I was a cable splicing tech for Illinois Bell/Ameritech/Sbc from 1979 until 2008.When we had to transfer lines, or "rearrange" cable facilities, we weren't supposed to interrupt a call in service, BUT, I learned to use advantage of "Call waiting" to get some long winded callers ( usually 2 teenage girls talking about nothing for over an hour) to switch off of a call by calling the number they were tying up. as soon as they switched over to my call, they got cut and transferred over (usually took less than a few seconds up to a minute) and they may have had to wait a short period to complete a call again, but technically the line was clear when I cut it ( it was dirty pool, but I had to complete work) The alternative of using the "gated" circuit he shows here, is to connect a "frame shoe" to a test jack at the vertical frames, and then either test it locally, or have the responsible test center break into it and "tickle the meter" like he does here to measure for ringers, shorts, resistive faults and crosses with battery ( that board couldn't do AC voltage induction noise well)
I well remember in SxS when doing bank and wiper routines at night, we delt with long winded callers by hitting the release relay and they were gone. Funny story: Some nights you'd get a call from the Suicide Prevention Bureau for a back trace to the line finder group. You then had to go to the test board pull the line card for the calling number and subscriber information. It then had to be called back to the Chief Special Agent and forwarded to the proper authorities. Had a wrong back trace one night and while I was monitoring the line the police came to the poor guy's door (who had been asleep) and demanded to search his house for someone wanting to commit suicide. He'd fallen asleep on the phone while talking to his girlfriend and was quite startled.
There’s still a few of these guys still working at AT&T as technical support. They are a wealth of information of old and new technologies. Thanks for these video’s. My ncs date is from 1978. I retired in 2016 and contracted back to at&t to work in at&t labs in testing the new esinet network for 9-1-1.
@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd Yes. It’s already out there. It’s called ESINet. Also known as NG911. It’s rolling out in Ca. And several states in the east coast of the US.
@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd the connection setup is really fast. The Ali will come in thru Pidflo. No more serial links needed at the psap. The connected is encrypted end to end.
That was a very convoluted way to cut into the line. The operators were able to do it so much easier. They used to call it verification and they could cut right into the line from the operator console by dialling the number and holding the verify key down. The other advantage the operator had was they could cut into a line regardless of what exchange you were on. Crossbar, step, etc. It’s amazing how the operator console had the capability to cut into any line in any exchange office and with various types of exchange equipment.
ds99 He is telling you how it worked. The operator pressed a button and then magic happened. All of the COs were wired for the operators to be able to do that but they could only monitor. He is explaining all of the testing available and how and why it worked. "B Y verify O D, please" was the request to the INWARD operator.
TSPS was before my time, but as far as I remember from working at BellSouth, AT&T and MCI for a hot minute, Here's how it's done from an operator's perspective: DMS (TOPS): Station key -> Enter NPANXXXXXX -> Start Key -> Select "Interrupt, Administrative" or press the softkey under INT ADM (If it isn't there, the line is free). TOPS will let you know on the display if there's voice activity. Also, there will be a beep every 5 or so seconds to let the two parties know that you've interrupted their call. ESS (OSPS): BLV INT -> Enter NPANXXXXXX -> Enter Key -> Enter "18" -> Enter Key. (If you see the regular handset icon hung up, the line is free. I don't recall the error code.) OSPS will let you listen to scrambled voice activity for a short period of time. In an emergency, you could barge but the connection was limited in duration. There was also a "Force release" command to disconnect the call in progress, but I don't remember how to do that. MCI TOPAZ: Press F9. Enter NPANXXXXXX -> Enter Key -> Press F6 (I think)-> Click "Yes" on warning screen. I only had about a month's worth of OJT with TOPAZ. It was nothing special, just a regular PC with keyboard _and mouse_ ...
@@NortelGeek Thanks for the info. It’s amazing that one of them scrambled the voice. That was a good idea. Where I’m from the operator switchboards were made by Siemens Electronics. They were from the early 60s. There was no digital display, just lamps over switches to let you know when the parties hung up. There were springs in most of the switches so that if you pulled it down and let go it would automatically return to the middle position. Your line would also be held until the operator released it in case they needed to trace the call. There was also a manual ring button so if the party hung up the operator could ring their phone back by pressing the ring button. It’s wasn’t automatic. It would only ring while holding the ring button. The switchboard could perform the verification, manual ring, line hold functions on step by step or crossbar exchanges. There was no beep on verify but the caller’s would hear a click.
