atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems Interesting service call today.

Joe -

One (of the many) old timers I worked with was a WWII vet named Joe Seidel. He had been a foreman for NY Tel and was extremely knowledgeable.

On one job we had to solder some connections (GTE specs for signal wiring in the power frame called for them to be wire wrapped AND THEN soldered!).

Joe confessed that he never soldered anything at home because his wife would always mock his abilities and take the iron away from him.

She had worked during the war assembling radios for the military and was so good at it that he never even bothered trying anymore - he just gave her the job and let her do it.

Sam

Hi Sam,

The all time best soldering (point to point) that I have ever seen was in a Collins R-390 receiver. That is (in my opinion) the mother of all tube receivers, and possibly of ALL receivers, both solid state and hollow state. I would give my eye-tooth to have one of those! Alas, a beat up old unit that needs to have its gears cleaned and lubed will run in the thousands. They were a monster to service, but when they were aligned, nothing could beat them.

Joe

Joe, personally I think wire wrap is easier than soldering and was easier to learn. Went to Radio Shack and bought a wrap/unwrap set and the right size wire and went to work. Of course it was nice that there were factory wraps right next to me as examples. Fortunately, I suspect, I never had so many wraps to do that I even considered an electric or air powered tool. I probably would have screwed up the job big time!

Sam,

Don't know if you ever got to see the Frame we put in for Merill Lynch at World Financial Center but this was in the D building where they had a ESS5 as their PBX. The frame was made up of 89B Blocks, each block was 100 pair with Wire wraps on the back and a punch down on the front for x-connects. All the riser house count for the entire building came to it so it was 10's of thousands of pairs feeding the 42 story building and also has a very large pair count feeding the B building as well.

Joe - I saw it, and it was beautiful work. Huge!

Lenox Hill Hospital, the GTD-4600's frame was all (as per GTE spec) wire wrap. We used the old fashioned Bakelite blocks and they worked beautifully. Later on at the Bank of NY we used some more modern looking Telzon wire wrap blocks, but I'll be honest, I thought the Bakelite was just fine.

I think GTEs engineers said that wire wrap was 99.99% as good as solder, with a lot less accidents from being burned, so they switched to it for all CO MDFs. They also spec'd that the connect wire had to be one size larger then the house/switch cables. (The house & switch cables were 24 gauge while all the cross connects had to be 22.

Sam

Dear Ed, If they decide to replace the 755 crossbar unit, don't trash it. It may sell on e-bay for a considerable sum. I have one working in my collection, as do a handful of other switch collectors. See The website 'telephonecollectors.org', and the announcement of the antique telephone show in Lancaster, PA the weekend of June 11th. I am also looking for electro-mechanical systems I already don't have.

Chris Mattingly

Sam, I think I already mentioned it, but the main switchroom at UT still uses wire wrap frames...
The building itself is from 1932, there is abandoned original wire throughout the steam tunnels, but the actual wiring used now is probably 30-40 years old.

Yesterday, I had a rare flash of insight as I was working on my 555 board (I decided to go the 555 rout with it rather than the 556, as I doubt that I would ever be fortunate enough to come into possession of a 750A PBX). I went and had a can of grey enamel color matched to the frame, and have been touching up the rusty areas. I remounted the first piece on it in its reconstruction (the iron part that holds the work surface). I have also cleaned and re-darkened the bakelite buzzer/battery and shaft through buzzer covers with black shoepolish, and cleaned/chemicaly plated the little metal doo-dads that connect them to the frame.

Anyway, I thought to myself, "SELF!"... wouldn't it be nice if things could be made like this again... no solid state anything (well, excepting the thermistors), when people had to operate them, thus there would be a human element to the phone service, etc and etc. Well, then my intellectual side told me that with computers, fiber optics, the internet, more computers, that everything is much faster, more efficient, less labor costly, and in all ways better.

Then, it dawned on me. (here is the beer induced insight) In a society that is at the technological stage where people are needed for the technosphere to function, (such as in the communication business say from the dawn of telegraphy to the end of operator assisted calls), that the people who operated the system are valued. They are needed to make the system work, as well as to consume what the system offers. However, when the automation (in this communications case, computers, internet, packet, etc) takes over the need for people, then people are no longer valued, and exist only in the eyes of the "machine" to consume what the system produces.

In the days of old, the "phone man" was a respected craftsman who worked half a day on one install that would (as in this original post example) work for 60 years without a glitch. He made a decent wage, was able to take care of his family, and they lived the American dream. Sure, the phone system was a monopoly, there were few choices of phones, and long distance subsidized the locals. But it worked. It was built to withstand a nuclear attack. If you needed help, the operator was a "0" dial away.

Look at the "progress" that we made. One low yeild high altitude nuclear blast over central KS would destroy the entire communication system of the nation. No computers, no internet, no MP3 or iTunes, nothing! And it would not even take a nuke. One badly timed Xplus solar flare would do the same thing.

I am just saying that in our rush to make the next software upgrade in our lives, that it would be nice to know that somewhere, someone who actually wore a headset (in this country, not Bangaloor) would answer you when you were too tired to dial or didn't know the number to connect you to who you wanted to talk with.

Wouldn't that be nice? Oh well, one must wake up from their dream I suppose, now I got to finish this frame!

Joe

Chris:

Rest assured, I'm locked and loaded to pick this thing up from the owners when/if they are willing to part with it. The problem is that they love the antiquity of it and don't even want to discuss this at this point since the house is also in nearly-original 1951 decor. Sometimes, it is better to leave things untouched to preserve the value. I can assure you that even the carpets in this house are likely original. If I'm able to get my hands on this thing, I'll surely save it from the salvage yard and add it to my own personal collection.

I am surprised they can still get rotary service from the phone company. Is there a DTMF convertor on site somewhere? Would FIOS work with this system?