[comp.dcom.telecom] Tone Plant & Stromberg-Carlson

larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (09/27/89)

In article <telecom-v09i0406m02@vector.dallas.tx.us> john@zygot.ati.com
(John Higdon) writes:
> The dial and busy/reorder tones in a stock Stromberg XY are generated
> by a device which uses a single vacuum tube. Ringback comes from a
> vibrating reed device (and sounds like a fart). The sound made by the
> dial tone generator is reminiscent of the old WE SXS "honker" tone but
> has a more mellow timbre.

	Anything is possible with Stromberg-Carlson, I suppose.  I have
not seen any S-C tone generators which used vacuum tubes, however.  All
of the S-C F40 and F80 XY PABX's used ferroresonant tone and ringing
generators, which I believe were made by Warren.  In the case of S-C XY
CO's that I have seen, while the office interrupter panel was always S-C,
the tone plant was usually Warren and solid-state (Warren had solid-state
tone plant in the 1950's).  I have also seen Lorain solid-state tone
plant in XY CO's, along with some older Holzer-Cabot ringing-tone machines.
No vacuum tubes, though.

	Now, in my humble opinion, if there is an apparatus manufacturer
worthy of bashing, it is Stromberg-Carlson.  XY worked well until the first
careless switchman or screwed-up selector or connector banged into the
wire bank multiple.  No matter how one tried, one could NEVER get a banged
wire multiple straight enough so that it again worked reliably.  As far as
I am concerned, XY ran on a wing and a prayer, and was pure junk.

	S-C was notorious for test apparatus that was built into cheap
flakeboard cases, painted a mottled maroon.  Even when S-C came out with
their electronic Cross-Reed systems (which were awful), the test sets
were STILL built in a junky case which flaked wood and paint just by
looking at it.  It's hard to get a feeling of quality when your $ 1,000,000
ESS switch comes with test sets which look like painted orange crates.

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