News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Cecilville, CA magneto still in use?

Started by mariepr, July 09, 2017, 05:06:23 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

mariepr

Found an email address for the Salmon River tavern.  I'll let you know if the proprietor answers back.  Looks too young to have been alive when the 1984 news article was published. 

mariepr

I heard back from the saloon proprietor - the saloon phone is a prop but two ranches still use the magneto crank!


"Yes the old line is still up and working. Two ranches here still have that old single wire and the crank phone. The line is about 5 miles long now. No switchboard but it does connect to the main line repeater system we all use. If there is  to much snow or static they both have to crank to get a line out. But no not at the saloon not anymore. I do still have the two old crank phones that were in use here. One is a rotary and the other is the hold and talk one you saw.

Cheers monk."

HarrySmith

WOW! Very cool. I did not know any were still in use at all.
Thanks for checking that out, nice followup!
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

TelePlay

Quote from: mariepr on July 10, 2017, 05:18:23 PM
I heard back from the saloon proprietor - the saloon phone is a prop but two ranches still use the magneto crank!


Since your got a reply, could you get back to him and ask him what they/he uses for a telephone and his telephone/computer access? All satellite (Dish), mini-microwave or if they put in something better? I wouldn't quite know how to ask that, what questions to ask, but he seems happy to have had contact with the real world so he might explain the current systems in detail.

AL_as_needed

That's really neat! wonder if there are any other places in the US or Canada that are still hold outs for the old magneto?
TWinbrook7

TelePlay

Quote from: AL_as_needed on July 10, 2017, 06:44:39 PM
That's really neat! wonder if there are any other places in the US or Canada that are still hold outs for the old magneto?

Not really a hold out. And, yes, there probably are. Some members have set these up as demo and for house to garage IIRC. Their mag system is probably maintained by the users on the wire.

Looking at the Google map for the area, not much up there. Just mountain roads, a house every few miles, lots of trees, not a flat terrain and low population.

Cell companies don't put up towers in areas like this. They need thousands of hits per day on the tower to justify the cost of one tower (>$200,000) and each set of receiving/transmitting equipment for each carrier on the tower (also >$200,000). Then, they would have to use microwave to connect each tower to a relay tower and to the switch. And they would need power and each with a generator for backup (cabinet batteries only last about 6 hours). And, cell phones don't work well in mountainous areas covered with trees. So not a hold out, just so rural it is cost prohibitive to put in cell equipment for so few users. Easy call for cell phone bean crunchers.

That's why I was curious how they got an internet connection and how their phones are connected.

mariepr

The Siskiyou Telephone Company is so small that they hold annual customer appreciation barbecues and list the web sites hosted by their customers.  Their internet is DSL as the page says that it "requires telephone service" and is offered at 3, 6, 8 and "where facilities permit" a whopping 10 mbps speeds.  They're not going to be streaming Amazon HD.

The saloon proprietor, Monk, used plain text.  The links that I sent him must have taken ages to download.  The saloon is closed on Tuesdays and Wesnesdays so I'll contact him later in the week.  He might have more information if he has a chance to mention it to long time residents.  I'd like to find out if the two ranches on the magneto are long time holdouts that are so isolated that the phone company doesn't want to string copper or fiber that far. 

When the line had 16 parties it tied into a microwave link at Sawyers Bar - a geographical place and not another tavern.  I did some other searching and found that they were lying a line to a private residence.  So it looks like they lay copper or fiber to a repeater.