atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems Call Director 636CAM1 Questions

Good morning, all. I started to get my old call director set fixed up. When I received it, the cord was just snipped about 5 inches away from the phone, unfortunately. Last night I finished pigtailing it together, and now just working on 'cleaning up' the splice. I realize now after splicing and taking the phone apart what I've heard in the past about the Violet wires not being used on call directors.

I had a few questions about it, though. Here's a link to a few pictures:

[img]https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z3lrobm0j0ewu8z/AAB-792VsnTq-enw_1TmtlR7a?dl=0[/img]

1. Someone ran an extra 4-pair wire after the fact, using 3 of the pairs. It's connected as follows:
W/B L1
B/W 14
W/O 5
O/W 8
W/G 53
G/W 50

Anyone may have an inclination what that wire was run for? External speaker possibly? I figured with all the extra capped wires they would've used them instead of running a new wire if it was something internal. (There are 11 extra wires on Blue bundle, 7 on Orange, and 10 on Green)

2. Buzzer--What appears to be a buzzer is connected to Terminals 22 and 27. So that would be something internal that wouldn't need an additional power supply? Would a button be dedicated to activate that buzzer, or would a number be dialed, or both are possible?

3. Bottom of the unit has the sticker that says:

R
RT
DT
KT
F

With an H written. Was curious to what that sticker meant.

I did find some call director BSPs and will be reading them to investigate, but figured I'd tap into the wealth of knowledge all of you provide.

Thanks so much!

Bob-O

Well it's a crime that someone cut the cord, but as I recall the Bell System once advertised on TV (The Wizard of OZ, maybe?) that people could just cut their cords and move their phones themselves. The assumption was for Single Line Phones. Apparently there were a great number of keysets clipped that caused unending problems.

The external cable is wired to the first line on the phone. Sometimes people wanted a Single Line "Courtesy phone" for someone in the room to pick up. Ideally a separate cable should have been run for it. Sometimes it wasn't practical to run a cable hundreds of feet and the installer cut corners and tapped off the existing multi-line set. Not good, but I'll be honest, we all did it - at least once.

As far as the buzzer....It's a standard AC buzzer, usually connected to the Y/O pair (Though sometimes to Y/BL or even Y/Gn). Designed to be hooked to a DICM or a Manual ICM.

I'll have to think on the label, at the moment it doesn't ring a bell.

Good luck!

Sam

Sam...could it have been for one of these.

Perhaps...

🤣

i tried to read this account, remain quiet and simply move on. the more i thought about it, the more i realized that
even as an admitted very low class installer, this image will not let me rest easy tonight. what has been done to this call director is definitely a crime and would upset stomachs in a lot of good technicians.

It truly is a shame. I don’t know why anyone would cut it, especially cut it so close to the phone! But I loved the phone and bought it as is, so trying my best to bring it back to life!

I wonder if another cord is available somewhere. Possibly some trashed phone somebody is selling for cheap.I would keep my eyes open.

-Hal

Dean -

That's a definite possibility.

But here's a blast from the past that relates...sort of. If not, it's a good story anyway.

I did a job in Bond's Clothing Store (a large NYC mid level mens clothing store) home office in Midtown Manhattan in the early 1970s. They had an ITT TD-400 (?) PBX installed by ITT. My firm had installed the PAX board (an OKI XBar) about 15 years before (pre interconnect). All the PAX phones were SL sets scattered across all their stores and buildings. The chairman of the board decided he wanted his PAX extension appearing on his KV set. The work order went to ITT who installed the (OPX) extension on their Key equipment and I had to convert the 500 set to A-Lead control.

I went into the chairman's office took his 500 set apart and found that the Black and Yellow wire of the mounting cord were wired to a little module inside the set. I had no idea what it was so I called my foreman, who grumblingly, came over. He saw the module, turned white and called the head of Security for Bond's.

Yup. A bug. Fit nicely inside the 500 set and used the black and yellow wires as an antenna. Broadcasting to......who knows where?

I found another one in the 10 years later at Doyle, Dane & Bernbach (Big Madison Avenue Advertising Agency). This time I knew what it was.

Sam

I hadn't heard of Doyle, Dane & Bernbach but I DO know BBD&O, courtesy of one Allan Sherman!