Telecom-REQUEST@MIT-XX.ARPA (10/21/85)
From: Moderator <Telecom-REQUEST@MIT-XX.ARPA>
TELECOM Digest Sunday, October 20, 1985 11:33PM
Volume 5, Issue 53
Today's Topics:
S.I.T.s (Special Information Tones)
cheap modems
call hunting
Racal-Vadic VA4224 (2400 bps) modems (info wanted)
Daa daa daa - the number...
Dear Mr. Phone company
Active line indicator
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Date: 18-Oct-1985 2220
From: covert%castor.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM (John Covert)
Subject: S.I.T.s (Special Information Tones)
The first two tones can vary, but the last tone is always the same.
This provides a binary encoding indicating four different meanings.
Tone 1 Tone 2 Tone 3
Low: 913.8 Hz 1370.6 Hz
High: 985.2 Hz 1428.5 Hz 1776.7 Hz
Low tone is always 274 ms, High is 380 ms
Category: Reorder Low High
Vacant Code High Low
No Circuits High High
Intercept Low Low
/john
------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, 15 October 1985 11:59-MDT
From: Mark Hastings <markus%fluke.uucp@BRL.ARPA>
Subject: cheap modems
>Does anyone have any information on the 'cheap' 1200 baud modems
>advertised in BYTE or the company that sells them? The ad is on page
>473 of the Sept. BYTE (and is also in the Oct. issue). It shows as a
>103/212 modem and claims Hayes Compatability (the Sept issue says Hayes
>Compatable and the Oct issue says 99% Hayes Compatable). The prices
>they show are $179 assembled, $140 kit (assembled PC board - 5 minute
>assembly time), and $120 kit (solder it yourself). The company is
>Concord Technology out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
>It seems like a good deal, but my mother always had a saying about good
>deals.
THIS DEAL IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!!!!
I have delt with the company directly. Over two months ago I was in
Vancover BC and decided to check out the company. The manager (I
think) said that if I paid now, I would have a modem sent to me within
10 to 14 days. I paid cash (I know what a sucker). Well, two weeks
later, no modem. I called them up, and I was told they would be in by
Friday and I would get it in one more week. A week and a half went
by, I called them up again and got the same story. This went on for
another three weeks. After five weeks waiting and calling, I called
again. I told the manager (I think) that he should send out a notice
after 30 days telling customers of the delay. I asked him if I would
ever get my modem or if this would go on and on. He got very angry at
this and said (and I quote) "WE DON'T NEED CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU". I'm
not sure what he meant, but I think he meant, 'customers that expect
satisfaction and product for the money they (we) have spent'. I have
since called twice asking for my money back, all I can get from them
is, and I quote "OH I THOUGHT SOMEONE SENT IT LAST WEEK. I WILL SEND
IT TODAY". You know the old saying "THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL".
In my opinion, this would be a very poor company --> CONCORD TECHNOLOGY LTD.
in which to spend your hard earned money!!! 47 W. Broadway
Vancover BC Canada
By the way, they have been advertising that 300/1200 baud modem for 3
months in Byte, and as a week ago have not shipped modems.
The comments that I have made are of my own and do not reflect that of
my employer.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 85 11:47:04 edt
From: David M. Siegel <dms@mit-hermes>
Subject: call hunting
Funny that you had problems getting call hunting going... I just want
through the same experience myself. I asked for another phone line to
be installed, with hunting going from my original number to the new
number. New England Telephone put in the new line fast enough, but
no call hunting. They told me it would turn on by 6pm the next day.
After a week of telephone calls to the business office, they finally
figured out that I'm on a crossbar switch, not an ESS, and that the
new number can only be 500 digits apart from the old number for
hunting to work. I had told them from the start that I wanted hunting
between the two lines, so I wonder why they didn't give me a number
that would work? Anyway, they changed the new number to something
closer to the original number, and told me hunting would be on by 6pm
the next day. Still no luck. After that, the business office told me
that it was no longer their problem, and I should call the repair
center. Well, to make a long story short, I called the repair center
twice a day for 2 weeks before they turned that damn hunting on. The
repair center blamed the delays on: hurrican Gloria, the Bell system
breakup, the business office, the Sept college telephone service
request crunch...
Oh well, at least I have hunting now.
------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, 15 October 1985 14:20-MDT
From: "William P. Malloy" <decvax!ittatc!ittral!malloy@Ucb-Vax.ARPA>
Subject: Racal-Vadic VA4224 (2400 bps) modems (info wanted)
Does anyone out there have Racal Vadic VA 4224 modems installed and
running? We currently have 3 3481's modems (actually 6, but only 3
phone lines). Our major USENET connection `ittatc' in CT has USR
Robotics 2400's. However we'd like to stick to our rack mounts, thus
the 4224's. Those of you with a bunch of normal modems stacked on top
of each other, can probably appreciate why we wish to stick with our
modem rack. (easier to use, especially for debugging) It turned out
extremely useful while getting 4.2 to talk to our modems. The
distributed Racal-Vadic code for 4.2 just plain doesn't work.
The 4224's are rack-mounted fitting in the Racal-Vadic modem rack
along with our VA3481 (triple VA 3400, 212, 103) modems and VA831
auto-dailer. I would particularly like to know if someone knows if
the infamous "Rockwell chip set" problem has been fixed. I'd also
like to know how easy they are to install if someone else has already
done it. In particular the 4224 comes WITH an auto-dailer built-in.
Can we just ignore it and use the VA831? If not, does anyone know how
to auto-dial them? I.e. are they compatible with anything?
I'll send a summary of replies (if any) to anyone who's interested.
Also if we actually get to buy these modems, I'll let you know how the
installation goes.
=William P. Malloy
p.s. Interesting point. These suckers talk (2400/1200/300) but the
protocols supported are (V.22/212/103). Note: Vadic 3400 protocol is
not supported!
-- Address: William P. Malloy, ITT Telecom, B & CC Engineering Group,
Raleigh NC
{ihnp4!mcnc, burl, ncsu, decvax!ittvax}!ittral!malloy
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 85 2:04:04 EDT
From: Joe Pistritto <jcp@BRL.ARPA>
Subject: Daa daa daa - the number...
The three tone burst at the beginning of phone intercept
announcements appears to be international, by the way. I recently dialed
a wrong number in Basel Switzerland (from the US), and got the three tone
burst associated with 'the number you have dialed is not in service, please
check the number and dial again', except that the announcement was in
German (!). I recognized the tones however, and realized what had
happened. I have only heard one set of tones however, does anyone know
what the different sequences mean?
-JCP-
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 85 07:30:45 EDT
From: "Stephen C. Hill" <STEVEH@MIT-MC.ARPA>
Subject: Dear Mr. Phone company
It will be interesting to see if you get billed for this 'service'.
------------------------------
Date: Fri 18 Oct 85 23:57:46-PDT
From: Ole Jorgen Jacobsen <OLE@SRI-NIC.ARPA>
Subject: Active line indicator
I'd like to build a simple circuit that will turn on an LED
when a phone line is active. The circuit should be powered
by the telco line, withstand ringing voltage and preferably
be small enough so as to be mounted behind the RJ11 modular
faceplate. The idea is to be able to see that a phone line
is in use without picking up another instrument to listen
(and cause havoc to a modem/computer). Any smart hardware
hackers out there?
<OLE>
<370>
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End of TELECOM Digest
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