News:

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

Main Menu

My Local Exchange, and what's yours?

Started by WesternElectricBen, November 16, 2013, 10:31:53 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Greg G.

Quote from: poplar1 on December 20, 2013, 10:26:14 PM
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on December 19, 2013, 05:08:11 PM
Very cool pictures DSK! It's cool to go to one in real life. I have no clue where ours is in MN.

Ben

Enter the NPA (Area Code) and NXX of a landline in your neighborhood. Then when it populates, click on "detailed switch info."

http://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail

Somewhere in this building downtown:  http://tinyurl.com/koxcueg 
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

WesternElectricBen

#46
At first I thought that truck was a late 50's or 60's truck, but even though it looks 70's I like it.. And if you also look from the street view a 70's valient as well.

Ben

Greg G.

Quote from: WesternElectricBen on December 21, 2013, 02:26:34 PM
At first I thought that truck was a late 50's or 60's truck, but even though it looks 70's I like it.. And if you also look from the street view a 70's valient as well.

Ben

Nope, it's a Ford.  I don't think Chevy had extended cabs that early.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickup_truck#Extended_cab
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

WesternElectricBen

Yeah, after I posted that, I knew I was wrong, I have never seen extended cabs on a chev. either.

Ben

AE_Collector

#49
Quote from: dsk on December 19, 2013, 07:08:34 AM
I took 2 pics of our exchange today.
Hakadal Exchange was probably built when the wally went from magneto to rotary in 1968.
By some reason the short on the boxes oround in the area, always are named HAC + some numeric codes.

dsk

Hi dsk:

Are you quite certain that is your main telephone exchange there? It looks very rural and is it right beside a river or creek? That looks like a bridge and the main town looks to be on the other side. That is a little unusual in that they usually locate an exchange as close as possible to the middle of town to minimize the wire length.

That building looks as though it would have been a microwave radio location but of course all that is on the tower now is cell antennae's. could the radio equipment have been located remotely from the main exchange or maybe there was room to install the automatic equipment in the radio building when they went from Magneto to Automatic in 1968. Do you know where the MagnetomOperators were located? Maybe the building still exists in town but is now used for another function.

The cross connect boxes with HAK and a number are just record keeping numbers. They basically start assigning numbers at number 1 or maybe 100 and progress through the numbers so that each connection point has a unique number.

Terry

AE_Collector

Here is my local exchange building built in the late 1950's. My service actually comes from a remote off of this "Base Unit Exchange" which is shown in the second picture. And the third picture is the Magneto Exchange building that is now a house that was replaced by the new Automatic Exchange in the late 1950's.

Terry

N7LTH

Where I grew up it was EMerson, surrounded by LIncoln, PRospect and HUnter among others.

I think the EMerson exchange had a No. 1 XB since you could hear the MF tones when you dialed inter-office... always thought that was cool.
You know you have either phonitis or phonosis when your favorite film is "Dial Comes to Town".

dsk

#52
Quote from: AE_Collector on January 14, 2014, 08:22:29 PM
Quote from: dsk on December 19, 2013, 07:08:34 AM
I took 2 pics of our exchange today.
Hakadal Exchange was probably built when the wally went from magneto to rotary in 1968.
By some reason the short on the boxes oround in the area, always are named HAC + some numeric codes.

dsk

Hi dsk:

Are you quite certain that is your main telephone exchange there? It looks very rural and is it right beside a river or creek? That looks like a bridge and the main town looks to be on the other side. That is a little unusual in that they usually locate an exchange as close as possible to the middle of town to minimize the wire length.

That building looks as though it would have been a microwave radio location but of course all that is on the tower now is cell antennae's. could the radio equipment have been located remotely from the main exchange or maybe there was room to install the automatic equipment in the radio building when they went from Magneto to Automatic in 1968. Do you know where the MagnetomOperators were located? Maybe the building still exists in town but is now used for another function.

The cross connect boxes with HAK and a number are just record keeping numbers. They basically start assigning numbers at number 1 or maybe 100 and progress through the numbers so that each connection point has a unique number.

Terry

Yes, I am 100% sure of the location.
The building are located next to where the local manual exchange was. (building is removed.) The original cooperative telephone organization founded in 1906 was nationalized in 1942, and had the huge number of 83 telephones.  :)
At that time it was a natural location, and still it is not to bad, a few villages within a few kilometers in all directions. Whats the most strange thing is the location on the edge of a river with a risk of flooding.

dsk

PS It is at least one sub-exchange (??) located about 5 kilometers away, it is only a box, or shed of ~8 sq. meters (~85 sq. feet) DS

AE_Collector

#53
Okay, that makes sense. The remotes can be quite small as well, like the one behind the fence in my previous post. There are some that are just a metal box at the side of the road as well.

