Telephones... then and now

[ultrarunner]

The first person I know with a company cell was Senior VP for Blue Cross... his portable was like a brick with a shoulder strap... we were amazed.

My Brother had a Mitsubishi the size of a telephone book... it worked very well and much better range than the replacements... it was $2,000... when he was going to toss it I brought it home...

 

[k0ua]

The first person I know with a company cell was Senior VP for Blue Cross... his portable was like a brick with a shoulder strap... we were amazed.

My Brother had a Mitsubishi the size of a telephone book... it worked very well and much better range than the replacements... it was $2,000... when he was going to toss it I brought it home...

The IMTS mobiles from the 1960's were about 1 foot wide by 2 foot long or so and maybe 8 inches thick. The control head was about 12 inches wide by 10 inches deep and wide. The handset was a standard G style handset configuration The antenna was a typical VHF hi band antenna like a Larson NMO 150 or if earlier it would have likely been and Antenna Specialist. The antenna would be about 45 inches long. Earlier units would have been hybrid transistor (discrete components) and tubes in the transmitter section. Also on board would have been a transistorized power supply for the high voltage for the transmitter, and a miniaturized cavity duplexer. The miniature duplexer was a mechanical marvel in itself. Later models from the 70's were all solid state, doing away with the tube transmitter and its associated power supply.

 

[k0ua]

This URL shows a mixture of IMTS and some AMPS equipment:
IMTS mobile phones - Google Search

One of them with a rotary dial, may have used the secode dialing system.. A method of sending rotary pulses via radio. First you generate a 2805 tone and then you interrupt that tone at 10 or 20 Pulses per second to transmit the digital information. It has a unique sound. If you have a good ear and a quick brain you can decode the pulses in your head if you are listening to the radio channel open squelch. It only takes a short time to be able to do that. Sort of like listening to Morse code, but these are just all short pulses repeated the number of times for each digit. Like 4 pulses is a 4 and 8 pulses is an 8 etc.

 

[newbury]

And now the Telco's are actively getting rid of copper and going to fiber, partially so they can charge more.

Our land-line phone in Va was our standby for when the SHTF.

On 9/11 SWMBO, an attorney for the Corps of Engineers was in New York City and the only way we could find out about her was land-line from Virginia to Mississippi when she called her mom. Cells in the DC area were overloaded.

Last year the copper line got so bad with static they replaced it with fiber. The installer told me it was against company policy to fix copper.

And of course fiber requires power, so when the power goes out so does the phone

 

[k0ua]

Our two land line phone lines are on the local Cable Company's coax which is fiber fed to the curb, but the drop is copper coax. Of course we have a "modem" inside the house which is battery backed up for about 8 hours by its internal batteries. We dropped the local Telephone company lines several years ago due to cost. The two lines we have are $10 per month each. One is for the fax machine.

 

[Weedy Fields]

My 12 year old nephew and 10 year old niece were visiting Grandma and were very interested in her rotary dial telephone... they had never seen one and asked how does it work... both kids have Apple 6S phones.

So I showed them and they made a call and were fascinated it still works...

Then I tricked them by calling the number and both jumped so high I thought they were going to hit the ceiling... the old Western Electric bell ringer startled them...

They then asked why Grandma didn't have a cell phone and Grandma said she wouldn't know how to use it... too many things to push... she has had the same phone and number 50 years.

We had a rotary phone for many years. It hung on the wall in the kitchen. Best phone ever made, was indestructable. Dropped dozens of times, always worked.

I would still have it if not for the trend of automated phone service.

The last straw was when I called the Sheriff to rat out some trespassers. Got automated answering, for this hit that and so on. After hanging on for about 2 minutes I get a live person, 911 operator.
She wants to know what my emergency is. I tell her none, I'm just trying to get a hold of the Sheriff. Then I get bitched out about calling 911.
To which I replied I didn't call 911, I called the sheriff and cause your system is automated I can't enter a number it kicks over to 911 after nothing is entered in. She was dumbfounded. Why can't you enter a number? Be cause I have a rotary phone. Its quiet for a minute, then she says "whats a rotary phone?".

 

[cat fever]

I remember calling girls for dates on the kitchen phone. The only one in the house, rotary and it had a cord. No privacy at all, seemed like everyone was always in the kitchen. Fast forward and my boys would hide in their walk in closets with cell phones to make the same calls.

 

[oosik]

The first phone I remember in our house was called a "farmers phone". It was a large rectangular wooden box that hung on the wall and housed two big dry cell batteries. You lifted the receiver, made sure no one else was on the line and then turned the crank to "ring up" the operator. The operator would come on the line and you would tell her the number you wanted to call. We were on a multi-party line - - so to know if somebody was calling you, you had to listen and count the incoming rings. Our "ring" was two long & three short. As I remember it wasn't the best at reception or transmission either. That was in 1947.

 

[mark02tj]

While watching an old episode of Andy Griffith, I was surprised to learn that there were car phones (for rich people) in the 60s. It looked like it was essentially a radio system. You pick up the phone, talk to the operator, and she places the call.

