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I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. She has dementia.
She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. |
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On Jun 12, 11:18�pm, Metspitzer wrote:
I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. �She has dementia. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. �I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. you could probably disconnet the touch pad to prevent outgoing calls, think inside the phone. there are outgoing call restrictors but most permt 911 calls call your phone company but i bet they will charge a lot per month |
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On Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:48:15 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote: On Jun 12, 11:18?pm, Metspitzer wrote: I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. ?She has dementia. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. ?I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. you could probably disconnet the touch pad to prevent outgoing calls, think inside the phone. there are outgoing call restrictors but most permt 911 calls call your phone company but i bet they will charge a lot per month Being inside a convalescent center they LIKELY have their own PBX system - MOST of which can be programmed not to accept outgoing calls without a special code - or at all. SOME can even be programed to allow only calls to specified numbers from a given extention. |
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"Metspitzer" wrote in message ... I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. She has dementia. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. If your original question does not get a reply, you can easily disable any push button phone from making outgoing calls by simply reversing polarity. By this I mean that you usually have a red and a green wire that are in a typical phone jack and if these leads are reversed, then the phone can ring, it will give you a dial tone but the push buttons on the phone will not work. -- Roger Shoaf About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then they come up with this striped stuff. |
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On Jun 13, 2:35*am, "Roger Shoaf" wrote:
"Metspitzer" wrote in message ... I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. *She has dementia.. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. *I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. If your original question does not get a reply, you can easily disable any push button phone from making outgoing calls by simply reversing polarity.. By this I mean that you usually have a red and a green wire that are in a typical phone jack and if these leads are reversed, then the phone can ring, it will give you a dial tone but the push buttons on the phone will not work. -- Roger Shoaf About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then they come up with this striped stuff. I wish I knew that 40 years ago, I hooked up extra phones and a few I now know were backwards |
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Roger Shoaf wrote:
"Metspitzer" wrote in message ... I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. She has dementia. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. If your original question does not get a reply, you can easily disable any push button phone from making outgoing calls by simply reversing polarity. By this I mean that you usually have a red and a green wire that are in a typical phone jack and if these leads are reversed, then the phone can ring, it will give you a dial tone but the push buttons on the phone will not work. At least in this part of the country, only true for early Ma Bell touch-tone. More modern ones don't care. Don't think it has ever been true for the cheap throw-away phones like you buy at Wally World, since all their brains are on a chip. And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... -- aem sends... |
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On 6/12/2010 11:18 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. She has dementia. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. I went through this with my father years ago. We took away his phone as he could not differentiate between day and night and called at all hours. Afterwords he used phones in facility and we even started call blocking numbers. Somehow numbers rotated so even blocking 10 numbers did not prevent calls. I wish I knew of this solution but doubt it would have completely stopped the problem. |
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On 6/13/2010 3:35 AM, Roger Shoaf wrote:
wrote in message ... I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. She has dementia. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. If your original question does not get a reply, you can easily disable any push button phone from making outgoing calls by simply reversing polarity. By this I mean that you usually have a red and a green wire that are in a typical phone jack and if these leads are reversed, then the phone can ring, it will give you a dial tone but the push buttons on the phone will not work. That won't accomplish anything. TT phones will work normally if you swap tip and ring. |
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On Jun 13, 6:37 am, aemeijers wrote:
At least in this part of the country, only true for early Ma Bell touch-tone. More modern ones don't care. Don't think it has ever been true for the cheap throw-away phones like you buy at Wally World, since all their brains are on a chip. And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Andy comments: Yes, I did that a lot as a kid. However, I was under the impression that if "tone" service is the one provided by the company, then pulse calling can't be done. Damn, I only have one phone line and am now using the puter on it, so I can't go and test this before I send this. But I'm going to try in a few minutes. I just haven't done that in 40 years...... I don't have a single phone, or modem, in my house that won't work properly if the wires are reversed. In fact, I've never seen or used one that required definite polarity for operation, and I've been tapping, installing, wiring, and messing with phones since I was 10 years old --- a long long long time...... that being said, I haven't tried them all, so it might be accurate for specific systems....... somewhere. Anyway, I'm off to see if my phone here can access the line with pulses. I suggest that others who endorse this method actually try it for themselves , as there may be differences in the phone services...... However, even if it can, I doubt that a senile old lady in a nursing home would be able to figure it out. Andy in Eureka, Texas Eureka, where local law requires all foreclosed houses to be towed back to the lot withing 30 days. |
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aemeijers wrote:
And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon |
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On Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:35:28 -0700 (PDT), Andy
wrote: On Jun 13, 6:37 am, aemeijers wrote: At least in this part of the country, only true for early Ma Bell touch-tone. More modern ones don't care. Don't think it has ever been true for the cheap throw-away phones like you buy at Wally World, since all their brains are on a chip. And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Andy comments: Yes, I did that a lot as a kid. However, I was under the impression that if "tone" service is the one provided by the company, then pulse calling can't be done. I just finally switched my line from pulse service to tone - and pulse phones still work just fine. Damn, I only have one phone line and am now using the puter on it, so I can't go and test this before I send this. But I'm going to try in a few minutes. I just haven't done that in 40 years...... I don't have a single phone, or modem, in my house that won't work properly if the wires are reversed. In fact, I've never seen or used one that required definite polarity for operation, and I've been tapping, installing, wiring, and messing with phones since I was 10 years old --- a long long long time...... that being said, I haven't tried them all, so it might be accurate for specific systems....... somewhere. MANY electronic phones will not work with tip and ring reversed. Anyway, I'm off to see if my phone here can access the line with pulses. I suggest that others who endorse this method actually try it for themselves , as there may be differences in the phone services...... However, even if it can, I doubt that a senile old lady in a nursing home would be able to figure it out. Andy in Eureka, Texas Eureka, where local law requires all foreclosed houses to be towed back to the lot withing 30 days. |
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On Jun 13, 2:35*pm, wrote:
On Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:35:28 -0700 (PDT), Andy wrote: On Jun 13, 6:37 am, aemeijers wrote: At least in this part of the country, only true for early Ma Bell touch-tone. More modern ones don't care. Don't think it has ever been true for the cheap throw-away phones like you buy at Wally World, since all their brains are on a chip. And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Andy *comments: * Yes, I did that a lot as a kid. * However, I was under the impression that if "tone" service is the one provided by the company, then pulse calling can't be done. I just finally switched my line from pulse service to tone - and pulse phones still work just fine. Damn, I only have one phone line and am now using the puter on it, so I can't go and test this before I send this. *But I'm going to try in a few minutes. I just haven't done that in 40 years...... * *I don't have a single phone, or modem, in my house that won't work properly if the wires are reversed. In fact, I've never seen or used one that required definite polarity for operation, and I've been tapping, installing, wiring, and messing with phones since I was 10 years old --- a long long long time...... that being said, I haven't tried them all, so it might be accurate for specific systems....... somewhere. MANY electronic phones will not work with tip and ring reversed. * Anyway, I'm off to see if my phone here can access the line with pulses. I suggest that others who endorse this method actually try it for themselves , as there may be differences in the phone services...... * However, even if it can, I doubt that a senile old lady in a nursing home would be able to figure it out. * * * * * * * * Andy in Eureka, Texas Eureka, where local law requires all foreclosed houses to be towed back * * to the lot withing 30 days.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - As an AT+T retired employee, I can guarantee that the early Touch-Tone telephones were polarity sensitive as far as generating signals to go to the central office. Newer telephones have a diode bridge that overcomes the polarity sensitivity problem. |
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Metspitzer wrote: I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. She has dementia. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. Does it have to be a land line? What about a children's cell phone like Firefly? I don't know much about kids' cell phones, but apparently they have "parental controls" that would allow her kids to restrict outgoing calls to certain numbers, like theirs. |
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On 6/13/2010 9:33 PM, Lee B wrote:
