atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Need Butt Set advice

Need some general guidance... Need to communicate over about 30 miles of 19 awg wire pair. Will a pair of cheap butt sets do this. If so, are there any recommendations or pit falls. Radio isn't an option as both facilities are below ground.

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Mark

Just having butt sets won't allow you to talk, you need talk battery. You could put in a cheap used system that would allow you to call back and forth, Viking also makes various devices that may work also. Although I don't know your specific application, how do you know when to listen for the other person??, or will one person just sit and wait for the other person to come on the line??

Thanks for the reply! This is a temp setup for testing a monitoring circuit on a different pair. It would only be used during this test. Both ends would know about when the other is going to be there. One end of the communication would be an electical engineer and the other a technican with limited electronics knowledge. Speed and ease of use would be the keys to this soulution. Cost would also be a consideration, but ten units under 2-3k$ would likly be a deal maker.

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Mark

30miles is a long way to push battery. What would probably work if you can find them is 22 volt drycell batteries like telco uses. Put a battery on each end. On one end run the ring side of your pair to the battery, +or-, for sake of arguement say - put one lead of your butt set on + and the other lead to tip. On other end run tip side of pair to - of batt and butt set lead to + and to ring of pair. Should give you enough current to talk.

If you could find some old, magneto based phones the army used to use....

simple solution..get 2 cell phones and be done with it.

Because of the location of the poster and distance, I assumed that wasn't an option. Being out here in the sticks also, I know cell coverage is spotty at best.

I used a tone generator set in continuity mode ,put in series with your Butt set Tip lead, that would provide enough batt. to carry on a conversation, don't remember the distance though? Its been a while.

Worth a try.

Rick

Butt sets and a power supply should work for you. We used to use our toners in series with or test sets between IDFs a lot (before cell phones) as RICK suggests. That wont be enough juice over your 30 miles though.

Looking on the bright side, you ARE working with 19awg wire. And, 30 miles of 19awg has the same resistance as about 9.5 miles of 24awg (now it doesn't sound all that far ).

I think I would try talk battery from an old 1A2 power supply. I haven't used one for years. There used to be several manufacturers that made them. Elgin is the brand we used the most.

Good Luck!

We used a test set at the central office that would test pair gain/loss on a dry pair. It also could send talk-battery on a long loop to communicate with tech on other end. Can not remeber the brand, but it was used for central office applications to remote sites.

Worked like a champ. We had squak box at central office end and tech on other end used there buttset.

Good Luck!!