On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:47:27 +0800, cjt
wrote:

mm wrote:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:29:50 -0400, George
wrote:


But as usual the cheap ones are real junk. Had an interesting experience
just last month. Someone of the big box is their friend mentality bought
some cheap UPSs for equipment at a site. I received a call that various
equipment powered down. The cheepo big box UPSs don't have an auto buck
boost but instead draw energy from the battery. The local power company
lost a large circuit breaker upstream so they had a brownout in the
region. The voltage was only dropped to 109 VAC but that was enough for
the toy UPSs to drop their load after a while. The real UPSs I had
specified a few years earlier kept there loads up with no problem until
the next day when the power company completed their repairs.

You have UPSes that will power something for a whole day?

I think you may have missed the point. The battery part of the UPS
wasn't needed because the boost did the job. That could go on
indefinitely.

Yes, thank you. I did miss the point, even though I read the part
about boost.

Do you think my UPS would have boost? I have a Tripp-Lite UPS I
bought used probably 8 or 10 years ago. It was surplus from some
office, so I'm guessing it's 15 years old at least.


When I lived in NY during the big period of brownouts around the
nation, late 70's or early 80's, I took some fairly big transformer,
5x5x4 inches, with a 12 volts output among others iirc and I think I
connected the output in series with the input so that I could add the
two together and get a boost. and when the voltage dropped 10 volts, I
could get the full voltage to power my tv. It worked. I figured I
wasn't defeating the purpose of the brownout, because I only ran the
tv on the boost voltage, nothing else.

I barely used it and still have the thing. Do you think it would run
my desk computer during a brown out?

A computer,
they power? Or something that uses as much currrent? I thought mine
wity a new 4AH battery would only work for about 10 minutes.

I bought my first one at 80% off at staples and I liked it. When it
broke I bought a famous brand, the leading brand, at a hamfest, but
the power switch is not big enough to work with my toes like the other
one was.

Pete C. wrote:
Wayne Boatwright wrote:
On Fri 25 Sep 2009 08:51:02p, mm told us...

On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:34:21 GMT, Wayne Boatwright
wrote:

On Fri 25 Sep 2009 03:26:32p, Don Wiss told us...

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:34:21 -0700, "Walter R."
wrote:

After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks
and keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable
service, when I need it.
And it will work during power outages.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Only if you have a "plain vanilla" phone directly plugged into the jack
or hard-wired. Cordless phones of any ilk are dependent only local AC
power in the house for signal transmission.
My Uniden fancy phone doesn't do special functions, not even redial,
in a power failure, but the phone itself still works then. It has a
cord to the handset, and a cordless phone elsewhere.

Obviously yours is different and probably not in the majority. Anyone who
wants a phone that requires nothing more than connection to a phone line
should shop wisely.


UPSes are cheap these days, and if you are in an area that is prone to
long power outages, a small generator can quickly pay for itself by
keeping the refrigerator going and preventing spoiled food.
Hi,
?????, I got transfered out there in the spring of '70.
I live in Calgary AB, and I can count power outages with my one hand
since. Longest was ~30 minutes once when grass fire knocked off pole
carrying main line for the neighborhood. Others few minutes or just a
blink. How come power is so unreliable down there? Utility wires are all
underground in my neighborhood.

On 27 Sep 2009 06:39:47 GMT, TD wrote:

mm wrote in
:

On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:05:37 -0400, willshak
wrote:


Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first
setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system.
Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if
you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you
and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your
911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address
when you return home.

Good to know, about my house, but I'd never get around to changing it
when I was someplace else. I'd have to be being chased by killers,
like in the movies. Then I'd do it.

I realize you are making a point that it's as good as a regular telco
wired phone, and better I guess than a cellphone, where you iiuc you
can't do that.



I have a MagicJack. It has terrible reception.

Is this the same thing advertised under a differnt name on tv, that
they say is the secret the phone company doesn't want you to know
about.

On 26 Sep 2009, Stormin Mormon wrote:

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there
abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.

