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#2494829 30-May-2020 09:40

sm1ff: How about my sky + .we still use it daily, its a little bit slow and there is nothing to replace it with thats comparable. Had it since 2011 which if I remember was the first year it was out. And sky had a asking price of $599.99 on it. Its been replaced a few times over the years too!

Wrong century. 😉

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#2494843 30-May-2020 10:21

Technofreak:

The PABX dosen't handle DTMF, it's decadic pulse or nothing.

Then add an external rotary dial :)

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Juicytree

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#2494954 30-May-2020 11:10

I lived in the high country early in my life where we had a telephone line that was 70 kilometers long and was earth return (where there was only a single wire and the return circuit was via the ground). We had the handle to turn to alert the manual telephone exchange operator that we required a connection. It was a party line with 14 subscribers and to call a neighbour we had to turn the handle according to the morse code of their phone number ie 123S would require three short turns of the handle. To make a call we had to lift the handpiece and establish if the line was in use before turning the handle.
When electricity was reticulated to the area the 60 Hz AC completely overpowered the earth return circuit and modernisation had to begin.

Technofreak

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#2494957 30-May-2020 11:12

nztim:

Technofreak:

The PABX dosen't handle DTMF, it's decadic pulse or nothing.

Then add an external rotary dial :)

I don't have the wooden version of the local battery phones, just the bakelite ones, however that withstanding if I had a wooden one I'd rather keep it original and just use it as a local battery to local battery phone.

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old3eyes

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#2495099 30-May-2020 14:15

Technofreak:

The local battery crank phones were also used on party lines where the crank was used to ring the bells on the other phones to call other parties on that party line.

I've got a collection of old phones including a couple of coin phones. I've also got an old NZPO 120 line PABX. My plan is to get them all set up and operating through the PABX.

Blast from the past . Worked on lots of those back in the 1970s and early 80s. Did you get the Operator's console as well??

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#2495108 30-May-2020 14:44

DarthKermit:
Last weekend I was helping relatives of my deceased neighbour clean out her garage and shed. Her late husband left a huge amount of old school tools and things behind.

In one box, there were two die-cast metal telephones with crank handles. These are the type where you cranked the handle to produce an electrical charge so you could then speak to an operator and ask to be patched through to someone.

I'm struggling to remember a general issue phone that was die cast metal rather than bakelite. Maybe they were old mining phones. The metal body contained any gas ignition within the phone.

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Technofreak

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#2495113 30-May-2020 15:04

old3eyes:

Technofreak:

The local battery crank phones were also used on party lines where the crank was used to ring the bells on the other phones to call other parties on that party line.

I've got a collection of old phones including a couple of coin phones. I've also got an old NZPO 120 line PABX. My plan is to get them all set up and operating through the PABX.

Blast from the past . Worked on lots of those back in the 1970s and early 80s. Did you get the Operator's console as well??

It's been in storage for nearly 30 years until recently, I thought I had the Operators console but it wasn't anywhere to be found when I uplifted the PABX recently. My memory must have deceived me. I thought I also had the complete set of drawings but couldn't find them either. Fortunately most of them seem to be available online.

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#2495116 30-May-2020 15:14

Technofreak:

gzt: Starting a topic is always a good first step. Is that a wax cylinder player?

It came with some Amberol cylinders which I understand are wax.

From what I've been able to figure out it's a 4 minute machine. I've only had it a few days, while I've seen it used some years ago I haven't yet used it myself. I dont want to damage it or any of the cylinders so have been reading up about it.

Looks like it is a 2/4 minute machine.

The top knob can be moved in and out which seems to change the gearing.

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linw

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#2495159 30-May-2020 15:39

I got an old morse code hand piece from my father who started as a telephonist in Little River, Banks Peninsular, at age 15 in 1926.

Can't say I have used it though!

That was when you joined the Post Office or Railway for 40 years on the trot!

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#2495161 30-May-2020 15:50

Presume you all tune in to TV1 7:30 for "The Repair Shop"? Great to see all the old stuff being brought in for repairs by a VERY clever bunch.

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#2495167 30-May-2020 16:15

linw:

I got an old morse code hand piece from my father who started as a telephonist in Little River, Banks Peninsular, at age 15 in 1926.

Can't say I have used it though!

That was when you joined the Post Office or Railway for 40 years on the trot!

If you ask me the Morse key and the telegraph is where our modern telecommunications started.

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#2495175 30-May-2020 16:29

Hahaha wow brings back memories of being on a party line, Pickup hear people talking, chime in hey how long you guys gonna chin wag I need to make a call lol.

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#2495223 30-May-2020 18:25

JaseNZ:

Hahaha wow brings back memories of being on a party line, Pickup hear people talking, chime in hey how long you guys gonna chin wag I need to make a call lol.

I am not old enough to see the party line in action but seen lots of the old equipment

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#2495517 31-May-2020 09:39

nztim:

JaseNZ:

Hahaha wow brings back memories of being on a party line, Pickup hear people talking, chime in hey how long you guys gonna chin wag I need to make a call lol.

I am not old enough to see the party line in action but seen lots of the old equipment

My M-in-law still thinks she's on a party line. When she answers the phone it's "Are you there. are you there"?? and always talks at the tip of her voice as if the local batteries in the phone were going flat.

Regards,

Old3eyes

Juicytree

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#2495592 31-May-2020 10:57

With a party line it was possible to carefully raise the handpiece and listen into a conversation. When one of parties cracked a joke or mentions some local scandle there was several gasps or chuckles on the line.

One advantage of a manual exchange was that when a farmer was trying to call his agent and was getting no reply, the operator in the exchange may say to the caller "sorry but George is over at the Jones's this evening, can I put you through to him there?" - what's now known as call diversion.

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