Lmst

If you know me, you know I love payphones. If you don’t, well—now you do.

I came across this beautiful Qwest Fortress payphone, perfectly preserved in a wooden wall-mounted cubby booth. You don’t see these in the wild much anymore, especially in such pristine condition. I couldn’t pass up the chance to grab a photo.

#Payphone #RetroTech #Phreaking #TelecomHistory #UrbanFinds

An image of a beautiful Qwest Fortress payphone tucked inside a sleek wooden wall-mounted cubby booth, looking absolutely pristine.

With my article today, discover the fascinating journey of German rotary dial phones and their impact on communication history 📞🇩🇪

Read my article here: https://discovermyeurope.eu/the-evolution-of-german-rotary-dial-phones-from-innovation-to-everyday-necessity/

#VintageTech #TelecomHistory #RotaryDial #GermanEngineering #ZylinderhausExhibit

If you're interested in this sort of thing (and who wouldn't be?!)

The whole notebook full of late 1950s UK telephone routing codes is online as a pdf here: https://paulseward.com/downloads/Telephony_Phreaking_Archive/TLA-FDY-TKZ.pdf

An OCR version will follow at some point in the handwavy future when I get around to it (if I don't forget).

#phreaking #preak #telephoneExchange #strowger #phoneExchange #telecom #telecoms #telecomHistory #telecomsHistory #phone #telephone

My new bedtime reading has arrived…

In the UK, AC13 telephone signalling used pulses of 2280Hz to represent the digits of a dialled phone number, call progress state etc.

This training document from 1983 was pretty late in the lifespan of in-band signalling like this, which had been around for 20+ years by this point.

It’ll be fun reading this from a “what would it do if I poked $thing at $time” point of view

#telephoneHistory #telecomHistory #telephone #telecoms #phreak #phreaking #phones

A4 document with a white cover, text reads:

Signalling system AC13 principles and system operation
British Telecom, BTHQ/IT 7.2.2C, issue 1, Jan 83

In the document number I believe “BTHQ/IT” = British Telecom HeadQuarters, Internal Training

Oh yeah! I was posting Christmas telephone stuff this month wasn't I..

On Friday I mentioned that The Hull Corporation telephone company launched their Santa service.

Well, here are three examples of the recorded messages that kids could dial up and listen to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI4Gt5YKAWs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvpTfQCNP7o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBEmAsACQc4

#telephone #phone #telephoneHistory #telecom #telecoms #telecomHistory #TelephoneHistory #vintagePhone #telephoneExchange #phoneExchange #Hull #kcom

In 1952, The Hull Corporation (who provided #telephone service in #Hull, UK) launched a recorded message service where children could dial 211211 and listen to Father Christmas tell them all about his festive preparations!

The recording included a message from Santa, carol singing, and stories written and performed by Hull Telephone Department Employees.

There's more info and a lot of photos here: https://www.kcom.com/home/discover/categories/kcom-news/take-a-look-back-at-the-spirit-of-kcoms-christmas-past/

#phone #telecom #telecomHistory #TelephoneHistory

Advertising card featuring an illustration of a telephone dial with the letters of "santaclause" where the number would be, santa's smiling bearded face is in the center of the dial.

Text reads:
Santa Clause with David Whitfield will be on the telephone tonight, Friday night and Christmas eve, 5:30pm to 8:30pm.
Ring - Hull 21245 - Ring

This christmas tree made from a telephone cable was an exhibit at the “Young People's Exhibition”, Imperial Institute, London, 29 December 1936

The cable dates from before PVC insulation was widespread. Each wire was individually insulated with paper, and the whole cable was covered in a lead sheath.

Arranged in “pairs” there are 6024 wires in total.

Photo from BT Archives, finding No TCB 417/E 9977

#telephone #phone #telephoneExchange #telecom #telecomHistory #telephoneHistory

Large “tree” made from a dressed telephone cable, adorned with a handful of Christmas lights.

A group of a dozen or so children stand around it with an adult. Although the scene is indoors in an exhibition hall, all the children are wearing warm coats and some of them are wearing wellies.

One of the children is pointing at the tree.

There is a plaque under the tree which is unfortunately illegible.

Christmas at Haywards Heath Telephone exchange 1953

Lots of paper garlands and decorations adorning the CB10 switchboard here, but if you look closely there are paper santas/elves hanging from the cable turning sections where the positions wrap around the corners of the room.

Thanks to Stefan on the "UK Switchboards" facebook group for finding it.

#telephone #phone #telephoneExchange #PhoneExchange #TelecomsHistory #telecomHistory #switchboard #operator

Large telephone switchboard wrapping round at least 2 walls of the room with 11 operators seated at it, 2 operators on an enquiry desk in the foreground and the exchange supervisor standing in the middle of the room.

The switchboard is adorned with paper garlands, articulated paper cutouts of santa and his elves, and concertina paper decorations hanging from the ceiling.

The enquiry desk in the foreground is topped by a large collection of christmas cards.

Newspaper article from the "Mid Sussex Times" published in 1949.

These telephone operators at Hassocks (UK) really went all out decorating the switchboard, it's quite impressive!

Thanks to Stefan on the "UK Switchboards" facebook group for finding it.

#telephone #phone #telephoneExchange #telephoneSwitchboard #switchboard #operator #telecom #telecoms #telecomHistory

Newspaper clipping with a photo showing 8 telephone operators sat infront of a telephone switchboard covered in christmas decorations.

Headline:
Hassocks "Hello Girls" In Festive Mood.

Article text:
One of the gayest spots at Hassocks over the Christmas period was the Telephone Exchange, which the operators, in their own time, had transformed with sparkling festoons and a large central cluster of brightly coloured balloons. They, themselves, donned saucy paper hats and "celebrated" on the morning of Christmas Eve, when a large iced cake was cut and presents were exchanged.

The young ladies at the switchboard deal with an average of about 3,000 calls a day from local subscribers, in addition to incoming calls.

Taking their attentions from the board for just two seconds, the young ladies gave our cameraman a big Christmas smile for this photograph, in which are seen (from left to right) Miss D. White (supervisor). Miss R. Waters, Miss B. Voyce, Mrs. E. Wenham, Miss J. Proctor, Miss K. Holman, Miss d R. Collins and Miss J. Holden

Happy 31st birthday to the SMS text message!

The first message was sent on this day in 1992

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0EEcfKMmvrA

#phone #telephone #TelephoneHistory #Telecoms #TelecomHistory #SMS #Vodafone

Test shot for a video I’m planning at the moment. I thought it was too pretty to keep to myself… so it’s here with no context 😀

#TelephoneExchange #Strowger #PhoneExchange #relay #Telecoms #TelecomHistory

What’s this mystery object stuck to my telephone?

https://youtu.be/F8R8rWIt2yI

#Phone #telephone #TelephoneHistory #telecom #telecoms #TelecomHistory #vintage #vintagePhone #vintageTelephone #vintage #mysteryObject

Tale of the 1990 AT&T Long-Distance Network collapse. #TelecomHistory #telecom #phone
https://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~jdalbey/SWE/Papers/att_collapse

OsmoDevCall tonight at 20:00 CET: "Calypso chipset history and development boards, from TI to FreeCalypso" by Mychaela Falconia
https://osmocom.org/news/229 #osmocom #telecomhistory #retronetworking

I had to get a silly thing out of my head

Dialling 100 digits of #pi on a GPO 748 telephone from 1971

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z45q-W02f4I

#telephone #phone #telecoms #telecomHistory #telephoneHistory #phoneHistory #pointless #GPO #BritishTelecom

I spent today with a friend troubleshooting the “non-multiple extension phone” relayset he’s built for his GPO HES4 demo

It’s a reproduction of the original “House Exchange System No4” equipment, which is impossible to find these days.

We confirmed the fault, know what the cause is (his electronic #PBX can’t source enough current to operate the differential D relay) but we can’t fix it… yet!

#Phone #Telephone #TelecomHistory #TelephoneHistory #project #strowger #POTelephones