Maybe it was 1974 as you had a rural phone company, but the touch tones
were defined in the early 1960s and I have two touch tone Trimline phones
here that date from 1969-1971.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

mm wrote:

I barely used it and still have the thing. Do you think it would run
my desk computer during a brown out?


Do you even HAVE brownouts?

Reducing voltage to cope with demand is not common in most parts of the
country.

Actually, most parts of the country don't HAVE excessive demand or have made
arrangements to handle the situation.

The more common conditions are reclosure time - that is the time the
automatic switches take to re-route power when a truck takes out a pole -
and sub-station faults. The first loses power to the customer for up to half
a second, the second drops power for a few minutes.

Tony Hwang wrote:

I live in Calgary AB, and I can count power outages with my one hand
since. Longest was ~30 minutes once when grass fire knocked off pole
carrying main line for the neighborhood. Others few minutes or just a
blink. How come power is so unreliable down there? Utility wires are
all underground in my neighborhood.

Many reasons. Lack of infastructure, environmental concerns, unexpected
growth, silly political decisions.

I live, fortunately, in Texas which is not connected to the national grid. A
zombie infestation in New Jersey or a jellyfish flood in San Diego cannot
affect us.

on 9/27/2009 1:45 AM (ET) mm wrote the following:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:05:37 -0400, willshak
wrote:


Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first
setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system.
Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if
you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you
and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your
911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address
when you return home.


Good to know, about my house, but I'd never get around to changing it
when I was someplace else. I'd have to be being chased by killers,
like in the movies. Then I'd do it.


What about a medical emergency?
I realize you are making a point that it's as good as a regular telco
wired phone, and better I guess than a cellphone, where you iiuc you
can't do that.



--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

on 9/27/2009 3:32 AM (ET) mm wrote the following:
On 27 Sep 2009 06:39:47 GMT, TD wrote:


mm wrote in
:


On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:05:37 -0400, willshak
wrote:


Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first
setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system.
Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if
you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you
and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your
911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address
when you return home.


Good to know, about my house, but I'd never get around to changing it
when I was someplace else. I'd have to be being chased by killers,
like in the movies. Then I'd do it.

I realize you are making a point that it's as good as a regular telco
wired phone, and better I guess than a cellphone, where you iiuc you
can't do that.



I have a MagicJack. It has terrible reception.


Is this the same thing advertised under a differnt name on tv, that
they say is the secret the phone company doesn't want you to know
about.

Everything advertised on TV is some secret that somebody doesn't want
you to know!

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

HeyBub wrote:
Tony Hwang wrote:

I live in Calgary AB, and I can count power outages with my one hand
since. Longest was ~30 minutes once when grass fire knocked off pole
carrying main line for the neighborhood. Others few minutes or just a
blink. How come power is so unreliable down there? Utility wires are
all underground in my neighborhood.

Many reasons. Lack of infastructure, environmental concerns, unexpected
growth, silly political decisions.

I live, fortunately, in Texas which is not connected to the national grid. A
zombie infestation in New Jersey or a jellyfish flood in San Diego cannot
affect us.


Connecting to the grid means nothing. All it takes is a utility that
thinks beyond harbor freight class designs. Our local utility belongs to
the PJM interconnect and also generates more energy than it uses. After
a few blackouts ago they designed our interconnect ties so that when all
of the other outfits go down like dominoes they disconnect us. There is
a great night satellite shot after the last big blackout where NYC, NY,
NJ and Ohio were dark and we were still lit up.

mm wrote:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:08:37 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

aemeijers wrote:
Too rich for my blood- I just have a real phone in every room, and
keep a stack of the 'blue ice' things in the freezer. As long as it
isn't over 100 degrees out, and I severely limit my refrig open-door
time, I'm good for about 48 hours. If I think outage will be longer
than that, I put the stuff that will actually go bad quickly in a
small cooler, and put some of the blue ice in that. I can live with
the bread, mustard, fizzy water, and veggies getting warm. I do wish
I had a gas stove, though, like my last place had. And city water.
(snip)

Haller, if you're home you can turn the water on a tiny bit and the
pipes won't freeze. If the whole house gets close to 32, I guess you
have to turn on all the faucets, and yes that would be a problem for
the clothes and dish washers.

