ssr@cos.COM (Dave Kucharczyk) (05/18/88)
Someone posted asking about hearing continuous ringing on a VHF frequency. What you were hearing was MTS (Manual Telephone Service). Some of the Bells still have it as do numerous RCC's. MTS was the predecessor of IMTS. It was basically a duplexer and a radio set up to transmitt/recieve at the same time. You would manually step through the channels untill you found a clear one and then push your 'Push to talk' switch. When the base saw that it's squelch had been broken for more than a second it would transmitt a constant ring on the reverse (your receive) channel, and ring an operator at the same time. You would hear ringing untill the operator came on and asked for your mobile number and the number you wanted to call and put the call through for you. Needless to say you could key up and walk over anybody at will and you could listen to any other conversation or use bogus numbers, which brought on IMTS where the radio automatically ID's and finds open channels without operator intervention. dave