I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company

Most of my phones are touch-tone (even that term is dated) but I still
have a rotary dial phone. I don't use it often enough to bother
replacing it, and I rarely dial out on that phone. It takes nothing
special, account-wise.

The jacks are super-easy to install. Your local borg or Radio Shack
will have everything you need.

On Oct 8, 9:10 pm, Robert Barr wrote:
So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company

Most of my phones are touch-tone (even that term is dated) but I still
have a rotary dial phone. I don't use it often enough to bother
replacing it, and I rarely dial out on that phone. It takes nothing
special, account-wise.

The jacks are super-easy to install. Your local borg or Radio Shack
will have everything you need.

Oh, so it would require installing a special jack? Do you mean the
kind of jack that's the modern cord fits into -- with the plastic
thingee that you press to get into the jack? This phone I'm thinking
of is already adapted for a modern jack.

I was more worried about the pulse vs. touch tone sound issue... have
I confused you? I'm getting confused...

Thanks.

In article .com,
JLF wrote:

I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.

It might be easier to post here, but we can't tell you what your phone
company can: Do they still support pulse dialing, and if so, is there a
surcharge for users.

In article .com,
says...
I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

You can't have just one jack set up differently, but it's common to have
the phone system accept both tone and pulse dialing. Common, but not
universal, some newer systems have dropped support for pulse dial.

Personally, I have VOIP at home, and can't take pulse dialing. The old
rotary phone still works fine for answering, I just can't use it to dial
out. And if I leave its ringer turned on, caller ID doesn't work on the
modern phones.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html

wrote in message
.net...
In article .com,
says...
I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

You can't have just one jack set up differently, but it's common to have
the phone system accept both tone and pulse dialing. Common, but not
universal, some newer systems have dropped support for pulse dial.

Personally, I have VOIP at home, and can't take pulse dialing. The old
rotary phone still works fine for answering, I just can't use it to dial
out. And if I leave its ringer turned on, caller ID doesn't work on the
modern phones.

Also, some old rotary phones were setup for party lines. In order to get
them to ring on single lines you have to make a small wiring change
inside the phone. It's easy to do but I haven't done it in awhile and don't
recall where on the internet I found the information -- a bit of Googling
was all it took.

In article .com,
JLF wrote:

I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.

Go for it.

I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

Nope. Just take it home, plug it in ANY outlet/jack and USE it. No special
arrangements or wiring are needed.

It may, or may not, ring properly depending on how the old rotary set is
wired, but that is usually a non-issue.

This, of course, assumes you subscribe to "conventional" telephone service as
opposed to VoIP (Vonage, etc). Have fun!
--

JR

Mean Evil Bell System
Historical Society

On 8 Oct, 23:58, JLF wrote:
I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.

One additional item:

You might have to dial extra digits depending on what features you
have on your account. For example, if you have privacy turned on, so
that your number is not displayed, you might have to dial something
like 1177 to turn privacy off if the called party doesn't accept
private calls. i.e. *xx on pulse dialing becomes 11xx on a rotary
phone. While you're checking with your phone company to see if they
still support rotary phones, ask about using 11xx to toggle features
on and off.

It'll work. just plug it in.


s


"JLF" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.

On Oct 9, 7:20 am, "Steve Barker LT"
wrote:
It'll work. just plug it in.

s

"JLF" wrote in message

oups.com...

I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.


I like this answer the best.
I want the phone just for nostalgic/style reasons -- a light blue
princess phone from childhood.
And it would be nice to have a landline phone that works during a
power outage.

Thanks for all your ideas.

In article .com,
JLF wrote:

On Oct 9, 7:20 am, "Steve Barker LT"
wrote:
It'll work. just plug it in.

s

"JLF" wrote in message

oups.com...

I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.


I like this answer the best.
I want the phone just for nostalgic/style reasons -- a light blue
princess phone from childhood.
And it would be nice to have a landline phone that works during a
power outage.

Thanks for all your ideas.

You like that answer because it's simplistic, and doesn't involve you
having to think. If you'd paid the slightest attention to the other
posts, you'd not be so confident that it will work during a power outage.

On Oct 9, 7:39 am, Smitty Two wrote:
In article .com,



JLF wrote:
On Oct 9, 7:20 am, "Steve Barker LT"
wrote:
It'll work. just plug it in.

s

"JLF" wrote in message

roups.com...

I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.

