Like the man said, the polarity convention in telephony is that ground is positive. Therefore, battery ("hot") is negative. Therefore anytime battery is referenced in text or on an SD we use the negative symbol in front of the number.

There are a few specialized places in telephony where the D-C supply is center-tapped, so that one side is higher than ground, and the other side is lower. In those cases, you will see "-v" and "+v".


Arthur P. Bloom
"30 years of faithful service...15 years on hold"