Metspitzer wrote: I went to visit my aunt in the convalescent center. She has dementia. She seems very sharp minded, but sometimes she talks about things you know are just not true. Anyway, her children won't let her have a phone because she has been known to call the local sheriff's office to complain about a relative stealing from her (which no one else believes is true). I was wondering, and will check Monday, if the phone company offers a service where she would be able to receive calls, but not be able to make them. I am sure there would be a way to disable the phone to prevent her from making calls, but it would seem to me that if the phone company offered such a service it might also be a lower cost. Does it have to be a land line? What about a children's cell phone like Firefly? I don't know much about kids' cell phones, but apparently they have "parental controls" that would allow her kids to restrict outgoing calls to certain numbers, like theirs. Many nursing homes will not allow cell phones because of loss and "theft" .... theft being loss by a resident, but telling that it was stolen. There are probably 2 reasons for the no cell phones, bother to the staff and as someone mentioned, their phone is a profit center for them. When my mother was in a nursing home a few years ago, they charged $25 per month for a phone and you provide the phone. And, the $25 is whether the resident used it or not. |
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Jon Danniken wrote:
aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! |
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On Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:29:03 -0400, Tony
wrote: Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! I complained about that a long time ago. Also the recording says......you need (or don't need) to dial a 1 before making this call. They could just ask to confirm you want to make a long distance call, and put the call through anyway. It would keep you from having to redial the number. |
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Tony wrote:
Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! Beginning this year they made us add the area code for a *local* call! Dialing my neighbor across the street I now have to punch in 10 digits. *******s. Jon |
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Jon Danniken wrote:
Tony wrote: Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! Beginning this year they made us add the area code for a *local* call! Dialing my neighbor across the street I now have to punch in 10 digits. *******s. Jon That is why they invented "speed dial" Two or 3 punches and you have it done. |
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On 6/14/2010 8:34 AM, Chuck wrote:
Jon Danniken wrote: Tony wrote: Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! Beginning this year they made us add the area code for a *local* call! Dialing my neighbor across the street I now have to punch in 10 digits. *******s. Jon That is why they invented "speed dial" Two or 3 punches and you have it done. I used to travel frequently to Japan. I wondered why we didn't implement changes to fill the need for numbers as simply as they did. They have essentially the same system as the US where 3 digits are the exchange and the next 4 digits are a phone number in that exchange. When they started running out of numbers they increased the numbers per exchange from 4 to 5 places. Existing numbers were given the prefix 3. So 999-1111 became 999-31111. That added almost 90,000 numbers per exchange without needing to do confusing stuff like area code overlays where now your neighbor can be in a different area code. |
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Chuck wrote:
Jon Danniken wrote: Tony wrote: Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! Beginning this year they made us add the area code for a *local* call! Dialing my neighbor across the street I now have to punch in 10 digits. *******s. Jon That is why they invented "speed dial" Two or 3 punches and you have it done. Yeah, but I end up fumblefingering the phone too much to make that worthwhile. Plus it's just one more thing to have to remember. I am, however, tempted to route the phone through an old modem, and have the computer do the dialing for me. That worked out splendedly the last time I had it hooked up that way. Jon |
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The Daring Dufas wrote:
Some 15 years ago, I made a repair at the home of a woman and her mother. The woman was 70 and her mother was 100 years of age. They had a 1948 Western Electric rotary dial phone with cloth cords that they were still paying rent on to Bell South. If there's one thing I've learned about the phone company, it is that they will never tell you when any particular charge or fee has become outmoded. *******s. Jon |
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Jon Danniken wrote:
The Daring Dufas wrote: Some 15 years ago, I made a repair at the home of a woman and her mother. The woman was 70 and her mother was 100 years of age. They had a 1948 Western Electric rotary dial phone with cloth cords that they were still paying rent on to Bell South. If there's one thing I've learned about the phone company, it is that they will never tell you when any particular charge or fee has become outmoded. *******s. Jon Not always true. Yeah, they did charge rent for years, but a couple 3-4 years after letting people buy out their phones for around 30 bucks, IIRC, they simply abandoned all the others in place. Didn't have much choice, really- the WE plant had closed, and they no longer had an operation in place to recycle them with fresh plastic and stuff. So if a renter returned one, they couldn't do anything with it. I'm old fashioned- I like WE phones, and detest the lightweight crap issued since then. Glad I have a crate of real phones in the basement. I used to pull them out of the trash at the apartments, or buy them for a buck at garage sales, but haven't seen any in the last 2-3 years. -- aem sends... |