I like this answer the best.
I want the phone just for nostalgic/style reasons -- a light blue
princess phone from childhood.
And it would be nice to have a landline phone that works during a
power outage.

Thanks for all your ideas.

You like that answer because it's simplistic, and doesn't involve you
having to think. If you'd paid the slightest attention to the other
posts, you'd not be so confident that it will work during a power outage.

Yes, I wanted a simplistic answer. I admit. My feeble understanding is
that an older phone whose 'base' does not need to be powered into the
wall for electrical power, will work since those old phones 60's/70's
just rang as long as the phone service was working.

j.

only because phones sometimes go out with the power. Not because it's a
rotary phone.


s

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news If you'd paid the slightest attention to the other
posts, you'd not be so confident that it will work during a power outage.

On Oct 9, 9:45 am, "Steve Barker LT"
wrote:
only because phones sometimes go out with the power. Not because it's a
rotary phone.

s

"Smitty Two" wrote in message

news If you'd paid the slightest attention to the other

posts, you'd not be so confident that it will work during a power outage.

That's what I meant. Thanks.

I like the idea of the option to not worry about electricity. Like the
laptop.org laptops which have the pull-cord option to charge it.

JLF wrote:
I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.

No, most, not all, phone lines will accept either rotary or tone. Some of
the more modern offices won't recognize rotary dialing though. And if you
don't have it now, it's unlikely the phone company can give it to you, but
it never hurts to ask.

To test for rotary capability, pick up your phone and press the buttons in
the cradle quickly (not the tone buttons, the ones the phone presses when
it's hung up), say up to ten times. If dialtone goes away, your line is
definietly capable of rotary dialing: That's all it is; just breaks in the
on/off hook pattern when you dial a rotary phone.
If dialtone doesn't go away, it's either not available or you were too
fast or slow for the office to accept the pulses you created; experiment
some more. You'll have to call to find out.
Back in "the day" I used to be able to actually dial phone numbers that
way; can't do it anymore thoughg.

HTH

Pop`

Jim Redelfs wrote:
In article .com,
JLF wrote:

I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.

Go for it.

I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

Nope. Just take it home, plug it in ANY outlet/jack and USE it. No
special arrangements or wiring are needed.

It may, or may not, ring properly depending on how the old rotary set
is wired, but that is usually a non-issue.

Good point; and often fixable by reversing the two wires at the telephone
side of the connection.

Pop`



This, of course, assumes you subscribe to "conventional" telephone
service as opposed to VoIP (Vonage, etc). Have fun!

"JLF" wrote in message
ps.com...
On Oct 9, 9:45 am, "Steve Barker LT"
wrote:
only because phones sometimes go out with the power. Not because it's a
rotary phone.

s

"Smitty Two" wrote in message

news If you'd paid the slightest attention to the other

posts, you'd not be so confident that it will work during a power outage.

That's what I meant. Thanks.

I like the idea of the option to not worry about electricity. Like the
laptop.org laptops which have the pull-cord option to charge it.


You don't have to go back to dial phones for that. There are a lot of touch tone
phones that operated off the phone line power. Older ones at least. Just look
for phones with no power connector. (Thrift shops, etc)

Bob

In article .com,
JLF wrote:

I want the phone just for nostalgic/style reasons -- a light blue
princess phone from childhood.

That's Princessr grin

In that case, be sure to install the separate, external power supply so that
the dial lights up.

The dial light is user-settable to go completely dark when the handset is
hung-up or to emit a nice, muted glow for a night light.

Western Electric sure could build some nice stuff. sigh
--

JR

Climb poles and dig holes
Have staplegun, will travel

In article ,
Smitty Two wrote:

you'd not be so confident that it will work during a power outage.

The worst part is that, during a "grid" failure, the DIAL LIGHT wouldn't work!
HORRORS!! g

Just remember that, even though it's a (not so) "plain" corded phone, a power
outage may still silence it depending on how the telco's line is powered.
It's a non-issue anymore.
--

JR

In article , h wrote:

Since when does a phone NOT work during a power outage?

Since telcos began installing remote terminals and pair gain systems, some of
which depend on the grid to provide dial tone to the lines they serve.
--

JR

In article ,
wrote:

The strange thing about phone companies and tarrifs is that they
actually charged you an extra buck for touch tone.

When I was a Service Representative for Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in
1977, Touchtoner was $1.25, plus tax, per month.

Not many years later, the added charge for Touchtone was eliminated. I
suspect that is the case virtually everywhere by now.

