background noise. The Scott> Harmonizer is a much nicer device, because it can also simulate Scott> a bandlimited channel with static and helicopter noises for the Scott> traffic report. Scott> God, how I hate commercial radio. >>>>> On Wed, 29 May 91 06:06 CDT, jtl%ddsw1@uunet.UU.NET (Joe Lynn) said: Joe> WBBM-AM's "teletype" sound is a tape. They've been using Joe> that effect for years. >>>>> On Wed, 29 May 91 09:00:25 CDT, ho@csrd.uiuc.edu (Samuel W. Ho) said: Samuel> Hey, WUFI Newsradio here in Champaign-Urbana pipes in - Samuel> dot matrix printer chatter. A Technological Advance. >>>>> On 29 May 91 10:11:22 EDT (Wed), johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us >>>>> (John R. Levine) said: John> Sure is. These days only the teensiest of radio stations would John> have anything as klunky as a real Teletype. More typically the John> newswire goes straight into the word-processing computer.
robert@uunet.uu.net> (05/30/91)
Dan_Jacobson@att.com writes: > By the way, is it true that some "Newsradio" stations nowadays just > pipe in teletype clicking to make their newsroom more newsy sounding? > E.g., WBBM-AM in Chicago has this sound. Absolutely. KYW 1060 AM in Philadelphia (three call letters, and a K east of the Mississippi!) is all news all the time, which translates to constant teletype clunking, and if you listen carefully, you can hear where the loop of tape starts over! Robert Oliver Rabbit Software Corp. 215 993-1152 7 Great Valley Parkway East robert@hutch.Rabbit.COM Malvern, PA 19355 !uunet!cbmvax!hutch!robert
roy@cs.umn.edu> (06/01/91)
floyd@ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) writes: [about teletype machines and radio stations] > It was usually "canned" sound. Nobody would really want to work > around that racket. The tty machines in well designed places were in > rooms with sound proofing, and nobody had to listen to them. When I was with Alaskan Forces radio in the mid 70's, the newsroom had five teletypes, with four running all the time. (AP, UPI, Reuters and the AFRTS newswire compilation) The poor news guy had to put up with it all the time. I don't recall the newscasts using teletype noise in the background there, as the news was actually delivered from an ajoining studio. Curiously enough, the simplest solution (of placing a mike in the teletype room) wouldn't have worked, since three of the four wires made their hourly local breaks at the top of the hour. At an earlier job with a Nome radio station, the teletype was in the tiny news studio, albeit inside a sound-deadening casing. The AP fed that machine, and the teletype in the background was real during newscasts. The same unpredictability about local breaks was evident, though ... sometimes, the teletype would be completely silent until the last seconds of the news. (This has strayed from telecom a bit, so I shan't rant on) Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu [Moderator's Note: In the public telegraph offices of yester-year there would be usually a half-dozen or more machines. On rare instances, all would be silent for maybe ten or fifteen seconds; then there would be a soft whirring noise for a few seconds as one of the machines came on, and the click/clack would start again. PAT]
David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu> (06/03/91)
[about teletype machines and radio stations]
I know two stories about news TTY's, from different era's, but with
common threads:
1945
{The Cleveland Press}, like any other paper of its time, had many
machines. There was the A wire, the sports, etc. etc.
Well, they sat next to each other in the City Room, and made non-stop
noise. If one was stopped, another three were sure to be running. You
just ignored it. If the circuits died, they ran 'open' (clacking but
not printing anything) until the loop was fixed.
But late that summer, they ALL stopped at once. Dead. The silence was
so profound that everyone in the building knew about it at once.
Silence continued. After an interval described by one there as
"seemingly hours later" but likely only a minute or so, they ALL
restarted with the same message -- the war was over.
1970's.
At a classical music station of some fame, located on a river with the
same name as the Prince of Wales (hint;-}) the machine sat way in the
back of the station, in a semi-soundproof phonebooth sized chamber.
Now, news is not the forte of classical music stations. If fact, if it
were not for some FCC rule I'm sure John Hignon can quote, they'd do
away with it entirely. So for the three daily newscasts, the 'voice'
would run back, rip off the previous four + hours of stuff, and choose
an article or two. Of course, you got time for this task at about 30
seconds before the hour ;_]
But that day, somebody at Cheyenne Mountain had loaded and fed, not
the weekly NORAD test tape, but the WAR! one. Confusion reigned across
the US as the wrong code was used to cancel the bogus message. Some
stations ignored it. Others followed the law and went off the air
ASAP. The lead station in "our fair city" [the one that the others
have CONALRAD receivers tuned to] choose to ignore it. It took hours
to straighten out.