BTW, it was explained here that hot water pipes freeze sooner than
cold water pipes do. It was explained why.


That is why I also mentioned that I wish I was on city water. I'm on a
well- so no power, no shower, and you can flush each toilet once. That
alone tempts me to get a small genset, and put the well pump on a
pigtail, and rig a passthru to the back yard so I can run the generator
out in the shed 50 feet away. But as seldom as extended outages happen
around here, the hotel down the road is probably a more cost-effective
solution.

--
aem sends...

Haller, if you're home you can turn the water on a tiny bit and the
pipes won't freeze. �If the whole house gets close to 32, I guess you
have to turn on all the faucets, and yes that would be a problem for
the clothes and dish washers. �


toilets break when the traps freeze, washewrs dryers and everything
with liquids would freeze and break, let alone humans trying to live
in such conditions

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:07:46 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

mm wrote:

I barely used it and still have the thing. Do you think it would run
my desk computer during a brown out?


Do you even HAVE brownouts?

Well, no, not yet. Not since the 70's.

Reducing voltage to cope with demand is not common in most parts of the
country.

Actually, most parts of the country don't HAVE excessive demand or have made
arrangements to handle the situation.

The more common conditions are reclosure time - that is the time the
automatic switches take to re-route power when a truck takes out a pole -
and sub-station faults. The first loses power to the customer for up to half
a second, the second drops power for a few minutes.

We have a lot of those, but I doubt we have many trucks hitting poles.

Thanks.

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:57:06 -0400, willshak
wrote:

on 9/27/2009 1:45 AM (ET) mm wrote the following:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:05:37 -0400, willshak
wrote:


Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first
setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system.
Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if
you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you
and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your
911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address
when you return home.


Good to know, about my house, but I'd never get around to changing it
when I was someplace else. I'd have to be being chased by killers,
like in the movies. Then I'd do it.


What about a medical emergency?

I would never get around to planning for one of those. I'm wasn't
saying that's good, just that that's how I am.

I realize you are making a point that it's as good as a regular telco
wired phone, and better I guess than a cellphone, where you iiuc you
can't do that.

mm wrote:
On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:57:06 -0400, willshak
wrote:

on 9/27/2009 1:45 AM (ET) mm wrote the following:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:05:37 -0400, willshak
wrote:


Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first
setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system.
Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if
you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you
and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your
911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address
when you return home.


Good to know, about my house, but I'd never get around to changing it
when I was someplace else. I'd have to be being chased by killers,
like in the movies. Then I'd do it.

What about a medical emergency?

I would never get around to planning for one of those. I'm wasn't
saying that's good, just that that's how I am.

You may want to. A relative of mine died and is alive today because of
911. He came home before his wife, felt bad, dialed 911, dropped the
phone and died. The paramedics and police are automatically dispatched
on such calls. They got his heart started and he is still going strong.


I don't know how VoIP 911 works and how much I would depend on it. My
understanding it is some kludge and doesn't work like "normal" 911. In
"normal" 911 the phone switch includes information about your lines
location and it comes up directly on the comm centers screen. I think
the VoIP systems just make an automated call to the regular comm center
voice number.



I realize you are making a point that it's as good as a regular telco
wired phone, and better I guess than a cellphone, where you iiuc you
can't do that.

In article ,
aemeijers wrote:



That is why I also mentioned that I wish I was on city water. I'm on a
well- so no power, no shower, and you can flush each toilet once. That
alone tempts me to get a small genset, and put the well pump on a
pigtail, and rig a passthru to the back yard so I can run the generator
out in the shed 50 feet away. But as seldom as extended outages happen
around here, the hotel down the road is probably a more cost-effective
solution.

Unless you're friends with the manager, the hotel down the road may be
filled with your neighbors by the time you decide that the outage will
be extended.

