sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 20A4 power unit

HM60 was a small X-Bar hotel/motel switch.

There were a lot of small hotel/motel switches around in those days. There were even some 1A2 systems (ITT 76A comes to mind) that real small hotels used.

Sam

Now that my curiosity is piqued, do any pictures of any of this equipment survive? I'd be interested in seeing one of these things.

Not sure about the HM60, but here's what the ITT 76A looked like:



(Image source: https://www.frillfreephones.com/itt76aksu.html)

From that page the 76A could support 7 Lines/18 Phones/2 Intercom Links, 14 Lines/36 Phones/3 Intercom Links, or 20 Lines/54 Phones/4 Intercom Links.

Western Electric's Dialog Intercom (6B) allowed one-pair wiring to single-line stations and dial 9 access to trunks, so this might have been what they had in place. Tone Commander also had their ML-8000 intercom series back then that Bell companies were using to save money (and space). The 6B had a self-contained power supply for all voltages, so I doubt that was originally installed there. The ML-8000 required separate power. They made a special cable that allowed it to plug directly into a modular power supply, such as the WECO 79B5. With this said, I don't think either of these systems were there.

Since Tone Commander's multi-link intercom came along with a much smaller footprint and price tag, the 6B didn't stay around very long. Tone Commander also made a similar system called "Innkeeper" for small hotel/motel applications, but I don't know of any Bell companies that used it. The only non-Western Electric hotel/motel products that I ever saw listed in AT&T's comcode catalog were the Mitel SX100/200 analog PBX series.

Here's a link to the BSP for the 6B for your reading pleasure:

BSP 518-411-100

I'm thinking that Bill's HM60 suggestion might be the closest logical answer.

Thanks, Nick. That picture is cool. I got all excited to see that. Now, that BSP for the 6B on the other hand, that made my head hurt. I've spent many hours with my nose in various BSP's in the pursuit of 1A2 nirvana, unraveling the mysteries of diode matrices, busy lamp fields and now finding the leads for the hold lamp and buzzer in my call director. I've always come out with a better understanding than when I went in. But that contraption.... What twisted genius thought that up? I'll have to re-read that one a couple more times.

It seems to me I found a supply like that in a Best Western circa 1996 or 7. The only thing it was attached to was a HOBIC interface box. Even that much I can't really swear to--it's what the owner told me, but we subsequently figured out he didn't know much about the setup. His cranky night auditor was a lot more helpful. They had some kind of 1A2 setup, but I didn't pay too close attention at the time. We were replacing it with a used Comdial system the owner had brought in from another property where they put in something from Nortel.