Recent posts

#21

Technical "Stuff" / Re: WE500 Network Question

Last post by tubaman - Yesterday at 09:28:53 AM

I think they are just a bent over tags that hold parts inside the network.

#22

Technical "Stuff" / WE500 Network Question

Last post by Gerd - Yesterday at 08:33:43 AM

Hello,
I found an old WE500 and have a Question relating to the Network. Is this little "bridged" Part cutted or broken? I found other Pictures on which this is not the case.

#23

Telephone Troubleshooting and Repair / 233G PAYPHONE CONVERSION

Last post by HarrySmith - Yesterday at 07:55:55 AM

I am working on a payphone for a customer. I am converting it to work on a landline. I removed the coin internals and installed as WE 4010 network in the upper housing. I used a wiring diagram I have used on all my payphone conversions with no issue, attached. I usually use a 425 network but I ran out so the 4010 went in. Connections are the same. I wired it up using jumpers between backboard and upper housing. I got nothing. After checking my wiring several times and everything looking good I was stumped. I decided to try my test handset and I got dial tone! I guess the handset I got with the phone is no good, The issue is the dial tone is very faint, what could be the cause of that. Also I do have another handset but it does not have the usual color wires, red, white and black. IIRC it has green, red, black and blue. I have never seen a handset with those color wires. I can just try different ways to hook it up but maybe someone knows the proper connections?

#24

Telephone Historic Pictures, Signs, Directories, Advertising & Ephemera / Re: Examples of 7-Digit dialin...

Last post by Westrex - April 21, 2024, 08:48:28 PM

Here's 2 examples of signs with the two letter-5 number arrangement.

Mondo Meats: http://tinyurl.com/mu2wkw53 Tel: PArkway 5-1565

Truevalue Hardware (Greenwood): http://tinyurl.com/ax2v7utv Tel: SUnset 3-2900

Correction: Mondo's Meats is no longer at the location listed, however their sign is still there. The business that's currently there doesn't share the same phone number.

#25

Pay Phones - General Discussion / Re: Remaining Seattle Pay phon...

Last post by Westrex - April 21, 2024, 01:30:51 PM

Here's a surviving pay phone at Noah's Grocery. I didn't have time to stop to check for dial tone, so I'll have to check it later.

Phone: http://tinyurl.com/t5wb5w9n

#26

Telephone Historic Pictures, Signs, Directories, Advertising & Ephemera / Re: Examples of 7-Digit dialin...

Last post by Westrex - April 21, 2024, 01:04:27 PM

Here's 2 examples of signs with the two letter-5 number arrangement.

Mondo Meats: http://tinyurl.com/mu2wkw53 Tel: PArkway 5-1565

Truevalue Hardware (Greenwood): http://tinyurl.com/ax2v7utv Tel: SUnset 3-2900

#27

Technical "Stuff" / Re: The end of POTS?

Last post by TelePlay - April 21, 2024, 06:47:17 AM

The mobile use to work 3 hours after power down.

Three hours is about right for the battery backup pack at the base of each wireless provider at each tower. Critical, high traffic towers many times have a generator at the tower to extend that period to days using diesel or propane fuels.

There are typically 3 cabinets at the base of a tower for each carrier: transmit, receive and battery backup. The largest of the 3 is the battery backup which is about the size of a full sized refrigerator, weighs some 700 or more pounds and provides 600Ah at 12VDC using VRLA Batteries - they last about 3 hours. Cost per cabinet is about $5,000 plus the cabinet and installation components.

A tower with 4 carriers on it has 4 battery cabinets at its base and maybe a generator.

Wireless switches have very large industrial generators to keep them operating during power outages at the switch.

Wireless providers try to keep the network running but things happen and power is not endless. The network is as good as it's weakest link in emergencies. No guarantees for uninterrupted wireless service.

The copper exterior plant was the most dependable phone service.

#28

Technical "Stuff" / Re: The end of POTS?

Last post by dsk - April 21, 2024, 02:55:11 AM

Ad much as phone bills are today, it is hard to believe that they can't make money off of it.  The reason we don't want to change is because VOIP requires a modem.  That means that VOIP is dependent on the power company.  That means if there is a power failure, we have no phone service.  Get it?

Yes! And even with a battery backup. The network my be down at a power failure....  Here in Norway we have lost already.  The mobile use to work 3 hours after power down.

#29

Technical "Stuff" / Re: The end of POTS?

Last post by MMikeJBenN27 - April 21, 2024, 01:16:04 AM

Ad much as phone bills are today, it is hard to believe that they can't make money off of it.  The reason we don't want to change is because VOIP requires a modem.  That means that VOIP is dependent on the power company.  That means if there is a power failure, we have no phone service.  Get it?

#30

Technical "Stuff" / Re: The end of POTS?

Last post by ka1axy - April 20, 2024, 11:02:59 PM

IMHO (I work in tech), the issue is not so much the abandoning of copper, which is no longer profitable for any use at all, but the question of what replaces it, and where. I know of nobody who can justify the continuing operation (and maintenance) of the traditional POTS copper exterior plant. The mechanical switches are long gone, and even the digital exchanges are being replaced by IP switches. It's a TCP/IP world out there...

Ideally, the copper replacement would be a unified national gigabit fiber to the home network, but since we disassembled the Bell System, who is going to architect it? What we will end up with, sadly, is a patchwork of isolated replacements, each installed by whoever the legacy RBOC can talk into doing the work, and only where the subscriber density will justify it, with varying specs, quality and workmanship, and absolute minimum support. Everyone else gets (very politely) left out in the cold.

I'm extremely lucky to have been given Verizon FTTH when they abandoned copper in my area (Boston west), but the rural folks are not going to be as lucky without some federal intervention to make sure they get what I got.