GF now lives in our recently acquired place with a well, and I'm
thinking it's definitely a good idea to have a generator on hand, even
though outages are rare.

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:07:40 -0400, Don Wiss
wrote:

On 26 Sep 2009, Stormin Mormon wrote:

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there
abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.

Maybe it was 1974 as you had a rural phone company, but the touch tones
were defined in the early 1960s and I have two touch tone Trimline phones
here that date from 1969-1971.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).
I still have some dial phones in my house and studio. Not too many
years ago I had a person here that was supposed to be servicing my oil
burner. He did not know how to use the phone. I should have show him
the door then instead of allow him to damage my burner that he charged
me for. /Something to do with the oil pump. I could not prove it but I
swear he sold me a bill of crap.

Walter R. wrote:
My telephone charges creep upwards, almost every month, mostly due to
increased government mandated charges. I pay AT&T now $ 26 a month for what
is essentially local service. Long Distance is on a separate bill from ECG.

What are the alternatives to increasingly expensive land-lines? We live in a
low area and have poor cellphone connections. What is this Magic Jack thing?
Does it work? What are the drawbacks?

What is VOIP? Just heard about it? Is this another valid alternative.

Thanks for any input.


I have a magicJack and a VOIP service from http://www.viatalk.com/
I don't recommend the magicJack for regular phone service but it's
a good supplement to any phone service and for $20.00 a year it's
quite useful. My magicJack died but I still keep the number for
something to give anyone who may give the number out to a telemarketer
or collection agency. The voice-mail messages are Emailed to me and
I don't have to worry about being disturbed by pests. A magicJack
requires a computer to be on and connected to a high speed service
if you wish to make and receive calls, voice-mail is remote/web based.
My ViaTalk uses a stand alone adapter plugged into my router and gives
me two phone lines with one number. One of the lines can be provisioned
as a fax line.

TDD

mm wrote:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:01:16 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there
abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.

I'm not contradicting your date, but interewstingly enough, in 1956,
my friend's father took us to the Lawrence County farm show, in
western Pa., New Castle. and they were demonstrating touch-tone
phones.

Actually the one they showed was also programmable, sort of. It had
no memory, but it came with plastic cards, two by three inches or a
little bigger, about an eigth inch thick, with maybe 7 holes in each
row (at least more than 4, which is all that is necessary to represent
number 1-0. the other holes must have been there for things planned
and not yet planned.) and enough rows for a 10 digit phone number, I
think. The centers of the holes were not totally connected to the
cards, only with "spokes" and could be pushed out, to represent the
number to be called. There was a place at the top to write the
person's name. You pushed the card in the top of the phone and pushed
a button and iirc it popped out, a number at a time ,but quickly, as
it dialed, but with tones.

They have a lot of lead time on these things.

Yes, good idea to keep at least one old fashioned phone
hooked up. In my part of the world, we have power cuts at
least once a year.

Here too. There was an hour on Friday. And once for two days.

Also, please have at least one cell phone charger you can
use in the car. Car powered phone-chargers will also usually
work off a battery booster pack with lighter socket.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.


"aemeijers" wrote in message
...

It is getting real hard to find single-line corded phones
without bells
and whistles in the stores, other than entry-level plastic
throw-aways
that often don't even have any electronics in the base.
Terrible sound
quality and poor durability. Glad I have a crate of old real
phones in
the basement- I'm not even seeing real phones at garage
sales very often
any more. If you ever see any old Ma Bell desk phones at a
sale for
under five bucks, snap them up. Even an old 500 series
rotary dial will
probably outlive you. You can always hook it up in the
basement or
workshop to answer calls on. And if you have a real phone
line rather
than VOIP, rotary dial still usually works to dial out. (and
it is fun
to see kid's faces as they try to use it to make a call...)


