covert%covert.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (John R. Covert) (01/12/89)
> Operator: That's Spencerville 269, and you're calling > Milford Sound 6. > >Antique? What's antique? We still have plenty of those here, and if it's possible when not doing a transferred call charge to Milford Sound 6 to dial it directly, the NZ system is less antique than ours. The Patrick Creek Lodge, near Crescent City California, is "Idlewild 5." To call this you must call your operator (I suspect if you're outside the LATA you've gotta call AT&T; Sprint operators almost certainly can't put the call through). BTW, the number is listed with normal 707 555-1212 directory assistance. It's a magneto phone on a ring down. Although the last full magneto exchange was removed from Bryant Pond, Maine, several years ago, there are still quite a few phones in remote places which have to be called via special ring-down magneto circuits on the local intra-LATA toll board. /john [Moderator's Note: And don't forget northern Nevada. There are dozens of these 'toll stations' as they are called; tiny communities with two, three or maybe four telephones in total. I think the entire state of Nevada is in a single telephone directory, called logically enough, "Nevada Bell". An entire town with all five telephones -- or sometimes three entire towns! -- will be listed on a single page. For billing purposes, they are called 'other places' and connection is from your long distance operator via Reno, NV Microwave (702+181)