Just noticed the other night that Letterman took a call "on air" from a beige 2564.

Regis Philbin has a red one on his desk on the "Live with Regis and Kelly" show. One time Ripa complained about the "old" phone on the desk. Said something along the lines that you would think they could afford a new phone.

It is easier to integrate a 1A2 telephone system to ON AIR wiring schemes than later electronic sets.

Thanks for that Arthur If possible, could you provide me with a little run-down why that is so?

Also, I am wondering who maintains these systems? Are there still some old-timers out in the field grumbling about how the new techs couldn't crimp an RJ11 connector, grinning at the bewildered faces of the young, semi-pubescent know-it-alls who go pale when faced with a true to life, ANALOG electro-mechanical device!?

" Also, I am wondering who maintains these systems?"
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Sorry if I beat you to it Arthur, but I COULD NOT RESIST!!!! Cat 6, NOBODY MAINTAINS THE SYSTEMS, THEY DON"T BREAK, IF THEY ARE LEFT ALONE!!!!

That's just awesome. Far cry from our new "lean and mean" products. As I've said before, I'm still looking for the "mean". But since the equipment didn't belong to the end user back in the day (that's what I heard), it was in the telco's best interest to have stuff that doesn't break, since it would be them picking up the tab if it did.

But come to think of it, in the world of the ISP's, the modems and routers etc are often rented equipment as well, but they kind of suck most of the time, so I'm a little confused.

The answer is:

The phones can easily be wired for 4-wire service, so that on-air amplification/isolation can be easily engineered, the A leads provide an easy way of determining off/on hook status, parts are bullet-proof and easily swapped out, no finicky electronics, and any real tech can work on them.

The Bell System did not want to have to repair anything, it looked bad in the customer's eyes! (Of course a lot of other stuff besides phones was built better 40 years ago!) 1A2 systems went in with the legitimate expectation that 25 years was a minimum wear out point. The weakest part was the interrupter. Motor driven cam that operated contacts for ringing line lamp flash, on-hold line lamp flash, and audible (ringing). The weak part is the motor, but they normally lasted at least 10 years! No contact ever carried the current they were capable of, relays are 'underloaded', there is just enough stress in the equipment to keep it working! The 5 line phones would bust your foot if they fell on it, but they would STILL work! You could drive nails with them, except they were awfully heavy, (5 pounds) and very awkward to swing! Ahhh, the good old days.

Thanks Arthur.

Lightninghorse, then I would have to say that Bell (Bell Canada) doesn't care all that much anymore about looking bad in their customer's eyes, because their internet equipment is pretty much for the birds.

So basically the 1A2 equipment was "overengineered". Good stuff!

Actually, a British scientist wrote a book about that subject in particular. The book is called "Low Tech: A Manifesto for an Overwound World". He takes about "robustness" or rather the modern LACK of it, and how, at the end of the day, it is BAD business sense to "underengineer", which is the case most of time today.

The 1A2 phone has long been a Letterman trademark. Even when he was with NBC.

About 2 months ago, there was an episode where they changed Dave's phone to a "new" state of the art phone.

Needless to say, Dave screwed up the call at every turn. Even having to have an "instant replay" to see if Dave accidently pressed a button that cut the caller off. He did press the button.

I noticed ever since that one episode, the beige 2564 or 5 sits on his desk.

It is my understanding that converting a digital phone system to analog for broadcast on the air is much more complicated electronically and practically. Many radio stations still use 1A2 systems because they're analog end-to-end and interface with the station's control board seamlessly.

You would just need some kind of modulator/demodulator (modem) for the conversion, but why bother with the extra equipment.

Full-duplex modem at that.

I am watching a clip of Letterman from January and he has a black 500 set on the desk...

A 500? I think they do that for the "retro" appeal. My neighbour actually still uses a 500. He's too cheap to dish out the like 3 something bucks for touch tone service. That's pretty damn cheap.

Speaking previously of analog to digital conversions, most households have several appliances that do that all the time. The baseset of a cordless phone connected to the POTS converts the analog from the CO to digital, then back to analog, out the transmitter, back to digital in the handset, then back to analog! Four conversions from CO to your handset.

Here's a video of him with the phone. He uses it to try and call the Pentagon.

Best have a talk with your neighbour. If he's still RENTING that 500 set, the last I knew it was about $5.25/month for that thrill. CHEAPer to trade it in & get Touch Tone service. :read:

The poor phone!

$5.25 to rent the 500? All I know is that he needed a new handset cord, and bell wouldn't fix it for him, so luck would have it (and in this case, he must be the luckiest SOB alive) that his neighbour (moi) actually has spares of that sort! So I fixed it for him.

I know that's what I said when I saw it the first time!

cat 6, my barber over here in chateauguay has a metal dial 500 rented from bell and hard wired, that phone must have cost him about a million so far, he told me its been in his shop since it opened in 1963!

HA! You gotta love people like that! No pressure to "get with the times". My extraordinarily insignificant act of non-conformity is no cell phone.

But then again, it is a barber shop in Chateaugay, not exactly the headquarters of the IMF

in all the years ive been going there the phone has rung once... and it was a wrong number.

i just love the fact its still hard wired!

aboute 4 years ago i got a call from a store that was moving and they wanted a hand moving thier phone system. i figured no sweat, i get there, a 3 line 1A2 setup. 1 phone at each of the 4 checkouts and 6 phones around the store.

i sold them a 6x16 i had collecting dust

As I remember it the 2564 was meant for speakerphone setup with T,R,A,A1 going out on the violets, with the speakerphone wired through the hookswitch, or something of the sort, been a few years. The 2565 was the same set without the violet pairs.

Almost. The 2564 was the one not configured for speakerphone and did not have the violet pairs.

Oops, had it backwards.

I've got a 2564 in the same color that Letterman has in the video except the faceplate is a contrasting color.

Yup, me too