atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 1A2 and some old WECO stuff

Specially for Professor Shadow: this is why Carter never had a speakerphone attached to his white call director. He probably experienced the same issue as the Marshal appointed by him.



Hi Arthur,

Yes, I have already experienced the issue described by you with those R66B blocks (I have one piece since I was building the 551C based system, but I finally neatly punched the station cables directly to the KSU 66-block and the installation looks really good). Not sure why people like to duplicate 66 block externally for Shoe Box type systems, I think they were designed to be self contained with not much external boards/equipment.

Now with the 584C panels I cannot avoid placing the 66 blocks next to them. My idea was to mount the blocks on the same 23” rack as 584C panel - just by putting two horizontal rails below the panels and then mount R66B on those rails. Thus the 66 block will be at the same distance from the backboard as the panels and all cabling will be kept behind them.

I think I saw such installations somewhere or at least such rails were used for auxiliary equipment mounting like dial intercoms, lamp extenders etc.

Now as I still have to figure out the layout of the main backboard I’m going to have, I have an alternative option of using Reliable Electric R66 blocks. Those are much bigger than standard 66B - I believe one can punch them down blindly with eyes closed and in complete darkness. And they have the plastic base behind for placing them with some spacing from the backboard. I really like those especially for the main equipment backboard where you may need a comfortable access to individual pins for testing the panels without the risk of causing short circuit by a screwdriver or a probe.



In that case I will move the standard “small” R66B blocks to the secondary backboard. The plan is that the equipment, panels and the main distribution frame will be located in the communications room in the basement. From there a 100 pair cable will run to the secondary distribution frame at the attic (closet). Because I have now the 4 Call Directors which I want to spread evenly across the house, having a full double set of all five 25-pair multiples in the basement and in the attic will give me the necessary flexibility to run any combination of lines to any station depending on the best cable routing situation.

For now I plan to have on the first 5 positions the incoming lines. The second row of buttons will be reserved for special “hot line” or “private line” type service for the most frequently called destinations. The other three could be just extra lines for now before I can find a better application for them. Because I still need to keep other 6-button stations fully functional, so I don’t want to put any incoming lines on buttons which are not accessible from all stations.

But it is only a plan for now, and a lot to do to make the implementation of it without disrupting the current service from 551C KSU. That one will be later moved to my office at the company to be used there.