atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 1A2 Project

Tim, what kind of step equipment do you have? Is it ready to operate, or in "kit" form?

You might want to see what some of us are doing with our old electro-mechanical stuff.

www.ckts.info

You know Arthur, and please don't take this the wrong way, but I find it a bit humorous how equipment that was so "antiquated" is now so hot.

CKTS.info is doing a great job of merging the old with the new to prove a point that they can coexist. Aside from a hobbyist's perspective, it's a shame that there won't be more interest in the concept. Unfortunately, corporate executives are only interested in buying from equally-sized corporations. I wish that you guys who are working on resurrecting this hardware had more influence over corporate America.

Tim: Just stash the slack on your cables in a joist bay or hide it somewhere out of site. That way, you can pull them back out when you move and use them at the new place.

I certainly wouldn't take it the "wrong" way. I worked on that stuff for 20 years, keeping it humming. I installed switch frames, only to be in charge of their removal, 10 years later. I never suspected that anyone, myself included, would ever have any interest in that crapola.

It would be like a coal miner taking his pick and shovel home with him and doing a little digging on his days off.

Now, however, like most old technology, and the fools who worked on it, there is a rebirth of interest, and I seem to have caught the disease. I'm having a great time.

Arthur, I only have half of the step equation. I have four line finders, four sets of line relays and a set of group relays and a distributer and some support equipment. I still need selectors to be able to actually dial anything. It's somewhere in between kit form and ready to go.

I guess I got interested in the older telephone stuff because it's what my grandfather used to do. He was an installer for Western Electric for 40 odd years where he worked primarily with the mechanical switching equipment.

I'm going to visit my grandmother this weekend and see if my grandfather kept any electrical drawings for the SxS equipment and hopefully pick up an electric wire wrapping gun. Eventually I want to get this whole contraption (SxS with 1A2 behind it) connected to CNET.

Ed: I've kept all the slack from the cables on top of a heating duct that runs through my telephone room. Although they were free, I put too much effort into getting them out of the ceiling at work to not be able to reuse them!

Tim, I can email you a diagram that was used as a training aid in NYTelCO Plant Training School. It shows a 701A PBX, diagramming one call through the switch train. One LF, one SEL, and one CONN, along with the L&CO and group relays and ringing plant. You will, in turn, need to email it to a commercial printer who has the capability of printing on a 2 foot by 3 foot piece of paper.

Arthur, I'd appreciate that. I can print it at work, we've got a 36" plotter.

To add to this conversation, the selector is used if you have 3 digit or greater dialing. You can have 3 digit dialing with only finders and connectors. The first digit is used to step/control a minor switch located in the connector. This was used primarily to control party ringing. Now that I have headache I wish you luck in this newest endeavor.

Tim, email w/attachment sent. APB