Rotary dial is/was the default.

It certainly WAS. It isn't anymore.

Trivia: Did you know that you can actually call/dial a number by "flashing
the switch hook"? It's true. This is 1876 technology, folks. "Make/break"
6th grade circuitry. The technique (spoof?) works to this day. You have to
be really GOOD at it and get it right but, 3 "flashes" of the switch hook
equal a "3", 5 flashes = 5 and so on really works.
--

JR

No project too small
All projects too big

In article PrROi.4685$8F.426@trnddc05, "Pop`"
wrote:

Some of the more modern offices won't recognize rotary dialing though.
And if you don't have it now, it's unlikely the phone company can give
it to you

I respectfully disagree.

(Oops! This is usenet: Your muther wears combat boots! g)

There are still PLENTY of working, rotary dial (pulse) telephones in service
"out there". With the possible exception of internet-based telephony (VOIP -
Voice Over Internet Protocol), I am confident that all PUBLIC telco central
offices still accommodate pulse dialing. (PBX, etc, probably not.)

Western Electric 5ESS and Northern Telecom DMS10/0 are easily the two, most
popular switches and they support pulse dialing.

Back in "the day" I used to be able to actually dial phone numbers
that way; can't do it anymore thoughg.

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want to try these days, either. It takes a quick hand,
fer sure.
--

JR

On Tue, 9 Oct 2007 06:06:08 -0400, "The Streets"
wrote:

Also, some old rotary phones were setup for party lines. In order to get
them to ring on single lines you have to make a small wiring change
inside the phone. It's easy to do but I haven't done it in awhile and don't
recall where on the internet I found the information -- a bit of Googling
was all it took.

This is way off topic, but it is funny to me.

We were on a party line when I was young. I picked up the phone one
day and a neighbor was ranting to the phone company.

He said........If I can't talk to my mother on Mother's day, you can
just come get this GD phone!

It will be in the front yard when you get here!

wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:45:04 -0400, Terry
wrote:

We were on a party line when I was young.

I had a party line in the duplex I rented in 1984, It may still be
that way. ...

Not only were we on party line, still had the old rotary crank to
"central" and maintained own lines up to branch point near town where
connected to their lines.

I remember distinctly first time in grade school need to call home and
having to ask how to use the high-falutin' dial phone -- didn't have a
clue of our number, just "long-short" for us, "two shorts for
grandparents, various other combinations for the other roughly
half-dozen farmsteads...

When we came back to the farm after Dad died unexpectedly in '99,
discovered they were still paying the rental for the old dial phones
which were the originals in the house since about '80-81 and return
springs so sprung had to manually turn them back. All that rent paid
over the years and didn't even ask for new ones when those wore out--I
suppose because the old square black units probably weren't available
any longer and didn't want any of that "new-fangled" stuff...

--

--

on 10/9/2007 7:58 PM said the following:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:45:04 -0400, Terry
wrote:


We were on a party line when I was young.


I had a party line in the duplex I rented in 1984, It may still be
that way. The owner had a party line on both sides of the duplex with
different phone numbers but it was the same line. He was probably the
only guy in that area that had a party line.



I miss the days when, if the person you were calling had the same prefix
number, you only had to dial the last 4 numbers.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:07:58 -0500, dpb wrote:

wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:45:04 -0400, Terry
wrote:


springs so sprung had to manually turn them back. All that rent paid
over the years and didn't even ask for new ones when those wore out--I
suppose because the old square black units probably weren't available

And........they weighed a ton.

I lived in Watts Bar TN in 1980. You could still get your party by
dialing a 4 digit number. It might still be that way.

Actually the town is called Ten Mile.

http://maps.google.com/maps?num=100&...-8&sa=N&tab=wl

I just looked at the overhead using Google and not much looks changed.

Terry wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:07:58 -0500, dpb wrote:

wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:45:04 -0400, Terry
wrote:


springs so sprung had to manually turn them back. All that rent paid
over the years and didn't even ask for new ones when those wore out--I
suppose because the old square black units probably weren't available

And........they weighed a ton.

I lived in Watts Bar TN in 1980. You could still get your party by
dialing a 4 digit number. It might still be that way.

Actually the town is called Ten Mile.

.....

Kewl!! I was in Oak Ridge for about 26 years, last 8-10 working at EPRI
I&C Center built in conjunction w/ TVA at Kingston Fossil. Just met a
gal here from Harriman who moved out w/ her husband a few years ago w/
Seaboard (pigs). Hearing her TN twang was music...

