sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems Before 1A2 and 1A1

Since I am young and I only learned with digital phone systems, it still boggles my mind that the things we take for granted now were so much more complicated then. For example, diodes to block lines from ringing on a certain telephone. Geeze, now all I have to do is program it with the computer to do things like that. The very first install I helped with was taking out a 1A2 system and putting in a small Iwatsu. I had never seen anything like the 1A2. Of course now it all makes more sense to me

Jeff, things weren't so complicated back in those days IF you were properly trained. In fact, I'll go so far to say things were much more simple in the 1A1 & 1A2 days. Things either worked or they didn't.
And if they didn't there were only a few things that could be the problem, so by the process of elimination you could locate a problem and fix it.

In those days we had Bell System Specifications (BSP's) that pretty much outlined anything you ran across. Of course there were always instances that were not covered in the books but for the most part you used the knowledge you gained in the field to accomplish whatever task you faced.

But back in those days all a key system really provided was the status of the line for the user.. Example: if the line key lamp was steady, the line was in use, if it was blinking fast (winking) it was on hold, if it was flashing it was ringing on an incoming call. That's it.

Bobby is on the money.

In those days, you installed the system and if it didn't work, you found out what it was you did wrong and fixed it. The trouble was almost never with the basic equipment - it was almost always an installation problem.

It got feisty though, when the customer ordered all sorts of peripherals - multi channel intercoms, call diverters, hands free talk back, abbreviated dialers, remote hold, etc.

That's when you separated the men from the boys.

Sam

Sam, just call me "Sonny" !!!! :rofl:

Ken, Somehow I doubt that.


Sam

Complex wiring, but as stated it was most all in the specs. I can remember a few things that you had to get pretty inventive about to make them work.

What I hated was the butt head who thought they were protecting their job by not labeling and using random wiring patterns. We had a place out behind the CO for them.

I did forget about the "hotlines" too. I think anyone at, or above, the rank of Captain thought of hotlines as a status symbol when I was in the Air Force. The more hotlines on your phone the more important you were. And they would get pissed off if they didn't get approval for a new one.

It got to the point that hotlines almost became banned at one base I was stationed at because of the abuse. Our Commander at the time had the guts to put a stop to the non-sense and he did it in a hurry once he gained the support of the base Commander.

The problem was that there just weren't enough cable pairs to accommodate so many "important" people.
All of a sudden there were a lot of "less important" people on that base. :p

Bobby -

Wall Street Traders had (have?)100/200/300 button phones that were almost exclusively hotlines. Before caller ID when the phone rang they wanted to know EXACTLY who was calling them.

What used to get to me was the "hoolie-goolies" that we used to have to build early on in the industry (early '70s). People that wanted weird stuff that the salesman would say "Sure, our system can do that!" Then we'd have to build something. A pain. But we learned a lot.

Sam

Sam, you're right about the sales/field disconnect. On the other hand, being able to design and build some weird circuitry gave us satisfaction that we would not otherwise have gotten in a more boring job.

I was asked by a customer, via the ATT-IS engineers, to design a system that would allow any phone user in a large factory to release up to a dozen different doors on the factory, using just one button on a phone. The system was a ComKey 2152.

There were security cameras that would allow any worker to see all the doors from any desk, using monitors around the factory. When the common door bell button circuit was pushed, we sent generator to a line circuit on the system. The line circuit used S1A tone ringers so that they would be distinctive from the regular line ringers. Then the users would look at the monitors, determine what doorbell was being rung, and push the line key marked "DOORS". That button homed in on a Teltone T19 dial intercom, whose outputs were interfaced via relays to the various door strikes. We used a 597 panel, and used 401A manual intercom cards for the relay function. In that way, anybody repairing the system would be able to use off-the-shelf parts.

Simple: Hear a bell, look at the monitor, see what the number of the door is, and dial the same one or two digits on the DOOR line.

The customer was happy, I got to show off how clever I was, and God knows what the company charged him for the "special assembly."

I wonder if it's still working?

Arthur-

We used those Dial Intercoms for everything. We used one to build a zone paging system in a convent. Access a trunk port on the PBX, connect to the Melco (it offered Dialtone!), get 2nd DT, dial the code for the appropriate area (0 for the basement, 1 for the 1st floor...8 for the outdoor speakers, 9 for all call) and a 17B relay would kick in. The ICM talkpath ran to a WMT-1 and into the Amp.

Mother Superior was very happy.

Your system sounds great! I also always wonder if some of the stuff I built is still in operation. Usually you never find out. Recently though...

I teach a class at the Local 3 Apprentice school. Last year a young fellow came up and said "Mr. Silverman, I see your name every day."

It turns out that 20+ years ago I wrote an application in dBase that managed the cable records (Extensions, cable pairs, OE, auxil lines, special ckts) for the Irving Trust Company. It replaced a slew of ledger books and made our lives much easier. Irving Trust is gone, but their successor, Bank of NY/JP Morgan was still using the system.

And on the title screen it said:

(c) 1986 Sam Silverman GTE

BTW - I never got a nickel for it.


Sam