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Jon Danniken wrote:
Tony wrote: Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! Beginning this year they made us add the area code for a *local* call! Dialing my neighbor across the street I now have to punch in 10 digits. *******s. Jon It was like that up in Philadelphia PA NW sub, suburbs for at least 10 years. I liked that better than here in east TN. Here sometimes you dial a 1 then the area code, and other calls you can not dial the one before the area code or you get a recording. If it was all the same that would be great. Who knows, how low until they add another digit to phone numbers? |
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On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:16:16 -0400, Tony wrote:
Jon Danniken wrote: Tony wrote: Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! Beginning this year they made us add the area code for a *local* call! Dialing my neighbor across the street I now have to punch in 10 digits. *******s. Jon It was like that up in Philadelphia PA NW sub, suburbs for at least 10 years. I liked that better than here in east TN. Here sometimes you dial a 1 then the area code, and other calls you can not dial the one before the area code or you get a recording. If it was all the same that would be great. Who knows, how low until they add another digit to phone numbers? I love it when you dial a 1 before a "local area code" (like 602 from 480) and are basically told "**** you, try again and forget the 1, you should know what area codes we aren't handing off to your long distance carrier..." Those days are gone for me. I put pbxinaflash onto a retired p4 computer and now I pay $5/mo for the house phone plus about a penny/minute for outgoing calls. I can have multiple simultanious calls and it screens out all incoming autodialed calls by requiring human inteligence (press "5" to complete an incoming call). The latter reason was the primary reason for the setup. I'm to lazy to do anything much fancier than the default setup but some added perks include call logs, the ability to record everything, and messages forwarded to me as emails that I can pick up on my smart cellphone. BTW: I can set up any dialing rules I want. Press a 7 or 10 digit number with or without a 1 and it just dials it. All circuits busy with one carrier? It'll use a fallback. |
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Tony wrote:
(snip)code tho). That was a rotary phone that was in the house when I bought it 27 years ago. It is hooked up in the garage. In true "illegal phone" tradition, only one of them rings ;-) I don't understand the last sentence? In the old days, with the relatively high-draw mechanical ringers, they could put a meter across your line and see how much juice it drew when the ring tone was sent. Look on the bottom of a modern throw-away phone for the Ringer Equivalence Number (REN)- it is usually about 0.65 or so, as compared to 1.0 for a real phone. And if Ma Bell was suspicious, she could figure out how many you had. Standard home POTS line, if you put too many phones on, none would ring. So people with bootleg phones would disconnect the ringers on the 'extra' ones. There was a day when repeatedly getting caught with bootleg phones would get your service terminated. And since you could only get phones from the phone company, you were presumed to be holding stolen property. (For Ma Bell, at least, it said it was theirs right on it.) For a few years after the judge said the phone company had to allow customer-owned equipment, they were still allowed to require one phone-company owned phone per line. So a lot of small businesses who were early adopters for having their own phone system, would have a board on the basement wall with a 'real' wall phone for each line, never used. -- aem sends... |
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The Daring Dufas wrote:
It was once illegal or at least not sanctioned by Ma Bell for an individual customer to attach anything to phone company lines. Believe it or not, at one time, you could not buy a telephone at your local drug store. Phone service was essentially one big monopoly controlled by The Bell System. Aye, when you ordered phone service, a technician would come over and install the line *and* the phone, which was hardwired into the wall (no modular jacks back then). Of course, nobody ever complained about this, we were just too happy to get the miracle of a telephone in the house. Jon |
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aemeijers wrote:
Tony wrote: (snip)code tho). That was a rotary phone that was in the house when I bought it 27 years ago. It is hooked up in the garage. In true "illegal phone" tradition, only one of them rings ;-) I don't understand the last sentence? In the old days, with the relatively high-draw mechanical ringers, they could put a meter across your line and see how much juice it drew when the ring tone was sent. Look on the bottom of a modern throw-away phone for the Ringer Equivalence Number (REN)- it is usually about 0.65 or so, as compared to 1.0 for a real phone. And if Ma Bell was suspicious, she could figure out how many you had. Standard home POTS line, if you put too many phones on, none would ring. So people with bootleg phones would disconnect the ringers on the 'extra' ones. OK, yes I remember those days. As late as 1985 I remember hooking up another "real" phone and it rang but the other phone just barely had the power to "tick" the bells. Buying a cheap new phone took care of that since their REN was so low. I also remember that I was supposed to pay an extra $1/month for all additional phones. Screw that. I'm not sure, but I think around that time they may have stopped charging for extra phones because I vaugley remember asking the