"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (08/30/90)
In article (Digest v10, iss 588), AJ writes: >Anyone know where to get a book of standards (e.g. USOC - Universal >Service Order Code) for things like the order of colors to punch >down on '50 blocks from 50 pair, 100 pair, 200 pair, etc cables? The fabled "Blue-Orange-Green-Brown-Slate" of North American telephone cables is a real "fun" standard, AJ. Most people think it was set up by Bell, of course, and it might indeed well have been. I have some (rather spiffy circular slide-rule/chart) documents from Western Union citing "Western Electric" as the source. However, these are recent enough (1950's) that WECo had certainly been manufacturing to them for several decades. It turns out that the"Blue-Orange-Green-Brown-Slate" IS the "standard" of an organized group you might have fun tracking down. The standard number (S-83, as I recall), is from the Insulated Cable Engineers Association, listed in the "Encyclopedia of Associations" as resident at a phone in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. That reference says the ICEA has been around since 1927. My gut feeling makes that a vintage year for the color code to have been "standardized" by somebody. I ran across the reference in standards work on wiring in buildings per EIA TR 41.8. However, that path ran dry when I found the ICEA phone number really was a point in the North American network you couldn't get to from here. All sorts of peculiar recordings and no assistance operator that could or would help. It all led me to wonder if, in fact, the ICEA was resident in telephone Oz. If you REALLY want the document, I suggest you start back with the Encyclopedia of Associations listing at the library to validate the number and such. (In fact, tracking that number and its routing problem sounds like the sort of dialing adventure some of our more intrepid Digest readers take on as their challenges of choice.) As to the USOC book, its purpose is not to list the color code, and I wouldn't expect you'll find any indications there. Universal Service Order Codes have become one of the true "phone business" oxymoronic contradictions in terms. Once a stellar monopoly-era Bell System attempt to automate and standardize ordering and billing codes for service orders, that system never did get very well standardized as the Bell people kept finding and attempting to rationalize all the variations the local operating company people had. And, the local people of different companies invented different USOCs for the same thing, sometimes even division by division of the same company. Today, there are as many "USOC books" as there are Telcos ... all of them "Universal." If you don't believe me, ask them! Whatever one they have, it's LAW. If you don't believe me, ask them again! If you really WAMT a "USOC book," prepare yourself for another adventure in "Telephony by Oz." You will be constantly assured that you have the right to have one, because it's public information. However, you'll also be told that the "nasty lawyers" of the Telco always have the "nice guy" employee you get on the phone stonewalled, and there's just no one for you to talk to about it. (Oh, there are USOC books in circulation, always in the hands of someone who has a "friend on the inside." These are usually recent 20-30 year retirees who know where to call for a 'sub rosa' copy.) But, you'll still find no color code in the USOC book. Even the various Plant Practices (BSP, GSP, CSP, you-name-it SP) practices hardly ever mention the color code, because it's something everybody "just knows," or it _might_ be on the drawing for a particular assembly ... but in the USOC book? Uh-uh. I'd be interested to hear what adventures AJ and others have tracking along this route, either to USOC books or the color code "standard." (Those who want the color code recited from memory can get any of a number of us old crustaceans to recite it for an hourly fee, I'm sure. Rates similar to those of Bhuddist monks and Tibetan prayer-wheel makers.)