sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Use of BIX9A

Hey Guys,

I've been converted to BIX.... didn't take long.

Recently bought a bunch of surplus and got a case of BIX9A combs. They are a 2U comb that has a diode permanently punched into the back.

Anybody know what these are used for? It would be really cool if someone said "line protection"

Looking forward to all the BIX/66 block banter

Jason

I've never seen such a thing. It's not in the current Belden catalog. It may be discontinued or a special order item for a telco.

Can you get a part number from the diode or post a picture?

A BIX matrix block??

On the box it says: A0270163 QCIX9A DIODE ASSEMBLY

Diode number is IN4004 ... GI 005

Suspect the second part is a date code.

Picture from cell phone is forthcoming.... forgot my camera on a site today and need to get it tomorrow, if its still there.

Here are some pics from my phone:

I know the image quality is bad, its the best I can do tonight.

Praise the Lord! Another convert....

Never heard of a Bix9a, but from my sources, I could only find that it is for "Voice Only".

Might be a special assembly, but doubt it. Most likely made/designed for very specific application or system.

From the 1st 2 pics, it looks like a "Bridging" connector, with every 3 pairs bridged at the top and every 5 on the bottom. Diodes might be for some kind of surge protection.

Those are definitely diode matrix blocks for 1A2 ringing. They won't be of much use to anyone in today's environment.

Hmmmmmm....

I'm a youngun, so don't know much about these matters.

How would these have been used?

Curiosity killed the tech ya know.

This is really a topic for the 1A2 section, but I'll jump in here.

On the older 1A2 systems there was a "common bell" for ringing lines.

Each CO line was brought into a 400 type line card whose output was T/R out, A/A1 (control pair),LG/L (Lamp leads), and B/R (Ringer leads).

Lets say all the phones in your office picked up all 3 of your phone lines. You would then strap all the B/R leads together and run them to the Bell leads in each phone that was to ring.

This allowed your phone to ring on all lines, but with only one bell.

Now lets say you get a new line that only appears on one phone. If you strapped the B/R leads common with the rest of the lines then when line 4 rang it would ring on the appropriate phone but also on the phones where it did not appear, creating the condition known as "PHANTOM RINGER" - Bell rings, but there's no way to pick it up.

Running the B/R leads through diodes eliminated this condition.

If you need further info please post a question about Diode Matrixes (Matrices?) in the 1A2 forum.

Sam

Thats great.... i at least get the concept and the use now. I also see why the aren't terribly useful now also.

Thanks!

Jason