--

In article ,
Terry wrote:

We were on a party line when I was young. I picked up the phone one
day and a neighbor was ranting to the phone company.

He said........If I can't talk to my mother on Mother's day, you can
just come get this GD phone!

It will be in the front yard when you get here!

Hehehehehe! That almost sounds like some of the customers I have dealt with.

Mother's Day was, and probably still is, the busiest day of the year, long
distance-wise. It was, and may still be, often difficult to get a
direct-dialed call to "go through" on the first attempt on Mother's Day.

You would be surprised to learn the number of folks that call their mother on
Mother's Day - and make the call COLLECT!
--

JR

Jim Redelfs wrote:
In article .com,
JLF wrote:

I want the phone just for nostalgic/style reasons -- a light blue
princess phone from childhood.

That's Princessr grin

In that case, be sure to install the separate, external power supply so that
the dial lights up.

The dial light is user-settable to go completely dark when the handset is
hung-up or to emit a nice, muted glow for a night light.

Western Electric sure could build some nice stuff. sigh
The older Princesses needed the gray power cube for the dial light, but
would work fine without. (Still have a few in the old phone crate, plus
one the previous owner left hanging from an abandoned line in basement.)
It was sometimes installed near the phone, sometimes in the basement,
using Y-B to pass the power. The later Princesses were line powered.
Great little cubes, damn near indestructible. Too bad phones are pretty
much all they were good for.

aem sends...

In article , h wrote:

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
In article .com,
JLF wrote:

On Oct 9, 7:20 am, "Steve Barker LT"
wrote:
It'll work. just plug it in.

s

"JLF" wrote in message

oups.com...

I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone
company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.


I like this answer the best.
I want the phone just for nostalgic/style reasons -- a light blue
princess phone from childhood.
And it would be nice to have a landline phone that works during a
power outage.

Thanks for all your ideas.

You like that answer because it's simplistic, and doesn't involve you
having to think. If you'd paid the slightest attention to the other
posts, you'd not be so confident that it will work during a power outage.

Since when does a phone NOT work during a power outage? Ok, so I don't have
cordless, cable, or cell phones, but all the phones in my house work when
the power goes out. Why wouldn't an old phone attached to a wire work the
way all old phones worked for years?

I keep an old phone around for power outages. Still, it's a pushbutton
tone dialer. We just lost power in my neighborhood for 13 hours
yesterday, as a matter of fact. But a lot of phone companies have dumped
pulse dialing compatibility. That was the OP's original concern, one
which no longer seems as important as the sentimental aspect of the
purchase.

In article ,
"Steve Barker LT" wrote:

only because phones sometimes go out with the power. Not because it's a
rotary phone.


s

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news If you'd paid the slightest attention to the other
posts, you'd not be so confident that it will work during a power outage.

argh. I disagree. The phone in question is a pulse dialer. It may well
work, and may not. Depends on the OP's phone company.

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:42:32 -0500, Jim Redelfs
wrote:

In article PrROi.4685$8F.426@trnddc05, "Pop`"
wrote:

Some of the more modern offices won't recognize rotary dialing though.
And if you don't have it now, it's unlikely the phone company can give
it to you

I respectfully disagree.

(Oops! This is usenet: Your muther wears combat boots! g)

There are still PLENTY of working, rotary dial (pulse) telephones in service
"out there". With the possible exception of internet-based telephony (VOIP -
Voice Over Internet Protocol), I am confident that all PUBLIC telco central
offices still accommodate pulse dialing. (PBX, etc, probably not.)

Western Electric 5ESS and Northern Telecom DMS10/0 are easily the two, most
popular switches and they support pulse dialing.

Back in "the day" I used to be able to actually dial phone numbers
that way; can't do it anymore thoughg.

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want to try these days, either. It takes a quick hand,
fer sure.

If for some reason, your central office has pulse dialing turned off
(this would be extremely rare), I recall seeing local rotary
pulse--tone converters that you could buy. You'd have to do a search
on the Internet for them, however.

In the old days (and still for most POTS Plain Old Telephone Service),
the CO (Central Office) supplied power via a big battery bank that was
typically backed up with a diesel genset. Simple power failures
rarely affected phone service unless the phone lines themselves were
down or under water.