I remember watching "Cannon" when I was a kid and he'd pick up the phone and call the "mobile operator" to help him place the call... Cannon (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The first time I used a "car phone" - the dad of my buddy's girlfriend was the road supervisor for a local municipality and he had a car phone. It was a huge deal to call my parents from the driveway! LOL! My first mobile phone was a Motorola "bag phone" that either plugged into the cigarette lighter or you could use a 12v "VCR battery". It came with a built in rubber duckie antenna, but I bought an external mag-mount for better reception.

 

[Bird]

While watching an old episode of Andy Griffith, I was surprised to learn that there were car phones (for rich people) in the 60s. It looked like it was essentially a radio system. You pick up the phone, talk to the operator, and she places the call.

First car phone I ever saw was in the 1950s in an uncle's company car (working for Lane Wells which later became a part of Halliburton) in southern Oklahoma. When he got out of the car, he could switch it so that if the phone rang while he was out, the car horn would sound. I later saw quite a few of those in use.

 

[kcflhrc]

And now the Telco's are actively getting rid of copper and going to fiber, partially so they can charge more.

We are still putting copper in the ground and we cant charge any more for fiber service than we do for copper


Last year the copper line got so bad with static they replaced it with fiber. The installer told me it was against company policy to fix copper.

That's hilarious, we fix copper daily. It's quite expensive to build out fiber facilities.

And of course fiber requires power, so when the power goes out so does the phone

Our fiber ONT's have battery backup for this

Love me some fiber

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Well, the real question will be how long will land lines for residential service exist? All of the station cards in CO's still accept rotary pulses, as far as I know. Of course I have been out of the loop for a while now.

I suppose there will be land lines until the phone companies install cell towers on top of every mountain. We have no cell service at my house, so a land line is our only option. We have a base station/answering machine with 5 remotes, but when the power goes out we haul the old style telephones out of the closet and plug them in.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

And of course fiber requires power, so when the power goes out so does the phone

The phone company has fiber to 3 miles down the road, but it's the old copper from there. Their battery backup only lasts 48 hours, and after that the land line dies. I don't feel bad, because the cell towers don't last much longer. The last 5 day outage, there was no phone service of any kind within 20 miles of my house.

 

[MossRoad]

We had a phone booth in our house... kind of... Our rotary phone was on the wall in the kitchen. My dad bought a 25' curly cord for the handset. My sisters would make a call, step across the hall, step into the closet, then close the door behind them.... a phone booth! :laughing:

 

[kc5dlo]

I can appreciate having the same phone and appliances all these years. One thing to consider is that your mom may still be paying monthly to rent that phone. When we moved my grand parents back in the early eighties, when they tried to return the phone they had been renting all those years, the phone company almost laughed at them.

 

[ultrarunner]

Good point...

We actually bought the phone when the phone company made buying an option and have the little Phone Company sticker on the bottom stating customer owned device.

I've come across a lot of people more than willing to subscribe to the new is better... for me it is more about function and reliability.

All of her neighbors have gone through a lot of appliances in the name of energy savings... the poor women across the street has said many times what a mistake she made giving away her old Kenmore Washer and Dryer... her first set of Neptunes was a disaster... and she paid around 2k for them including the stand...

We really did know how to build durable lasting appliances... American know how and ingenuity...

 

[teejk]

The first phone I remember in our house was called a "farmers phone". It was a large rectangular wooden box that hung on the wall and housed two big dry cell batteries. You lifted the receiver, made sure no one else was on the line and then turned the crank to "ring up" the operator. The operator would come on the line and you would tell her the number you wanted to call. We were on a multi-party line - - so to know if somebody was calling you, you had to listen and count the incoming rings. Our "ring" was two long & three short. As I remember it wasn't the best at reception or transmission either. That was in 1947.

My maternal grandfather had a farm that he lost during the depression. Moved 30 miles south and found a new farm that was not nearly as tillable but being Irish wasn't that fussy. Flash forward 40 some years to when I met my wife and met her maternal grandfather that managed to keep his farm. Turns out that they shared a phone...on a pole...outside...Green Acres...small world huh?

 

[teejk]

We had a phone booth in our house... kind of... Our rotary phone was on the wall in the kitchen. My dad bought a 25' curly cord for the handset. My sisters would make a call, step across the hall, step into the closet, then close the door behind them.... a phone booth! :laughing:

We had one of those wall mounted black beasts (dial) with a long cord that with time would hit the floor and GTE would come and replace as part of the service we probably paid $5/mo for (private line!).

 

[ultrarunner]

My maternal grandfather had a farm that he lost during the depression. Moved 30 miles south and found a new farm that was not nearly as tillable but being Irish wasn't that fussy. Flash forward 40 some years to when I met my wife and met her maternal grandfather that managed to keep his farm. Turns out that they shared a phone...on a pole...outside...Green Acres...small world huh?

It was destiny and I hope all the in-laws gave their blessings...

 

[arpt209]

I remember having a rotary dial phone at the house. Yes I can remember a few hours ago. I keep a rotary dial phone for when the power goes out. Cell phones don't work at the house. All right by me. Power went out & I called the REC (Rural Electric Co-op) Nice Lady: May I help you? Me: Naw, I'm just bored. Didn't have anything to do so thought I'd call you to see what you're doing. I kept this up for a few minutes & could tell she was getting uncomfortable so I explained that I couldn't do anything but talk to her because the electricity was out.
Still remember my first phone number SWift9 4757. Can't always remember if I took my pills this morning or not but I can remember that phone number from almost 55 years ago.