From Google:

Nov 1963 - The TOUCH-TONE® telephone made its Bell System commercial
debut in November, 1963 and is well on its way to success. Customer
enthusiasm for the new pushbutton service can be seen in some typical
comments:. "The whole thing is like magic. You can dial very ...The
TOUCH-TONE® telephone made its Bell System commercial debut in November,
1963 and is well on its way to success. Customer enthusiasm for the new
pushbutton service can be seen in some typical comments:. "The whole
thing is like magic. You can dial very fast and it's just wonderful."
"Speed, simplicity...the sound is delightful."

TDD

Don Wiss wrote:
On 26 Sep 2009, Stormin Mormon wrote:

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there
abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.

Maybe it was 1974 as you had a rural phone company, but the touch tones
were defined in the early 1960s and I have two touch tone Trimline phones
here that date from 1969-1971.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

You have some of the phones that can double as weapons.
You can hit someone over the head with one of those and
take em out. *snicker*

TDD

The Daring Dufas wrote:
Don Wiss wrote:
On 26 Sep 2009, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with rotary dialing
ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I remember when touch tone
came out in 1974, some where there abouts. We all thought it was
really neat stuff.

Maybe it was 1974 as you had a rural phone company, but the touch tones
were defined in the early 1960s and I have two touch tone Trimline phones
here that date from 1969-1971.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

You have some of the phones that can double as weapons.
You can hit someone over the head with one of those and
take em out. *snicker*

TDD
Ma Bell was just making use of some of the R&D they were doing for the
military. The TT standard actually includes a 4th row of buttons down
the right-hand side, used for special functions on the military phone
networks of the day. All OBE now of course, now that everything is
electronic, and most of the military phone systems are just now virtual
networks riding the same long lines as everyone else. About the only
dedicated physical circuits are between the larger installations.

--
aem sends...

"mm" wrote in message ...
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:01:16 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there
abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.

I'm not contradicting your date, but interewstingly enough, in 1956,
my friend's father took us to the Lawrence County farm show, in
western Pa., New Castle. and they were demonstrating touch-tone
phones.

Actually the one they showed was also programmable, sort of. It had
no memory, but it came with plastic cards, two by three inches or a
little bigger, about an eigth inch thick, with maybe 7 holes in each
row (at least more than 4, which is all that is necessary to represent
number 1-0. the other holes must have been there for things planned
and not yet planned.) and enough rows for a 10 digit phone number, I
think. The centers of the holes were not totally connected to the
cards, only with "spokes" and could be pushed out, to represent the
number to be called. There was a place at the top to write the
person's name. You pushed the card in the top of the phone and pushed
a button and iirc it popped out, a number at a time ,but quickly, as
it dialed, but with tones.

They have a lot of lead time on these things.

7 holes... sounds like they might correspond to the 4 rows & 3 columns on the keypad? Do you happen
to remember if they were punched out in pairs?

Eric Law

On Sep 28, 3:22*pm, "Eric" wrote:
"mm" wrote in messagenews:9cttb5lg8l85vgg0ku5kspt6p4t1edudho@4ax .com...
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:01:16 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there
abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.

I'm not contradicting your date, but interestingly enough, in 1956,
my friend's father took us to the Lawrence County farm show, in
western Pa., New Castle. and they were demonstrating touch-tone
phones.

Actually the one they showed was also programmable, sort of. *It had
no memory, but it came with plastic cards, two by three inches or a
little bigger, about an eighth inch thick, with maybe 7 holes in each
row (at least more than 4, which is all that is necessary to represent
number 1-0. the other holes must have been there for things planned
and not yet planned.) and enough rows for a 10 digit phone number, I
think. * The centers of the holes were not totally connected to the
cards, only with "spokes" and could be pushed out, to represent the
number to be called. *There was a place at the top to write the
person's name. *You pushed the card in the top of the phone and pushed
a button and IIRC it popped out, a number at a time ,but quickly, as
it dialed, but with tones.

They have a lot of lead time on these things.

7 holes... sounds like they might correspond to the 4 rows & 3 columns on the keypad? *Do you happen
to remember if they were punched out in pairs?

