Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: morris@jade.jpl.nasa.gov (Mike Morris) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Pair Usage (was Color Coding) Message-ID: Date: 4 Aug 89 22:45:22 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: Mike Morris Lines: 46 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 274, message 5 of 5 Back when I was installing key systems, I discovered something interesting in the Pasadena (CA.) area - it might be a local trick, or might be standard (but I didn't find it in Arcadia, or Alhambra or anywhere else). If a business had a Ma Bell installed 1A2 system, the pole drop cable was either 6 or 12 pairs. If it was underground it was at least 25. Now comes the cute trick. The local ring generator was connected to the last pair, if it wasn't used for a incoming line. I don't know why, the only use I can conjecture is to determine if the customer had a power failure without a inside premise visit... I never climbed the pole to see if it was terminated there or ran to the CO - I can't imagine it did as it would be a waste of pairs. I didn't have a key for the ground level junction block cabinets, so was unable to check there. Pasadena also had a cute trick - the telephone poles in back of the local Burger King, MacDonalds, Winchells Donuts, etc had lockboxes at shoulder height with a 1-pair protector in them, and was connected to a ringdown to the test board. It was quite common to see a telco truck parked next to the pole with a tech standing there, butt set to his ear and munching on lunch... Again, never saw it anywhere else. Don't know if it is still in use, as I don't have a Warner-Bohannon key. Likewise the GTE Sierra Madre exchange (818-355) (which went from SxS to EAX a couple of years ago) was the only one I ever saw which allowed the user to lease a pair to the CO and have a hunting defeat switch on the side of the receptionist's phone. The customer was a MD and had 3 incoming lines and one answering machine for after-hours calls. When the office was closed, the machine was on and hunting was defeated. Interestingly he had a 25-pair underground cable into the building (3 storefronts, 1 story and a common equipment room) and only the first 9 pairs were in use for incoming lines, and the hunting defeat switch was connected to the last pair. This was also the exchange which had 3 ring plants on the SxS, probably a leftover from the party line days. A friend's house had phones in each of 3 bedrooms, the living room, and the kitchen. An incoming call would ring _sequentially_ in various rooms - I discovered that the house had a mix of 20hz, 30hz and 16hz (I think - this is 15 years ago!) ringers and the CO would sequence them down the line - while feeding one ringback to the caller. Mike Morris UUCP: Morris@Jade.JPL.NASA.gov #Include quote.cute.standard | The opinions above probably do not even come cat flames.all > /dev/null | close to those of my employer(s), if any.