Nowdays, some customers have advanced (they tell us) to fiber optics
(or coax cable) and there is a conversion box either on the inside or
outside of your house that requires AC Power and may or may not have a
working battery backup. (If yes, then you typically would be
responsible for the battery maintenance).

The purpose of the box is to convert the digital signal from the fiber
or coax to a simulation of Plain Old Telephone Service and a regular
two-wire connection to your old traditional telephones. In some
cases, your phones will not work during a power failure. In other
cases, they might. It's worth it to check by temporarily unpluging
this box and waiting a few mintutes to check the phone. It's one of
the few instances of the phone becoming LESS reliable due to modern
technological advances.

On Oct 9, 9:12 pm, (Beachcomber) wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:42:32 -0500, Jim Redelfs



wrote:
In article PrROi.4685$8F.426@trnddc05, "Pop`"
wrote:

Some of the more modern offices won't recognize rotary dialing though.
And if you don't have it now, it's unlikely the phone company can give
it to you

I respectfully disagree.

(Oops! This is usenet: Your muther wears combat boots! g)

There are still PLENTY of working, rotary dial (pulse) telephones in service
"out there". With the possible exception of internet-based telephony (VOIP -
Voice Over Internet Protocol), I am confident that all PUBLIC telco central
offices still accommodate pulse dialing. (PBX, etc, probably not.)

Western Electric 5ESS and Northern Telecom DMS10/0 are easily the two, most
popular switches and they support pulse dialing.

Back in "the day" I used to be able to actually dial phone numbers
that way; can't do it anymore thoughg.

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want to try these days, either. It takes a quick hand,
fer sure.

If for some reason, your central office has pulse dialing turned off
(this would be extremely rare), I recall seeing local rotary
pulse--tone converters that you could buy. You'd have to do a search
on the Internet for them, however.

In the old days (and still for most POTS Plain Old Telephone Service),
the CO (Central Office) supplied power via a big battery bank that was
typically backed up with a diesel genset. Simple power failures
rarely affected phone service unless the phone lines themselves were
down or under water.

Nowdays, some customers have advanced (they tell us) to fiber optics
(or coax cable) and there is a conversion box either on the inside or
outside of your house that requires AC Power and may or may not have a
working battery backup. (If yes, then you typically would be
responsible for the battery maintenance).

The purpose of the box is to convert the digital signal from the fiber
or coax to a simulation of Plain Old Telephone Service and a regular
two-wire connection to your old traditional telephones. In some
cases, your phones will not work during a power failure. In other
cases, they might. It's worth it to check by temporarily unpluging
this box and waiting a few mintutes to check the phone. It's one of
the few instances of the phone becoming LESS reliable due to modern
technological advances.


FOLLOW UP: I contacted my phone company (PacBellSBCAT&T) and after
the usual voice mail maze, the nice lady said there should be no
problem if I just plug in an older rotary pulse phone.

Now I'll be hitting ebay and buying one. For all of you with classics
in your basements, clean 'em up and sell them -- one rare gold
princess went for $339!

Thanks for your ideas and suggestions.

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:34:25 -0500, Jim Redelfs
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

The strange thing about phone companies and tarrifs is that they
actually charged you an extra buck for touch tone.

When I was a Service Representative for Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in
1977, Touchtoner was $1.25, plus tax, per month.

Not many years later, the added charge for Touchtone was eliminated. I
suspect that is the case virtually everywhere by now.

Rotary dial is/was the default.

It certainly WAS. It isn't anymore.

Trivia: Did you know that you can actually call/dial a number by "flashing
the switch hook"? It's true. This is 1876 technology, folks. "Make/break"
6th grade circuitry. The technique (spoof?) works to this day. You have to
be really GOOD at it and get it right but, 3 "flashes" of the switch hook
equal a "3", 5 flashes = 5 and so on really works.


Not that difficult. You just need a bit of rythym.

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:37:09 -0400, Terry
wrote:

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:07:58 -0500, dpb wrote:

wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:45:04 -0400, Terry
wrote:


springs so sprung had to manually turn them back. All that rent paid
over the years and didn't even ask for new ones when those wore out--I
suppose because the old square black units probably weren't available

And........they weighed a ton.

I lived in Watts Bar TN in 1980. You could still get your party by
dialing a 4 digit number. It might still be that way.


It was 5 digits here (east Texas, in a small town where all numbers
used the same "first 3 digits"). That changed to 7 digits around 1990
when they switched to ESS and 10 digits around 2004 with the new
"overlay" area code.