Eric Law- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well there are four horizontal frequencies and three vertical ones
IIRC. Each digit button etc. sends a pair of frequencies. A total of
12.
All generated within the 'touch-tone' keypad using the small current
flowing from the telephone switch/exchange after dial tone has been
obtained.
So by adding a fourth frequency (vertically) another four combinations
of signals could have been generated; a total of 16.

stan wrote:
On Sep 28, 3:22 pm, "Eric" wrote:
"mm" wrote in messagenews:9cttb5lg8l85vgg0ku5kspt6p4t1edudho@4ax .com...
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:01:16 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there
abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.
I'm not contradicting your date, but interestingly enough, in 1956,
my friend's father took us to the Lawrence County farm show, in
western Pa., New Castle. and they were demonstrating touch-tone
phones.
Actually the one they showed was also programmable, sort of. It had
no memory, but it came with plastic cards, two by three inches or a
little bigger, about an eighth inch thick, with maybe 7 holes in each
row (at least more than 4, which is all that is necessary to represent
number 1-0. the other holes must have been there for things planned
and not yet planned.) and enough rows for a 10 digit phone number, I
think. The centers of the holes were not totally connected to the
cards, only with "spokes" and could be pushed out, to represent the
number to be called. There was a place at the top to write the
person's name. You pushed the card in the top of the phone and pushed
a button and IIRC it popped out, a number at a time ,but quickly, as
it dialed, but with tones.
They have a lot of lead time on these things.
7 holes... sounds like they might correspond to the 4 rows & 3 columns on the keypad? Do you happen
to remember if they were punched out in pairs?

Eric Law- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well there are four horizontal frequencies and three vertical ones
IIRC. Each digit button etc. sends a pair of frequencies. A total of
12.
All generated within the 'touch-tone' keypad using the small current
flowing from the telephone switch/exchange after dial tone has been
obtained.
So by adding a fourth frequency (vertically) another four combinations
of signals could have been generated; a total of 16.

As noted upstream, the standard does include a 4x4 grid. On civilian
phones, they just leave off the 4th row of buttons. Somewhere I have an
early TT 2500, with no # and * buttons- same sort of deal.

Can't remember what the symbols for the extra 4 buttons were, though.

Let's ask Google- here we go- http://www.prc68.com/I/TA838.shtml#MTT

ABCD, or FO F I P, with # and * being replaced by C and R.

--
aem sends...

Here's a better one with clearer pictures.

http://www.porticus.org/bell/telepho...touchtone.html

man I love the internet- any silly-ass trivia question that comes up,
odds are the answer is seconds away....

aem sends...

Oh, it's very possible the technology was sooner than that.
I remember about that same time, mid seventies, I saw a demo
of a picture phone, at the telco. Black and white, but still
very impressive. Now, we have web cams.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..




I'm not contradicting your date, but interewstingly
enough, in 1956,
my friend's father took us to the Lawrence County farm
show, in
western Pa., New Castle. and they were demonstrating
touch-tone
phones.

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
On Sun 27 Sep 2009 06:08:04p, The Daring Dufas told us...

Don Wiss wrote:
On 26 Sep 2009, Stormin Mormon
wrote:
I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there abouts. We
all thought it was really neat stuff.
Maybe it was 1974 as you had a rural phone company, but the touch tones
were defined in the early 1960s and I have two touch tone Trimline
phones
here that date from 1969-1971.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).
You have some of the phones that can double as weapons.
You can hit someone over the head with one of those and
take em out. *snicker*

TDD


I have only one land line phone in the house. It's an antique Bell System
Model 202, like the one pictured, but in cast brass housing. It's in
perfect working condition, along with the separate bell box, but is not
currently connected. In an emergency it could be.

http://www.arctos.com/dial/

We rely solely on our cell phones for incoming and outgoing calls. The
land line is only connected to our fax machine.


A dozen years ago, I fixed a garage door for a nice lady
and her mom. The nice lady was 75 and her mother was 100
years old. They had a model 302 phone that they were still
leasing from BellSouth.

TDD

The Daring Dufas wrote:
Wayne Boatwright wrote:
On Sun 27 Sep 2009 06:08:04p, The Daring Dufas told us...