Here are six pictures of various "remotes" off of CO's in the area.

Two buildings that we refer to as RSU's named after the type of GTD5 remote switch called an RSU which was the type of equipment that these were initially built for. The first one built to look like a home to fit into residential neighbourhoods. It also has a Cross Connect box in the front.

Then two trailers or tin huts that were outfitted in town and trailered to site.

Then a MUX (multiplexor or concentrator) at the side of the road with a Cross Connect box in the background.

And finally, a CEM (controlled environment manhole) which has a lid that pops open so you can climb down a ladder to the bottom (about 12 feet down) which is a round room about 10 foot diameter.

Terry

Scotophor

#54
My local exchange was built as a manual switchboard exchange in the 1940s (phones without dials; you would pick up and wait a few seconds for the operator to come on and ask, "Number, please?", or if it was an emergency you could tap the switch hook a few times which would flash the light for your line on her switchboard and maybe she might respond more quickly, if people she served didn't often abuse that feature.) The exchange was converted to direct-dial in the 1950s, and still occupies the same building today. However, since area codes came into use it has changed from 213 to 818 (circa 1984) and then again (circa 1997) to 626. I'm on one of the original NXX numbers and have done the research at TENproject (having to do a little sleuthing to disregard some erroneous info submitted there) and printed up some reproduction old number cards for my phones with correct "EDgewood-6 ####" numbers on them.

Quote from: Phonesrfun on November 17, 2013, 12:17:09 AMHowever, my current cell phone number has its 3 digit "prefix" of 200.  It would be impossible to assign a name to that.
No, actually it wouldn't... many old telephone dials had "Z" at the zero position, so a fantasy exchange name such as "AZure" (or if you lived in my area, "AZusa") could be used. Some dials even had "Q" at zero too, which opens up the possibilities further. Unfortunately, confusion is possible since a few recent devices put Q and Z on the "1" key.
Name: A.J.   Location: LAPNCAXG, EDgewood 6

G-Man

Re-posting...

"Q" was never standardized since it has appeared on various dials at the "1," "7," and "0" positions while "Z" has shown up in both the "1" and "0"positions.


Quote from: Scotophor on March 06, 2014, 05:32:37 AM
My local exchange was built as a manual switchboard exchange in the 1940s (phones without dials; you would pick up and wait a few seconds for the operator to come on and ask, "Number, please?", or if it was an emergency you could tap the switch hook a few times which would flash the light for your line on her switchboard and maybe she might respond more quickly, if people she served didn't often abuse that feature.) The exchange was converted to direct-dial in the 1950s, and still occupies the same building today. However, since area codes came into use it has changed from 213 to 818 and then again very shortly afterward to 626. I'm on one of the original NXX numbers and have done the research at TENproject (having to do a little sleuthing to disregard some erroneous info submitted there) and printed up some reproduction old number cards for my phones with correct "EDgewood-6 ####" numbers on them.

Quote from: Phonesrfun on November 17, 2013, 12:17:09 AMHowever, my current cell phone number has its 3 digit "prefix" of 200.  It would be impossible to assign a name to that.
No, actually it wouldn't... many old telephone dials had "Z" at the zero position, so a fantasy exchange name such as "AZure" (or if you lived in my area, "AZusa") could be used. Some dials even had "Q" at zero too, which opens up the possibilities further. Unfortunately, confusion is possible since a few recent devices put Q and Z on the "1" key.

twocvbloke

Here in the UK, the letters O and Q were located on the Zero position (most modern BT phones still do I believe), until they dropped lettered dialling in favour of all-number dialling, there used to be "Operator" on the Zero too until they changed the operator number to 100... :)

david@london

twocvbloke -

which british phones had 'operator' on the dial & when ? i can't remember seeing that.

twocvbloke

Quote from: david@london on March 07, 2014, 12:21:18 PM
twocvbloke -

which british phones had 'operator' on the dial & when ? i can't remember seeing that.

Phones like the 200 and earlier 300 series I think with dial plates such as the "Brighton" plate or earlier lettered dials in director areas, so quite a long time ago, and changing the Operator number from "0" to 100 meant that it wasn't needed to print Operator on the Zero... :)

david@london

thanks.......
do you have any images ?
i found this when doing a quick search for 'british telephones brighton dial plate' -