Can you imagine the look on the personality who finds a forest of
paper on the machine, most of which indicates that the USA has been at
war for four + hours, and Wxxx is still on the air? Gulp.
wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (305) 255-RTFMsbrack@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> (06/04/91)
wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) writes: > [about teletype machines and radio stations] > 1945 > {The Cleveland Press}, like any other paper of its time, had many > machines. There was the A wire, the sports, etc. etc. > Well, they sat next to each other in the City Room, and made non-stop > noise. If one was stopped, another three were sure to be running. You > just ignored it. If the circuits died, they ran 'open' (clacking but > not printing anything) until the loop was fixed. > But late that summer, they ALL stopped at once. Dead. The silence was > so profound that everyone in the building knew about it at once. > Silence continued. After an interval described by one there as > "seemingly hours later" but likely only a minute or so, they ALL > restarted with the same message -- the war was over. From what I understand of news teletypes, there is a break key which interrupts send/recieve along the TTY connection. This key must be held for one minute to silence the feeds on the line. (They apparently detect loss of transmiossion.) This method is used to clear the line for important transmissions, i.e. the end of WWII, the deaths of FDR & JFK, Nixon's resignation. > 1970's. > At a classical music station of some fame, located on a river with the > same name as the Prince of Wales (hint;-}) the machine sat way in the > back of the station, in a semi-soundproof phonebooth sized chamber. .... > But that day, somebody at Cheyenne Mountain had loaded and fed, not > the weekly NORAD test tape, but the WAR! one. Confusion reigned across > the US as the wrong code was used to cancel the bogus message. Some > stations ignored it. Others followed the law and went off the air > ASAP. The lead station in "our fair city" [the one that the others > have CONALRAD receivers tuned to] choose to ignore it. It took hours > to straighten out. How does the EBS/CONALRAD/SCATANA system work? I assume there is a great deal of telecom equipment used in its implementation. > Can you imagine the look on the personality who finds a forest of > paper on the machine, most of which indicates that the USA has been at > war for four + hours, and Wxxx is still on the air? Gulp. I read a report of a college AM station receiving a phone call to the effect that radicals had threatened to douse the city (somewhere in CA?) with a poisonous agent. The phone call was bogus, but convinced the student on duty to broadcast warnings to citizens that they should stay inside and close their windows (this occured, I recall, in the late summer - high temperatures). The hoax went largely unnoticed, because hardly anyone paid attention to the station that broadcast the warning! Steven S. Brack | sbrack%bluemoon@nstar.rn.com Jacob E. Taylor Honors Tower | sbrack@bluemoon.uucp The Ohio State University | sbrack@nyx.cs.du.edu 50 Curl Drive | sbrack@isis.cs.du.edu Columbus, Ohio 43210-1112 USA | brack@ewf.eng.ohio-state.edu +1 614 293 7383 or 419 474 1010 | Steven.S.Brack@osu.edu
roy@cs.umn.edu> (06/04/91)
wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) writes: > [about teletype machines and radio stations] > But that day, somebody at Cheyenne Mountain had loaded and fed, not > the weekly NORAD test tape, but the WAR! one. Confusion reigned across > the US as the wrong code was used to cancel the bogus message. Some > stations ignored it. Others followed the law and went off the air > ASAP. Hey, I remember that! It was 1973, I think ... my first year in radio. As I recall, the message I saw was the weekly Associated Press EBS test, but the AP threaded the wrong tape, and we saw the real McCoy message. The authentication codes checked out and everything. (big thrills as the news director finally got to rip open one of those red envelopes). We might have paid more attention, though, if it had come in some other time. The message arrived on Saturday, in the early afternoon (Bering Time), exactly the same time the AP _always_ ran the EBS test. I think AP began moving their tests around after that. It seems that very few stations took it seriously. > Can you imagine the look on the personality who finds a forest of > paper on the machine, most of which indicates that the USA has been at > war for four + hours, and Wxxx is still on the air? Gulp. Oh, yes, I can imagine. I also remember the look on an announcer's face when he was blasting through a bunch of news, and came across a wire piece that had actually been composed on the KSR tape-punch machine we had. It looked exactly like an authentic wire story, but was heavily peppered with un-airable expletives. He got about two syllables into it, and began to stammer and splutter, as we in the other room were collapsing in laughter. (radio folks are fun folks... some day, I'll tell you about getting pied in the face in the midst of a newscast :-) Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu