X-NEWS: spcvxb comp.dcom.telecom: 34186 Relay-Version: VMS News - V6.1B7+SPC1,2 05/22/93 VAX/VMS V5.5-2; site spcvxb.spc.edu Path: spcvxb!uunet!spool.mu.edu!telecom-request Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Tone Test Set and 'D' Batteries Provide Emergency Dial Tone Message-ID: From: redpoll!fmsystm!fmsys!macy@uhura.neoucom.EDU Date: Mon, 23 Aug 93 14:51 EDT Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Sender: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA Approved: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 600, Message 3 of 10 Lines: 107 In article jack.winslade%drbbs@ axolotl.omahug.org writes: > I've been fascinated by the various CO sounds ever since I developed > an interest in telecom. OK, here's a story about tone plants I'll bet you haven't heard: (I'm going to include some extra trivia, non-telecom personnel please bear with me ...) As many readers may know, back in the dark ages (about 1970), I once worked for GTE as a central office technician (there, I've admitted it in public, but I'm still a long way from recovery) ... In those days, most everything GTE ran was AE SxS, but there were some exceptions, for example: Three of the central offices I was responsible for were: Sharon Center, OH (216-239), Spencer, OH (then 216-273), and Chatham, OH (216-667) The latter two were purchased by GTE from the Chatham Farmer's Telephone Co. in 1969, BTW. These central offices were old all-relay North Electric Co. CX type switchers, circa 1958 or so. The power and tone plants were a mixed bag. The original power systems were old Lorain selenium rectifiers/floatrol with early Subcycle ring plants. The tone generators were a rather odd ferroresonant design with a couple of germanium transistors, controller by an all relay interrupter. One day, dispatch sent me out on an emergency basis, because they got a bunch of no dial tone reports, and the outside I&R techs said they couldn't get dial tone at the frame, either. I showed up and found the tone generator had croaked. Everything else worked, just no dial, busy, reorder or ringback tones. If you picked up a phone, dialed the number and waited, you got through. Of course, there were no spares readily available. The best that anyone could come up with was to try and find something to rob from another CO, elsewhere in the state. Now, the tones this CO had used were not exactly precise dial tone or even modern style tones. They didn't even sound like your average SxS. It was a "thin" single frequency (albeit rich in harmonics) tone for dial tone, all other tones (including ringback) were the same tone, only with a different interruption rate. The only thing I could think up to produce tone, without running home and building something was my old Bell issue WE 81A tone test set. This was two D cells with a electromechanical buzzer unit it which was the predecessor to today's trace tone sets. When set in "tone" mode it produced a buzzing tone for use in tracing a cable pair with a hand test telephone set (butt-in). Note: This was a non-GTE issue item, almost no one at GTE in those days had one (or had seen one) unless they had worked at or with Bell System. This one had stayed with me from my days at Bell, and I had found it very useful. So, I tied the output of the 81A to the tone input for the central office just to see if it would work ... Sure enough, it sounded enough like dial tone, and when it passed through the interrupter, like the other call progress tones that the subscribers would use the CO normally. I could tell right off because I could here the relays in the cabinets as the subscribers dialed calls. Almost immediatly, the DC power consumption on the CO jumped up to normal daytime readings: the customers interpreted the tones to mean everything was working. I checked again, and found that the 81A was a bit fainter than usual from the load of several subscribers at once (this was a 600 line CO), but it worked OK. The only problem with this solution was that the D batteries were only good for about four to six hours of operation. I reported that I had a temporary fix up to dispatch (the test board operator knew the tones were odd, but he didn't beleive what I had done ...) and then walked accross the street to the gas station in this very small village and bought _every_ D cell he had in the place. It took me almost an hour to convince my supervisor that someone had to visit the CO every six hours, take two D cells from the pile on the floor by the power bay and change the batteries in the fuuny gray plastic box that made an audible buzzing sound ... I later had to answer a bunch of questions about all the D cells I reported on an expense form (mostly why I didn't draw them from the stockroom ...). Two days later, someone from state HQ found another tone generator and sent it in on the company courier run. It was from a small AE SxS CO and had a different sound than the old unit, and it took me four hours to rework it to feed the CX switch. The new tones were pretty much the same ones a nearby larger central office but the subscribers in this rural area didn't like the more modern tones and complained loudly to repair ... I think they liked the 81A better ... So for two days I had run the CO on D cells ... and on a personal non-issue piece of equipment that GTE officially had no use for ... Macy Hallock N8OBG Voice= +1.216.723.3030 Fax= +1.216.723.3223 macy@telemax.com Telemax Inc. and F M Systems Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, Ohio 44256 USA