Ed, the 601's IC may have been expensive, but when you compared that to the cost AND the installation time of a Melco, etc, it was pretty much a push and using the 601 IC was a lot cleaner. We based our installs on $50/hour for the 1st man and $30/hr for additional men. Rounded up on time for each item and that meant $50 install for the Melco, plus materials and Melco cost. The 601 IC was a plug and play 2 minute install and wiring was simpler, after you'd done a couple. I suppose you will disagree, but I was the ops MGR and I didn't want 'stuff from here and stuff from there' and stuff that made the job cheaper and came back to haunt me for service. Any extra cost could be written off against serviceability. Yeah, I know I had great company owners! Seviceability was NEVER considered by most interconnects, AND came back to bite! But, that's all gone now.
John C. (Not Garand)
