Back to Basics Telephonically

[Gerald H]

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/...n-festival

[CR Haeger]

Add a few more buttons and it would make a nice scientific calculator too...

[Chasfield]

There are many cheaper ways of getting a no-frills mobile phone. 20 GBP spent in any UK supermarket suffices. I opted for an antique Blackberry 9000 because I like physical qwerty keyboards and the mini track ball is cool.

I like that the Blackberry is mainly just a phone. In that respect it has drastically better ergonomics than the my old Android, that now gathers dust in my sock drawer.

The Blackberry doesn't chew up my data allowance updating itself all the while either.

[Don Shepherd]

Oh, let's go all the way back to basics!

[Garth Wilson]

[Adam Vaughn]

I like going back-to-basics, as evidenced by my collection of vintage phones. I currently have one of these sitting on the desk in front of me, and it's about as simple as you can get:



For those who just have to have a push-button dial, there's this wonder:



Note what's different about the keypad...

[Martin Hepperle]

(09-30-2015 05:50 AM)Adam Vaughn Wrote:  ...
Note what's different about the keypad...

Indeed that's one of the things that can drive me crazy: When I have to dial into a phone conference from my PC I have to use the digits on my computer keyboard (for screen sharing) as well as on the phone (for the sound).
Guess how often I mistype a digit...

Difficult to understand why there is no standard layout for numeric keypads, now that we have standards for almost everything!

Martin

[BobVA]

(09-30-2015 05:50 AM)Adam Vaughn Wrote:  Note what's different about the keypad...

I've never seen a Touch Tone phone without a modular handset connector, so I'm guessing this was a very early TT phone? Model 1500?

And the lack of the * and # are obviously because those esoteric keys were reserved for NASA to communicate with TelStar? :-)

Bob

PS I have a Model 2500 connected to my VOIP interface. Surprisingly it can ring it!

[Mark]

Hello to everyone,

I read all that with pleasure, it made me feel I'm not alone : I work in a big company where everything is getting more and more connected, they push hard to make us use all those 21st century tools -which I'll use when I really haven't the choice. Outlook is invasive enough !

From the personal point of view : everyone laughs at me when I pull out my 8-year old Nokia 3110c. They forget that it starts in a few seconds, you can type in the PIN code without even looking at it, the battery lasts more than a week (some kind of hp Voyager series spirit...). You guessed it, it isn't switched on 24/24.

And more important, when I'm at lunch with my colleagues, when not eating we... speak to each other, sometimes staring at other people litterally swallowed by their smartphones without even noticing what's going on around them. Sometimes I wonder if they're really happy ... ? But I totally respect their choice.

Just my 2 cents,
Regards,
Marc

[vk6ti]

(09-22-2015 06:16 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  Oh, let's go all the way back to basics!

Don,
thankyou for that image, I found it very amusing,
bit like the Maxwell Smart hybrid shoe phone

Ray

[Don Shepherd]

(10-02-2015 12:34 AM)vk6ti Wrote:  

(09-22-2015 06:16 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  Oh, let's go all the way back to basics!

Don,
thankyou for that image, I found it very amusing,
bit like the Maxwell Smart hybrid shoe phone

Ray

Thanks Ray.

I don't actually own a phone like that. It's too bad the phone company doesn't support rotary any more. I do have a "seniors" cell phone. It costs $10 per month but doesn't have coverage everywhere.

Everywhere you go, people these days have their heads buried in their smart phones. "Social" media is such a misnomer; these folks are each in their own little electronic world.

Oh well. I'm just a Luddite I guess.

[Adam Vaughn]

(09-30-2015 07:15 AM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  

(09-30-2015 05:50 AM)Adam Vaughn Wrote:  ...
Note what's different about the keypad...

Indeed that's one of the things that can drive me crazy: When I have to dial into a phone conference from my PC I have to use the digits on my computer keyboard (for screen sharing) as well as on the phone (for the sound).
Guess how often I mistype a digit...

Difficult to understand why there is no standard layout for numeric keypads, now that we have standards for almost everything!

Martin

The Bell System (aka AT&T) did a lot of research on key layouts when developing the Touch-Tone dialing system. Numerous different layouts were tried, with the one used on most modern touch-tone phones (123/456/789/[*]0[#]) worked better for folks than the 'adding machine'-type layout. More info can be found here. As for what I was referring to, see below.

