atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telecom Service & Providers Party Lines

Did someone say NASCAR? ...oops, I didn't mean to be off topic.

Professor "NASCAR on the LEFT Coast" Shadow

Now how would you dial another subscriber that is on your line?

Am I correct in thinking that if you have your receiver off hook to dial the number, the line is tied up and the Co won't send the ring sequence through.

The only way I could see it working is that the call would go through after you hung up and you then got a ring back when the called party answered?

You would receive a message that says "You have called another party on your line. Please hang up, allow sufficient time for your party to answer, then pick up your receiver and talk".

The called party would hear a tick tone indicating that they should wait for the calling party to pick up.

you still get that here , dial your own number and it rings when you answer

"you have called a party on your own line "

evan though its a private line

The Queens County [New York City] phone directory still has the warning that State law requires party lines be yielded in an emergency. Up to the early 90's,the Nassau and Westchester county directories listed rates for two party lines and the Suffolk county directory for two and four party lines [Suburbs of New York City].
And of course one of the most famous party lines of all times must be the two-party line shared by Doris Day and Rock Hudson in 'Pillow Talk'. It seems kind of unlikely that in 1960's Manhattan, party lines would be used for two luxury apatments as depicted in the movie.

In the late '60s and early '70s in NYC there was such a shortage of OSP that NY Tel was still offering party lines. THe wait for repairs was also horrendous. Things were so bad that the PSC refused to allow them to issue any new products (Picturephone was what they were asking for at the time) until they cleaned up their act.

Sam

there are still party lines in quebec wow, bell forced my aunt off a party line up in l'annonciation.

I have customers to this day that at times have this problem

How does REN enter into party line service?

If you can't have more than a ren of 5 in a house how did it work sending ringing current with up to 8 different customers all over the place. I don't think party line customers would be all same street neighbours or would they?

Also could you have extention phones with a ringer in you house if you had a party line?

Never having seen a party line I find this topic interesting.

With frequency ringing it wouldn't since you'd only ring on the correct frequency. As far as Bell goes you'd be using 1/2 the REN since you're ringing to ground. So two parties times 1/2 REN would equate to having 10 sets (bells) on a single party line. Than take into account the range extenders, carriers, subsets and other things in the field REN was really no factor.

Where it became a problem was when we went from party line to private in the deep rural areas. Now the guy who had 8 phones and a couple loud bells on his ranch had to have dial long line units to boost the ringing current.