Don Wiss wrote:
On 26 Sep 2009, Stormin Mormon
wrote:
I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with rotary
dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I remember when
touch tone came out in 1974, some where there abouts. We
all thought it was really neat stuff.
Maybe it was 1974 as you had a rural phone company, but the touch tones
were defined in the early 1960s and I have two touch tone Trimline
phones
here that date from 1969-1971.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).
You have some of the phones that can double as weapons.
You can hit someone over the head with one of those and
take em out. *snicker*

TDD


I have only one land line phone in the house. It's an antique Bell
System Model 202, like the one pictured, but in cast brass housing.
It's in perfect working condition, along with the separate bell box,
but is not currently connected. In an emergency it could be.
http://www.arctos.com/dial/
We rely solely on our cell phones for incoming and outgoing calls.
The land line is only connected to our fax machine.


A dozen years ago, I fixed a garage door for a nice lady
and her mom. The nice lady was 75 and her mother was 100
years old. They had a model 302 phone that they were still
leasing from BellSouth.

TDD
Musta been more than a dozen years- it has been at least 15 since Ma
Bell's children abandoned all rental phones in place, IIRC.

--
aem sends...

aemeijers wrote:
The Daring Dufas wrote:
Wayne Boatwright wrote:
On Sun 27 Sep 2009 06:08:04p, The Daring Dufas told us...

Don Wiss wrote:
On 26 Sep 2009, Stormin Mormon
wrote:
I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with rotary
dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I remember when
touch tone came out in 1974, some where there abouts. We
all thought it was really neat stuff.
Maybe it was 1974 as you had a rural phone company, but the touch
tones
were defined in the early 1960s and I have two touch tone Trimline
phones
here that date from 1969-1971.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).
You have some of the phones that can double as weapons.
You can hit someone over the head with one of those and
take em out. *snicker*

TDD


I have only one land line phone in the house. It's an antique Bell
System Model 202, like the one pictured, but in cast brass housing.
It's in perfect working condition, along with the separate bell box,
but is not currently connected. In an emergency it could be.
http://www.arctos.com/dial/
We rely solely on our cell phones for incoming and outgoing calls.
The land line is only connected to our fax machine.


A dozen years ago, I fixed a garage door for a nice lady
and her mom. The nice lady was 75 and her mother was 100
years old. They had a model 302 phone that they were still
leasing from BellSouth.

TDD
Musta been more than a dozen years- it has been at least 15 since Ma
Bell's children abandoned all rental phones in place, IIRC.

--
aem sends...

I was guessing about the time period, all I remember is
that it was in the 90's. A length of time soon to be 20
years. Hell, I remember the first grade from the 1950's,
Sister Godzilla made quite an impression on me, I still
have knots on my head from back then.

TDD

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:57:53 -0400, George
wrote:

mm wrote:
On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:57:06 -0400, willshak
wrote:

on 9/27/2009 1:45 AM (ET) mm wrote the following:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:05:37 -0400, willshak
wrote:


Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first
setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system.
Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if
you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you
and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your
911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address
when you return home.


Good to know, about my house, but I'd never get around to changing it
when I was someplace else. I'd have to be being chased by killers,
like in the movies. Then I'd do it.

What about a medical emergency?

I would never get around to planning for one of those. I'm wasn't
saying that's good, just that that's how I am.

You may want to. A relative of mine died and is alive today because of
911. He came home before his wife, felt bad, dialed 911, dropped the
phone and died. The paramedics and police are automatically dispatched
on such calls. They got his heart started and he is still going strong.

That much I'm set up for. I have but rearely use a cordless phone and
don't have an internet phone. I do have a real phone, one in almost
every room. But I challenge the notion that anyone has died and is
alive today. If he's alive now, whether his heart stopped or not, he
was never dead.

I don't know how VoIP 911 works and how much I would depend on it. My
understanding it is some kludge and doesn't work like "normal" 911. In
"normal" 911 the phone switch includes information about your lines
location and it comes up directly on the comm centers screen. I think
the VoIP systems just make an automated call to the regular comm center
voice number.