(10-01-2015 02:27 AM)BobVA Wrote:  

(09-30-2015 05:50 AM)Adam Vaughn Wrote:  Note what's different about the keypad...

I've never seen a Touch Tone phone without a modular handset connector, so I'm guessing this was a very early TT phone? Model 1500?

And the lack of the * and # are obviously because those esoteric keys were reserved for NASA to communicate with TelStar? :-)

Bob

PS I have a Model 2500 connected to my VOIP interface. Surprisingly it can ring it!

They're not especially common, but hard-wired (non-modular) TT sets are out there. I believe the modular connector was first field trial-ed by the Bell System in the early '70s, and then integrated into the production lines as the decade progressed. I've also seen phones which were half-converted to modular in the field; that is, they still have a hard-wired handset cord, but have been crudely fitted with a modular line cord by way of a small modular jack inside the phone base.

Yep, it's a 1500. You don't see them very often nowadays, but it is the most common of the 10-button phones. I also have a pair of 10-button Trimline phones (1220), which are probably the hardest to find of the early TT sets since they were only produced for a year or two before the addition of the asterisk (*) and octothorpe (#) buttons.

And speaking of special signaling, have you ever seen a 16-button touch-tone dial?

It was intended to go with the AutoVON system used by the government and military to ensure that important calls were able to get through in times of crisis. The four buttons in the right-hand column were used to assign a call a certain level of precedence. The FO ("Flash Override") function was reserved for the President and other high-ranking officials in order to make absolutely sure that important calls got through in an emergency. It's since been replaced by other systems, so I couldn't actually use it to override other people's phone calls these days, but it's certainly neat.
-Adam

[Don Shepherd]

Thanks Adam, that's very interesting. I vaguely remember the Autovon system having something to do with the federal government telephone system, but certainly I've never seen that keyboard before, neato. Reminds me of the old "CONELRAD" emergency warning system from the cold war. I remember the old recording "this is only a test. Had this been a real emergency ...". They really should have ended that sentence with "you will have been vaporized by now."

I had never heard of the term "octothorpe". It's always been just the "number sign" to me. I don't "Twitter" so hashtag means nothing to me.

I believe that the number sign also appeared as a target symbol in old air traffic control consoles, signifying something specific to the automated ATC system. That octothorpe gets around!

[Katie Wasserman]

Quote: It's too bad the phone company doesn't support rotary any more.

They do in some places. Even my VOIP cable internet provider still has interfaces (modems) that accept dial phones.

Quote:They're not especially common, but hard-wired (non-modular) TT sets are out there. I believe the modular connector was first field trial-ed by the Bell System in the early '70s, and then integrated into the production lines as the decade progressed. I've also seen phones which were half-converted to modular in the field; that is, they still have a hard-wired handset cord, but have been crudely fitted with a modular line cord by way of a small modular jack inside the phone base.

There was a period of time between hardwired phones and modular that MaBell used 4-prong plugs and jacks. Mostly these were used prior to touch-tone phones but early touch-tone phones used them too.

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

(10-03-2015 02:14 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  

Quote:[quote]
They're not especially common, but hard-wired (non-modular) TT sets are out there. I believe the modular connector was first field trial-ed by the Bell System in the early '70s, and then integrated into the production lines as the decade progressed. I've also seen phones which were half-converted to modular in the field; that is, they still have a hard-wired handset cord, but have been crudely fitted with a modular line cord by way of a small modular jack inside the phone base.

There was a period of time between hardwired phones and modular that MaBell used 4-prong plugs and jacks. Mostly these were used prior to touch-tone phones but early touch-tone phones used them too.

The surface mount version of that 4 prong plug was a 404B and the square plug is a 238B they where very common on DP equipment in the late 70s when I started in the computer service business. I serviced point of sale terminals that used these connectors to plug the terminal into a loop, and if unplugged it would break the loop. The one thing I remember about them is how easily the plug could be knocked out of the jack. On the store systems breaking the loop would take down several stations in the store and lead to people running around franticly trying to find the unplugged terminal. One store even went as far as designing a unit that would automatically bypass a lobe on the loop if it detected it was open or shorted. There was also a version of 404B with a threaded hole in the center and a 238B with a captive screw in the middle to secure the plug in the jack.

Wikipedia claims that the 404/238 dates back to the 1930s.