morris@jade.jpl.nasa.gov (Mike Morris) (08/05/89)
Back when I was installing key systems, I discovered something interesting in the Pasadena (CA.) area - it might be a local trick, or might be standard (but I didn't find it in Arcadia, or Alhambra or anywhere else). If a business had a Ma Bell installed 1A2 system, the pole drop cable was either 6 or 12 pairs. If it was underground it was at least 25. Now comes the cute trick. The local ring generator was connected to the last pair, if it wasn't used for a incoming line. I don't know why, the only use I can conjecture is to determine if the customer had a power failure without a inside premise visit... I never climbed the pole to see if it was terminated there or ran to the CO - I can't imagine it did as it would be a waste of pairs. I didn't have a key for the ground level junction block cabinets, so was unable to check there. Pasadena also had a cute trick - the telephone poles in back of the local Burger King, MacDonalds, Winchells Donuts, etc had lockboxes at shoulder height with a 1-pair protector in them, and was connected to a ringdown to the test board. It was quite common to see a telco truck parked next to the pole with a tech standing there, butt set to his ear and munching on lunch... Again, never saw it anywhere else. Don't know if it is still in use, as I don't have a Warner-Bohannon key. Likewise the GTE Sierra Madre exchange (818-355) (which went from SxS to EAX a couple of years ago) was the only one I ever saw which allowed the user to lease a pair to the CO and have a hunting defeat switch on the side of the receptionist's phone. The customer was a MD and had 3 incoming lines and one answering machine for after-hours calls. When the office was closed, the machine was on and hunting was defeated. Interestingly he had a 25-pair underground cable into the building (3 storefronts, 1 story and a common equipment room) and only the first 9 pairs were in use for incoming lines, and the hunting defeat switch was connected to the last pair. This was also the exchange which had 3 ring plants on the SxS, probably a leftover from the party line days. A friend's house had phones in each of 3 bedrooms, the living room, and the kitchen. An incoming call would ring _sequentially_ in various rooms - I discovered that the house had a mix of 20hz, 30hz and 16hz (I think - this is 15 years ago!) ringers and the CO would sequence them down the line - while feeding one ringback to the caller. Mike Morris UUCP: Morris@Jade.JPL.NASA.gov #Include quote.cute.standard | The opinions above probably do not even come cat flames.all > /dev/null | close to those of my employer(s), if any.
vances@xenitec.uucp (Vance Shipley) (08/08/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0274m05@vector.dallas.tx.us> Mike Morris <morris@jade. jpl.nasa.gov> writes: >Likewise the GTE Sierra Madre exchange (818-355) (which went from SxS to EAX >a couple of years ago) was the only one I ever saw which allowed the user to >lease a pair to the CO and have a hunting defeat switch on the side of the >receptionist's phone. The customer was a MD and had 3 incoming lines and one >answering machine for after-hours calls. When the office was closed, >the machine was on and hunting was defeated. ... This is/was quite common here in Ontario. 'Break hunt' is a tarriffed service offering. In a DID situation it is quite common to have a "power fail" pair back to the central office. When the pbx is down (power fail, reload, etc.) the central office is alerted by the lack of (or presence of, depending on local engineering) -48 volts on this pair. Incoming calls for the DID lines are either presented with overflow or re-routed to any incoming trunks they have. Vance Shipley uucp: ..!{uunet!}watmath!xenitec!vances Linton Technology - SwitchView INTERNET: vances@egvideo.uucp 180 Columbia Street West (soon) vances@xenitec.uucp Waterloo, Ontario fax: (519)746-6884 CANADA N2L 3L3 tel: (519)746-4460