phone company to up the power for the ringers and it was done free. I also had what I think was a "Princess" touch tone phone, not sure where I got it. For some reason I opened it up and saw a light bulb for the buttons. I called the phone company and asked why my bulb won't light and they told me they stopped supplying power for that. For free they did send me a little wall wort type thing to plug in and hook up to the phone so my light worked! I just saw it the other day, I think it is "Western Electric" brand, damn, now I can't find it! As a kid we had an outdoor phone ringer mounted to the chimmney which was about the center of the house. I'm almost certain it was real Bell of PA equipment. Our lot was a little over an acre and it could be heard easily 1 or 2 houses away, and I don't think we paid monthly for it. Just once for the bell and the hookup. That would drive me nuts if my neighbor got one of them now, we had a large family so the phone rang a lot! Gawd knows how many times we ran inside only to just miss the phone, not to mention how many times the run included a trip and fall! There was a day when repeatedly getting caught with bootleg phones would get your service terminated. And since you could only get phones from the phone company, you were presumed to be holding stolen property. (For Ma Bell, at least, it said it was theirs right on it.) For a few years after the judge said the phone company had to allow customer-owned equipment, they were still allowed to require one phone-company owned phone per line. So a lot of small businesses who were early adopters for having their own phone system, would have a board on the basement wall with a 'real' wall phone for each line, never used. I know some business' still have some real phones for in case their system dies or the electric goes out. The bank of real phones still works with no electric. |
OT Incoming phone service only
On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:52:06 -0700, "Jon Danniken"
wrote: The Daring Dufas wrote: Some 15 years ago, I made a repair at the home of a woman and her mother. The woman was 70 and her mother was 100 years of age. They had a 1948 Western Electric rotary dial phone with cloth cords that they were still paying rent on to Bell South. If there's one thing I've learned about the phone company, it is that they will never tell you when any particular charge or fee has become outmoded. *******s. Jon Once (about 1985) I got a call from the phone company, saying they were no longer renting phones. They gave me the one I was renting from them. -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Death is an experience best avoided, as it makes reliable internet access difficult to obtain." |
OT Incoming phone service only
On Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:29:03 -0400, Tony
wrote: Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! Here, they added a second (overlay) area code. AFAIK no numbers have been assigned to that code, but we're still required to dial all 10 digits even to call someone next door. BTW, I want to an appliance store recently (an old local store, not one something like Lowe's) and the (old) salesman was writing customers phone numbers down with 5 digits (5-digit dialing ended about 20 years ago, when we got ESS). -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Death is an experience best avoided, as it makes reliable internet access difficult to obtain." |
OT Incoming phone service only
On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:34:05 -0400, Chuck wrote:
[snip] That is why they invented "speed dial" Two or 3 punches and you have it done. I wouldn't use that for more than 1 or 2 numbers, when there was no way to be sure what number you're dialing until it's too late. -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Death is an experience best avoided, as it makes reliable internet access difficult to obtain." |
OT Incoming phone service only
On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:25:32 -0700, "Jon Danniken"
wrote: [snip] I am, however, tempted to route the phone through an old modem, and have the computer do the dialing for me. That worked out splendedly the last time I had it hooked up that way. Jon Now I usually "dial" from caller ID. -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Death is an experience best avoided, as it makes reliable internet access difficult to obtain." |
OT Incoming phone service only
In ,
Mark Lloyd typed: On Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:29:03 -0400, Tony wrote: Jon Danniken wrote: aemeijers wrote: And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial by using the hook lever as a telegraph key.... Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least. Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'. And they call it progress. Jon Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording telling me not to use the area code, they could have just as easily made it ring through either way! Here, they added a second (overlay) area code. AFAIK no numbers have been assigned to that code, but we're still required to dial all 10 digits even to call someone next door. BTW, I want to an appliance store recently (an old local store, not one something like Lowe's) and the (old) salesman was writing customers phone numbers down with 5 digits (5-digit dialing ended about 20 years ago, when we got ESS). 5 digits is a shorthand many people use, especially sales/marketing types. For example, 3 = 393, 4 = 344, 2 = 278, and so on. It works well until you get overlapping codes ending in the same digit. Also, many predictive dialers are programmed to work that way; they're usually called least cost routers. It's just software programmed for a specific area is all it is. Great for 10 & 11 & 14 digit daling, especially if auth codes go with it. |
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