atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telephone Repairs & Equipment Magicall electronic autodialer

Thanks, Bob. Anything's a help.

Bill-
Are you still stuck? I have all the info on these. I just need to know exactly which model main unit and dial-in unit you have. There were versions made for the Bell System / Western Electric, and those made for commerical sale.
I'm new to this forum as well!

Jeremy

Yes, I'm still stuck. I am going to let my engineering son try to help me first. It looks like you joined about the same time I did.

GAWD! I'm dating myself - but my grandmother had a couple of these installed at the house when I was about 19. Eventually she swapped them out to the newer "Touchmatics" and I got one of the old units for my use in my room.

Okay - as memory serves me from being a 19 year old phone freak — the MC would interface with single line and 1A2 key equipment. The black/yellow leads were the "a-lead" control that lit the lamp and supported line seizure when a line button was depressed. I got the manual from our Mountain Bell installer and hooked up my own unit all those years ago. I think I had it connected to a 1A2 separate 6 btn key pad, which allowed me to connect the MCall unit to it and still have a single line Trimline with a 25 foot (color matching) six conductor cord on it so I could walk around the room while talking on one of the various lines.

The power supply on the unit came in from the wall power jack and came up over a separate cord as I remember, then it tied together in the base unit. The unit had a dial in a box that plugged into it for programming in the numbers, too. Once a location was programmed, from then on you just pressed the up or down button to scroll electrically (of course) to the name of the listed party and hit the select / dial button.

The dialer could be adjusted for clicks per second but it did not do touch tone — although it would do rotary pulses really fast for a rotary system. The old crossbar CO we were served out of could be outrun by the dialer but when they converted it to an ESS Co I got rid of the Magic Call beast and got some other sort of Dialer on a strip that was an 80's kind of thing. The old Magic Call could be ordered in a version that worked with speakerphones and all sorts of 1A2 key sets. You could fill up the whole desk with a six button 1A2 key set, the Magic call box, a speaker and mike set up, etc. It was not nightstand friendly, that was for certain. Took up too much room! And of course the ubiquitous 25 pair cable running round the room to serve the system. We had five lines, a dial intercom an about 12 or 15 phones in a very large house.

Later they installed some sort of hands free call announce intercom, and later still some sets had Hands Free Answer Back on them. This was STILL 1A2 Key Telephony. Eventually someone talked Grandma into a Merlin system which stayed in the house until she sold it in the late 90's.

Grandma was a ma Bell Stock holder and loved using their toys in the house. Mountain Bell had max residential installation tariffs so they had to install anything the customer ordered for about $35 or $50 per line. And she ordered a LOT! Our library and the front entry hall in the house had six button Panel Phones installed into the walls in both places. The Panel Phone in the Library had both the little separate mike and switch box and the separate Speaker for SpeakerPhone Service in that room. My grandmother was politically active and knew both the Mayor's of Phoenix and the Governors of the State thru the years. Both the Mayor and the Governor joked that she had more telephone lines at home than either of them did. Her usual retort was that she was just doing her best to protect her investments in AT&T! When some stockholder publication would arrive from Western Electric or AT&T, touting some new offering, Grandma would inevitably be on the phone to Mountain Bell special services unit — which took care of high end homes and politicians and other notable citizens — and often she'd know about some new feature or service being available before they'd ever heard of it — necessitating it be backtracked all the way to Western Electric and special ordered and eventually installed for her. When she decided to interface the front gates with the telephone system — so she could answer a special ring, and then dial into the line an unlock code if she wished — and she wanted this for both the drive way gates and the pedestrian gates, it took engineers from Western Electric to design the "special service circuits" for her. But they did it — and tacked some piddly sum on her monthly telephone bill for having installed a lot of equipment and relays and such to make it work. Today we take such things for granted, but back in the 70's and before, it was rare indeed.

Sadly, today it would be such service at any price that would be rare. Much more rare than ever... The idea of giving the customer what they wanted is one that's totally unknown to most of these companies today.,,,,,,,,

Bill-

Did you ever get your info? I have all the prints for these units, including the overhaul manual from the Western Electric Indy Works. I can make you copies or scans if you'd like. I also just came across a small quantity of these units.

Jeremy

Reading these posts brought back memories. I used to work for DASA back in 1971 until it's demise in 1973. I worked in the NY area and my primary job was to install Magicall units at customer locations. I still have a few units sitting in my basement.

If you look at Telephone Collectors International's web site, https://www.telephonecollectors.org/DocumentLibrary/BSPs/index.htm, go to the auto dialers section and there are pdfs on installation, maintenance and general information. Everything you wanted to know about the Magicall is there, including wiring diagrams. Look for BSPs in the 512-125-100 - 300 sections. I was able to connect my Magicall and had it work.

I went there but coulnt get in I guess you need to be a member?

Were you prohibited from getting in, or did you receive a 404 error message?

When you click on the link that Dwight provided, you must delete the comma at the very end, then refresh the page. The comma is causing a search error.