21A Communication System (COM KEY* 2152)

[the phone house]

Can deliver to Villa Rica, for a small (gas) fee.....

[AE_Collector]

Can someone shed any more light on the required telephones for this? Would they all be branded as ComKey and have big set cords with Amphenol plugs? Set runs all look to be 25 pair cables. Would the phones be unique looking or could they potentially be confused with 2564/5 type phones?

What is the benefit of this system over a conventional 1A2 system. Pre packaged equipment? Lower priced equipment as compared to WECo? Was it a product marketed to be owned by the customer replacing rented Telco stuff once that became possible?

So many questions, so little time!

Terry

[poplar1]

Sets have amphenol plugs and a yellow recall button. Here is a 2832CM  used on the smaller Comkey 718. As far as I know, these were leased by Bell companies and not sold or leased outside the Bell System.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190791619501

[AE_Collector]

So a bit of an upgraded 1A2 system still in the "rental age" but near the end of life for 1A2 systems.

The one pictured above is new enough to have a cordless handset!

I assume this should then be moved to "electro mechanical systems including 1A2" as it isn't really what we consider to be electronic (IE: 2, 4 or 6 wire set cords)

Terry

[cello973]

Terry,

They started out as rentals before divestiture, I believe the p/n of the 10 Button phone were 832/2832 and the 20 button was 833/2833 but the could be mistaken for 830/2830  and 831/2831 but with a woodgrain face plate (btw the faceplate was made out of aluminum) the phone had a microphone and speaker no ringer... the 565/2565 looking sets were usually used as intercom only phones. I am guessing that Bell came up with the Comkey was a way to spruce up the 1A2 and possibly in the future to compete with the NEC Patrician and the ITT Corinthian systems (both thick wire 1A2 like systems) that had all the bells and whistles. Albeit bell made it near impossible to directly connect the competing key systems to their network it was still done with the correct network interface sold by bell to the customer at an astronomical price making the competing systems cost prohibitive to install.

There were also the 4A, &6A Comkey systems as well. The 4A aka Comkey 416 was KSU less there were two phones that acted as Masters and contained all the line and intercom equipment (manual intercom) and the whole system was common 25 pair wiring.. The 6A Was the Comkey 718

[poplar1]

Yes. There are 4 versions of Comkey: 416, 718, 1432 and 2152 where the first part refers to the number of lines and the second the number of stations. The 416 used a primary set for 2 lines or two primary sets for 4 lines; these contained the power for the other sets.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390548730981

[AE_Collector]

Thanks for the info Vince and David. I am starting to understand this system now. Who actually made this stuff? I thought it was a competitor to WECo but was it actually made by WECo?

A predecessor to actual electronic systems these came as packaged systems thus the set number of ones and stations but were still based on 1A2.

I did remove an electronic KSU ComKey system here in Vancouver 6 or 7 years go now so they did progress to electronic from these 1A2 type systems.

Terry

[poplar1]

Made by WE. Their first electronic key was the Merlin.

[cello973]

The 416 was electronic, but in concept operated like a 1A2 with LEDs rather than bulbs but the operating voltages were still the same...

All this gear was manufactured by Western and I believe the 416 was manufactured in Mexico...

[cello973]

I have a brown merlin 6 button set with Bell System - Western Electric molded on the bottom. I have to dig it up and take some pics one of these days...

[Babybearjs]

why would'nt this system support regular phones, I though all the line card were universal in design. a regular 2564 wouls not work on this system? we used to have the "merlin" system at the hardware stores I used to work at and they support regular 2500 series phones.... whats so different about this system??

[G-Man]

why would'nt this system support regular phones, I though all the line card were universal in design. a regular 2564 wouls not work on this system? we used to have the "merlin" system at the hardware stores I used to work at and they support regular 2500 series phones.... whats so different about this system??

The original Merlin series did not support pots telephones without special adapters and while this Comkey series uses 400-series line-cards, it is configured differently.

[poplar1]

As Vince pointed out, there are speakers in place of ringers or buzzers. I wish I could find a diagram for the 2832CM; ISTR that some of the lamp grounds are common unlike the 2830/2831 1A2 sets. Can someone provide a diagram? Thanks

[paul]

I remember in the late 70's my father's office installed a Bell Horizon system. All the desks used standard 2500 phones, but for the console it used what I could describe as a 30-button ComKey 416-like phone with an adjunct line panel. It all ran from a box in a closet, that required special programming with a custom interface to make changes, that the techs had.

[cello973]

I remember in the late 70's my father's office installed a Bell Horizon system. All the desks used standard 2500 phones, but for the console it used what I could describe as a 30-button ComKey 416-like phone with an adjunct line panel. It all ran from a box in a closet, that required special programming with a custom interface to make changes, that the techs had.

My eye is twitching....  did you say Horizon...

I still have nightmares about this PBX Hybrid  POS ...
You are correct the key sets looked like the 416 phones but were only 4 pair cable and electronically different they were referred to METS and were in common to the dimension PBX
The 2500 or 500 were wired 4 wire on pair for T&R the other for the ringer.... Why they did this I will never know. There were later cards that would support two wire sets.

The programming was done via a device called a MAP panel and stored on tape locally.