Strategic Air Command/NORAD Communications Dispatch Console

[the phone house]

Information and or interest in this, came from a friend of mine....

[cello973]

It looks like a custom built (by WE) dispatcher console. the speaker are marked UHF1 & UHF2 and looks similar in concept to the Motorola Centracom Console. Possibly one handset for telephone operations and one for two way radio communications. See below example of a Centracom.

[G-Man]

The telephone portion of your dispatch console was first used behind a 1A2 key system most likely connected to an electromechanical switch such as a No. 5 crossbar. It may have continued to remain in service once the 5ESS was cut into service but it was originally owned and serviced by the local telephone company* and would have eventually been replaced with an updated version with a Touch-Tone dial, etc.  especially since the troublesome cord reels would have been obsolete by the time the 5ESS pbx was installed.

It would be interesting to check the dates on the various components such as the handset elements and dial.

Since it was not switch specific, this topic probably belongs in the Key Systems forum.

*"Bell System Property - Not For Sale"

[G-Man]

 I know this is an ancient topic; however a scan was recently uploaded to the TCI Library for this console.

It had nothing to do with a 5ESS, instead, it was used by the Strategic Air Command/NORAD to communicate with and coordinate military units to launch ICBMs in the event of nuclear war.

[G-Man]

I know this is an ancient topic; however a scan was recently uploaded to the TCI Library regarding this console.

It had nothing to do with a 5ESS, instead, it was used by the Strategic Air Command to communicate with units to coordinate military units and launch ICBMs in the event of nuclear war.

Here is an illustration excerpted from the TCI document:

[AE_Collector]

Good update on this G-Man.

For purposes of this forums switching area I agree, this probably belongs in the 1A2 Key System area as for the most part it is a purpose built 1A2 "key set" combined with a VHF radio system.

I have re-titled the topic, hopefully that is a reasonable title and if agreed, I will move it to the 1A2 area. Too bad there isn't an Area Code on that dial number card which might identify where it had been installed originally. The exchange is listed there as 468 and the 2256 part agrees with a sequence of line numbers on the key strips. But, maybe the exchange was not on the PSTN and thus has nothing in common with a civilian Area Code and Exchange?

Terry

[G-Man]

Thanks Terry!

It's nice to be able to definitively identify such an interesting piece of Cold War telephony.   

[paul-f]

It's also nice to have the photo (in the first post) to go with the BSP.

Any news on what happened to the console in the first post?

[AE_Collector]

The OP member "the phone house" hasn't been logged into the forum for exactly 14 months as of today so unfortunately we may have lost touch with him and his friend who had the console.


Re-reading the first post, the OP says "came from a friend if mine" but it isn't clear to me if the console was in his possesion, his friends possesion or someone else's possesion with just pictures being passed around.

Terry

[Fabius]

In reading thru "the phone house" old postings I see that his name was Steve and he lived in Rome GA. He said in one post he was retired from Bell South with 35 years of service. At the bottom of all his posts was what I think was his email: steve @ the phone house. Entered that was to prevent spam robots from getting his email? The domain thephonehouse.com is now a European company. Steve may have gone on to the big phone house in the sky.

[Jim Stettler]

According to a Bell System employee that was the site guy assigned to the NORAD mission (Chidlaw Building and Cheyenne Mountain) NORAD (1957) originally had 302 telephone technology. Their original network was crappy. They continually had problems with the switches, They still were having  problems when they converted to autovon technology.

Jim S.

BTW he didn't have any old phones, but he had lots of telephone stories.

[G-Man]

According to a Bell System employee that was the site guy assigned to the NORAD mission (Chidlaw Building and Cheyenne Mountain) NORAD (1957) originally had 302 telephone technology. Their original network was crappy. They continually had problems with the switches, They still were having  problems when they converted to autovon technology.

Jim S.

BTW he didn't have any old phones, but he had lots of telephone stories.

Jim, at one time didn't you have a n.i.b., colored (red?) 302 that came from NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain? Or am I thinking of someone else?

[Jim Stettler]

According to a Bell System employee that was the site guy assigned to the NORAD mission (Chidlaw Building and Cheyenne Mountain) NORAD (1957) originally had 302 telephone technology. Their original network was crappy. They continually had problems with the switches, They still were having  problems when they converted to autovon technology.

Jim S.

BTW he didn't have any old phones, but he had lots of telephone stories.

Jim, at one time didn't you have a n.i.b., colored (red?) 302 that came from NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain? Or am I thinking of someone else?

I had a red 302 that was a retirement gift to an Antarctica telephone tech (he went to the Antarctica as a contract employee after he retired from Bell). The story you are probably thinking of was a few years back and a NORAD telephone tech told me they still had NOS 302's in climate controlled storage. At that time I just revealed them to be at a government installation.
He moved, I moved so I may never find them until they get sold as scrap. He told me about a strange shade of blue 302  it wasn't a standard blue 302, He was familiar with blue 302's and said it was a strange shade of blue that he had never seen on a 302. I suspect it was possibly a tenite (soft)  blue 302.

JMO,
Jim S.
Vern P. did buy some NOS NIB colored 302's from a goverment surplus reseller   a few years back.

[G-Man]

 Jim, those were the details that I was trying to remember. And be sure to keep your eyes on the surplus auctions being held at that facility!

Thanks for sharing!