atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring 568a or b configuration

I have a WE 111C repeat coil sitting here, came from the radio station at my college...now back to your regularly scheduled programming

Back when "Interconnect" first happened (for those kids out there, that's 1968) it was customary to have VCA (Voice Connecting Arrangements) installed and maintained by the telephone company between the CPE and the telephone company's services.

This became a "Wild West Rube Goldberg" when it came to tie lines. It was common to have 2 wire circuits morphed into 4 wire circuits and vice versa using those A B transformers and a "derived" third pair that became the talk pair. If the tech wasn't aware that there was no "hard" wire way to test the talk path, end to end, through the VCA the tech would spend a lot of time on the phone with a CO switchman trying to trouble shoot a problem through the VCA that could not be tested. When that became a nagging headache, the switchmen began to instruct the techs to test on the telco side of the VCA instead of the customer side. If the end to end tested good from site to CO to CO to site, then the tech was to replace the VCA, run to their truck and drive away, quickly.

Being on both sides of the early "Interconnect" years, I understood the frustration the telco techs had trying to deal with the VCAs and, especially, little trained or not trained "Interconnect" techs that didn't know a tie line from a shoelace. I am guessing it was around 1974 when Bell Telephone finally gave up on VCAs.

Rcaman

I started installing a NEAX 31 in the Bronx VA in 1978. I set up the Anti-interface and was ready for NY Tel to install the VCAs. When the installer finally came out (in 1980! [The job got shut down for a year while they installed sprinklers that were left off the drawings!]) he let me know that because my PBX had already been installed on the Network without a VCA (GTE at Tampa International Airport) they were not going to be installing one for us.

I was ecstatic. They caused nothing but trouble. I think it was a little after that, that NY Tel did away with them completely.

Sam

Here's a funny note about the VCAs. The Bell Telephone techs were NOT trained to install or option the VCAs. I actually provided the Bell Techs a cheat sheet for them to option the cards correctly. After a dozen or so installs, the Bell techs just left the VCA cabinet and cards on site and never installed them. Like you, they were fed up with trouble calls because those cards were so badly made. If you carried around a fist full of 120 ohm 1 watt resistors, you could fix most of them in about 5 minutes.

Rcaman

Having come from the other side (hmmm...that sounds like the punchline to a dirty joke) that is, having been the BOC tech who was dispatched to correct the problems caused by the VCA's, I can tell you that the most common troubles were fixed by simply by-passing the VCA whenever possible. The repairmen knew that, the foremen knew that, and apparently everyone all the way up the chain of command knew that. The VCA's were good for a lot of overtime, though.

I remember doing a small key system in a real estate office (this was in 1975). It was a Friday night; I had completed the installation, NY Tel had cut out their equipment and was about to throw over the interface equipment. All was well until they went to plug it in. They had the wrong AC cord! (They had the one designed for a shoe box, not the one designed for the standard power pack).

The locker was closed, the next day was Saturday, the office was set to open - with no phone service. I said we'd have to wire around the VCA. The installer called his foreman to explain and the foreman said, NO. The customer was going to have to do without phone service till Monday.

The installer, frustrated and embarrassed at this point said something like: "Goddamnit! They've got an ITT 584C panel, Stromberg Carlson phones an Elgin power supply and Northern Electric Speakerphones! What the hell kind of damage do you think they'll do to the network?"

We hardwired the VCAs and I'm not sure of they ever got turned on. The job was out in Brooklyn (interestingly, just down the block from where I live now) and I'm pretty sure I never went back there....

Sam

Ditto. There were many new installs that had equipment that never got powered up because it was a huge waste of time. I'll never forget installing an ITT 501. Bell showed up with a cabinet the size of a large ComKey system. There wasn't any room for the VCAs. The tech called his foreman who called, I think, the bartender at the local pub. Anyway, after several hours of trying to figure out where to put the thing, the customer said, "I have an idea, why not take it back and see if it can be installed in your garage." We all laughed, but the thing was never installed. It sat at the client's basement for years.

Bell Telephone techs were reasonable. The other operating companies were NOT! More times than not, they arrived with a Pulsecom card rack and a tote full of modules. No one had a clue what or how to install and the job usually fell to me after many hours of frustration. The stories are many, but the same outcome. The VCAs seldom worked correctly and just made for customer frustration and, as Arthur mentioned, many hours of overtime. That's one page of telephone history that is infamous.

Rcaman

I only encountered Bell's VCA cabinets once (yes, they were on the same chassis as a ComKey 718 KSU), as in huge. My parents bought a TIE 1A2 system for their real estate company in New Jersey in 1976. The TIE 1A2 KSU was about half the size of the VCA cabinet, if not smaller. One day, I was moving some wiring around and accidentally shorted one of the CO lines, which blew one of the 70- type fuses in their cabinet. It was obvious which fuse was blown, but I didn't have any. There was a NJ Bell technician there working on an unrelated issue, so I asked him for a fuse. He got ugly about it, citing that I had no business inside their sacred cabinet, and instructed me to call their repair service.

Not to be outdone by this ass, I just took one of the fuses for line 7 and put it in place of the blown one for line 1. I then called repair and reported NDT on line 7. Line 1 was back to working within minutes and nobody even cared about the last line being dead for a few hours. The SAME NJB technician arrived later that afternoon and replaced the fuse, and then gave me the remainder of the box of fuses for future use. I guess his attitude was the result of the fact that he was a repair technician and needed to justify his existence when so many customers were jumping ship to interconnects at the time.

Around here, (Western PA) most of the Key System techs and PBX techs were doing VCA installs and service. NONE were happy about it. In fact, most were hostile. After one or two encounters, I just walked out of the room and did not come back until they were stymied about how to option out the cards. I never was condescending to them. I was one of them a few months earlier. So, after 50 or so installs with the same techs, we became friends. The funny thing is, almost all of the PBX techs became our employees after they took early retirement. At one time, we had 18 ex-Bell or AT&T techs working for us.

They were all good techs. They just thought, as everyone else that worked for Mother, that they had a job for life. All of the original 18 have since retired or died. We still hire Verizon techs, but they have to be older techs that actually know something. I have copies of Lee's ABC telephone course and test. When a Verizon tech asks for a job, I hand them the test. The older techs snicker, fill it out in 10 minutes and I hire them. The younger techs end up not finishing the test and usually just leave. Sure, the questions are dated, but I want techs working for us that know the difference between Bridle wire and a beer can.

I know Arthur...there is NO difference. LOL

Rcaman

...or who know "the difference between a diode and a Buick" as a foreman of mine used to say.