Probably.



I realize you are making a point that it's as good as a regular telco
wired phone, and better I guess than a cellphone, where you iiuc you
can't do that.

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:06:17 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

My magicJack died

How long did it last?

--
6th Florida Inf`ntry, Co G, CSA 1861-1864 Confederate States Army

Oren wrote:
On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:06:17 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

My magicJack died

How long did it last?


Almost two years, I think an anti-virus program trashed
the software. I just haven't taken the time to fool around
with it or ask tech support about it. I just renewed the
number for another year because I give it out to people
I don't want pestering me. It still records voice mail
on the server and sends it to me via Email. I can forward
the number to anywhere. I had it forwarded to an AT&T
test number for a while when a collections agency was
calling every day. Having a private phone number for $20
a year isn't bad at all.

TDD

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:22:28 -0400, "Eric"
wrote:

"mm" wrote in message ...
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:01:16 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with
rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I
remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there
abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.

I'm not contradicting your date, but interewstingly enough, in 1956,
my friend's father took us to the Lawrence County farm show, in
western Pa., New Castle. and they were demonstrating touch-tone
phones.

Actually the one they showed was also programmable, sort of. It had
no memory, but it came with plastic cards, two by three inches or a
little bigger, about an eigth inch thick, with maybe 7 holes in each
row (at least more than 4, which is all that is necessary to represent
number 1-0. the other holes must have been there for things planned
and not yet planned.) and enough rows for a 10 digit phone number, I
think. The centers of the holes were not totally connected to the
cards, only with "spokes" and could be pushed out, to represent the
number to be called. There was a place at the top to write the
person's name. You pushed the card in the top of the phone and pushed
a button and iirc it popped out, a number at a time ,but quickly, as
it dialed, but with tones.

They have a lot of lead time on these things.

7 holes... sounds like they might correspond to the 4 rows & 3 columns on the keypad?

I could be wrong about seven. I have an image in my head, even after
50 years, of what the card looked like, and when I zoom in it looks
like 7, but if I zoom in further, I get a warning that the daThe goal
was to make it simple. This was long before 90% of people had heard
of hexadecimal arithmetic.

Do you happen
to remember if they were punched out in pairs?

I don't think they were. It was meant to be very easy for an, as yet,
not very technical public. In those days, only a few people knew how
to plug speakers and a turntable into the back of an amplifier.

Eric Law

"Don Wiss" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:23:40 -0500, HeyBub wrote:

With some VOIP vendors, you can keep your existing number. With all
vendors
you can choose your area code. Suppose you live in Little Rabbit, Montana
but all your relatives live in Boston. By choosing a 617 area code, when
your relatives call you, to them it's a local call.

One of the negatives of VOIP has been calling 911. The vendors were to
make
improvements in this area. Not having VOIP I don't know the current
status,
but others can jump in with their 911 experience.

If you have a high speed internet connection the "poor mans" VOIP is the
"MagicJack" which is touted on TV late at night. It's sold at Wally World,
Target, etc.

The problems a 1) you have to have your computer ON to take or make
telephone calls. (It provides an "answering machine" function that sends
messages to a mail account.); 2) it tends to "hog" computer resources.
Many folks unplug the MagicJack when they are doing a lot of surfing.; 3)
you may not be able to get a "local" phone number -- this means that it
might be a toll call for your next store neighbor to call you.

When you "set up" the Magic Jack you can provide 911 information. ALL
domestic calls and FREE! The purchase price $40 includes free telephone
service for a year.

If you take a trip out of the US, you can take along your Magic Jack and
make calls to the US (but not anywhere else.)

$40 isn't much is you make a fair number of LD calls.

The federal government has gotten quite gready at the expense of folks with
land line telephone service.

If you don't take/make many calls, you may find it cheaper to dump your
land line service and get a "throwaway" cell phone. Basic service can be
less that $10/month plus the call charge. Your phone would always be with
you.