Re: really old phone lines
- From: dkcombs@xxxxxxxxx (David Combs)
- Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:54:02 +0000 (UTC)
In article <jim.redelfs-591395.21525726082008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Jim Redelfs <jim.redelfs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ralph Mowery wrote:
US standard ring voltage is 90
volts AC at 20 Hz unless you're on a party
line and the ringers will be of the type
that are filtered to ring at different
AC frequencies.
Multi-party service did NOT use "filtered ringers". I don't believe
such a thing ever existed.
On two-party service, the ringing current is sent down one "side" or the
other of the serving pair. At the station, the phone's ringer was
connected to either the ring or tip side of the pair and the other side
to ground. As mentioned earlier here, most station wiring was, for
DECADES, three conductor. The third conductor was to provide a ground
for partyline use.
A private line-wired set, "illegally" connected to a 2FR, would ring for
ALL calls because its ringer was wired ACROSS the pair instead of as I
described above.
Really OLD, multi-party installations? That was even more complicated.
A 4FR (four parties on the same cable pair): One party on the ring side
What's this "pair" stuff?
Back in the 50's, in West Texas, we (and everyone else not living
"in town") had a wood box hung on the wall, maybe two feet high
and 8-inches wide, with a stethascope-like mike in the middle,
and a crank on the side.
Cranking long or short gave you the long-short-short etc.
Now, the "pair stuff":
We were some 15 miles from town, and our "line" (well, party line)
went that entire distance, and consisted not of a pair, but of
a single bare wire. The other side of the pair was the ground,
of course.
You ALWAYS had to shout over the, uh, rice-krispy (sp?) pop crackle
and snap or whatever, but LOUD, damnit, LOUD!
"HELLO! HELLO! COULD YOU SAY THAT AGAIN!
WHO ARE YOU CALLING? WHO IS THIS? BILL? NO? WHO THEN?
BILL? TOO MUCH STATIC -- I CAN'T HEAR YOU! CALL BACK TONIGHT!
LESS STATIC"
"Who was that, honey?" "I don't know, couldn't get his name" etc, etc
David
.
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