Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Ed Ravin Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Ringing a Busy Phone Message-ID: <6151@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 7 Apr 90 21:38:36 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Ed Ravin Organization: Rings Around the Rosies Lines: 23 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 239, Message 2 of 6 I once lived in a residence hotel with a very old fashioned operator switchboard. The operator would hold down a key to ring a phone in a room, and would pick up the key to listen if anyone had answered. So I often picked up my Radio Shlock one-piece phone with the automatic chin disconnect button and heard the buzz of the ring voltage in my ear until the operator finally noticed I had picked up the phone. The el cheapo phone is none the worse for the experience, and neither are my ears (it wasn't that loud, mostly a scratchy buzz). Though we couldn't make outgoing calls, if I held onto the line after someone who called me hung up, I would get the CO dial tone in a few minutes. Luckily for the hotel, they didn't have touchtone service, and pulsing the line usually made the operator pick up the phone wondering why the light on the console was flashing. Ed Ravin | hombre!dasys1!eravin | (BigElectricCatPublicUNIX)| eravin@dasys1.UUCP | Reader bears responsibility for all opinions expressed in this article.