BTW, I still haven't heard of anyone using that new area code, but we
still have to dial 10 digits.

BTW2, I bought a washer and dryer last year in an old store. The
salesman asked my phone number and wrote down 5 digits.

Actually the town is called Ten Mile.

http://maps.google.com/maps?num=100&...-8&sa=N&tab=wl

I just looked at the overhead using Google and not much looks changed.

--
76 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:13:59 -0500, Jim Redelfs
wrote:

In article ,
Terry wrote:

We were on a party line when I was young. I picked up the phone one
day and a neighbor was ranting to the phone company.

He said........If I can't talk to my mother on Mother's day, you can
just come get this GD phone!

It will be in the front yard when you get here!

Hehehehehe! That almost sounds like some of the customers I have dealt with.

Mother's Day was, and probably still is, the busiest day of the year, long
distance-wise. It was, and may still be, often difficult to get a
direct-dialed call to "go through" on the first attempt on Mother's Day.


I remember making a long-distance call from a party line phone (we had
just gotten direct dialing for long distance. I'd get a busy signal
after just dialing the "1".

You would be surprised to learn the number of folks that call their mother on
Mother's Day - and make the call COLLECT!

Another busy time is just after a popular football game.
--
76 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:34:25 -0500, Jim Redelfs
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

The strange thing about phone companies and tarrifs is that they
actually charged you an extra buck for touch tone.

When I was a Service Representative for Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in
1977, Touchtoner was $1.25, plus tax, per month.

Not many years later, the added charge for Touchtone was eliminated. I
suspect that is the case virtually everywhere by now.


When I moved here (in 1988), tone dialing was supported but not
directly. After pushing the buttons, you'd have to wait through some
"click-click click-click-click click-click".

Rotary dial is/was the default.

It certainly WAS. It isn't anymore.

Trivia: Did you know that you can actually call/dial a number by "flashing
the switch hook"? It's true. This is 1876 technology, folks. "Make/break"
6th grade circuitry. The technique (spoof?) works to this day. You have to
be really GOOD at it and get it right but, 3 "flashes" of the switch hook
equal a "3", 5 flashes = 5 and so on really works.
--
76 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:24:15 GMT, "Pop`"
wrote:

JLF wrote:
I am thinking of buying an old rotary dial phone.
I understand that I need to have it set up for pulse dialing vs. the
more modern tone dialing.

So can one jack be set up the old fashioned way with the phone company
or does the entire account need to be set up one way or another?

Thank you. It is easier to post here than to try and call the phone
company itself.

J.

No, most, not all, phone lines will accept either rotary or tone. Some of
the more modern offices won't recognize rotary dialing though. And if you
don't have it now, it's unlikely the phone company can give it to you, but
it never hurts to ask.

To test for rotary capability, pick up your phone and press the buttons in
the cradle quickly (not the tone buttons, the ones the phone presses when
it's hung up), say up to ten times. If dialtone goes away, your line is
definietly capable of rotary dialing: That's all it is; just breaks in the
on/off hook pattern when you dial a rotary phone.

A lot of phones (and AFAIK all POTS modems) can be switched to dial
either way.

If dialtone doesn't go away, it's either not available or you were too
fast or slow for the office to accept the pulses you created; experiment
some more. You'll have to call to find out.
Back in "the day" I used to be able to actually dial phone numbers that
way; can't do it anymore thoughg.

HTH

Pop`

--
76 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:48:01 -0500, Mark Lloyd
wrote:


It was 5 digits here (east Texas, in a small town where all numbers
used the same "first 3 digits"). That changed to 7 digits around 1990
when they switched to ESS and 10 digits around 2004 with the new
"overlay" area code.

BTW, I still haven't heard of anyone using that new area code, but we
still have to dial 10 digits.

I was very pleased when we went to 10 digits. It was the first time I
could dial out on a modem without it being a long distance call.

They gave metro Atlanta our old 404 area code and surrounding areas
took 770 and others.

They should have given the business numbers 404 and residents 770. It
was at least a year before people quit dialing the wrong area code.

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:01:15 -0700, JLF wrote:

FOLLOW UP: I contacted my phone company (PacBellSBCAT&T) and after
the usual voice mail maze, the nice lady said there should be no
problem if I just plug in an older rotary pulse phone.


I call it menu hell.

I was trying to get the social security office this week and I had to
call 4 times before I picked a combo of menu options that did not play
an self help option and then hang up.