@@ds99 Yes. Before OSPS, there was TSPS and they used "Nixie Tubes" in the beginning. Later they were replaced with LED segment displays because the tubes burnt out too quickly. Where are you from, if you don't mind my asking? I had a look at your precious kitty cats, and judging by your accent, I'd guess Quebec, Canada?
@@NortelGeek I’m in Ottawa, Ontario which is Canada. However, I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia and that’s where my phone knowledge is from. That’s also in Canada but east coast. Halifax seemed to use very unique equipment as I’ve looked for it and cannot find it anywhere. I do have one photo of the operators at their switchboards in Halifax but there’s no information about them. The phone company there at the time was Maritime Telegraph & Telephone (MT&T) but has since been changed to Bell Aliant. I moved from there in 2001. Lived there since the early 60s.
Worked as a "combination man" for GTE in two little central Iowa towns, Cambridge and Elkhart, late 70's early 80's. My central office was a "stepper". The outside plant was open steel wire, eight party lines with grounded ringing.
My great grandmother lived in Lake City. I have a stack of old GTE phone directories (1964-1995, excluding 1977 and 1982-1986). While I may never know for sure, I suspect the 712-464 CO was a step. (The instructions for calling another person on your party line are VERY convoluted, and even in 1995 mention listening for a ticking sound.) The 1979 directory has an insert about an upgrade project in Lohrville, where they had to change a bunch of numbers in the 465 CO.
I never got a free call, that could get you fired. It was interesting that while working as operator at Stuttgart Germany Military board, my supervisor ask if I wanted to call home on afternoon. Of course I did, and she let me because they had installed direct dialing to the US and the billing part of the system wasn't yet in place. Later, as a toll fraud investigator, I wondered sometimes if the guys at the poll or terminals might be making a call on a customer line that billed them.
Back in the old days you would go to the OGT or be monitoring with a test set. If you had to test the line, waiting was an option. Not waiting meant the customer was disconnected for testing purposes if urgent. Much testing was done at night when circuits weren’t as busy.
Somebody commented about not having computers back then but in the late 60s we started with number one ESS number 2 number 3 number 4 number 5 tsps and 80s they were all computers we had to call the processes CC we were not allowed to call and processes that are called in computers today Play Systems back then we're all computerized starting around 1964 on up and it took several years before different locations to catch up with electronic switching number five years this was the fiber-optic switching system that still used today I was in technical support and qualified on all those systems thank you I apologize for the voice recognition misspelling words using the wrong words I don't have that system voice recognition down pat yet sorry about that
In 1980 I was working in the intercept office. What a terrible job. The console had a keypad the three lights. The "processor" was a IBM system that gave routed the caller to a recording that would tell them the status of the phone number they dialed. But, if the call came in with a red light, it was called a special intercept. For a special intercept, the operators ask "Who are you calling" and looked up the name or company in a written list. We had a man who called every week, then wanted a supervisor. When I would ask what the problem was, he said he was an attorney, and we were giving out his ex-wifes unlisted number. Upon move investigation, when the operator ask who he was calling he gave his ex-wifes name. So, they gave the number for her. Had he ask for his name they would have given his name. So, he never understood and kept saying he was going to take us to court. I called the wife, and we were doing it per her instructions and said "Only an attorney could screw it up like that"! Funny stuff, but operators saying "What number did you dial" over and over all day long was very boring. And small town people only wanted to give the last 4 digits. When we explained we were in a different state, they started complaining they did not want to pay for a long distance call. Some simple things just could not be fixed.
I don't know I would think that of all the places you could cut into somebody's line the CO would definitely be the place to be to do that unless maybe this was some sort of alternate way then that would be very surprising. Fun video you can see the goes here that goes there it goes their Oh yeah it's been a while since I've done this... oh going through that as the brain warms back up.
Sarah, have you ever thought about doing some sort of commentary or reaction to this video? It would be interesting to know how some of the things he's talking about fit into the overall picture, as well as if anything has changed in the years since. That stuff about testing the line before calls (turned off during high traffic), how would that be reported? Would it drop a card?
![[Panel] Sarah troubleshoots Incoming #30](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NRrR_Li30wY/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Panel] Sarah troubleshoots Incoming #30](/img/tr.png)
I was a cable splicing tech for Illinois Bell/Ameritech/Sbc from 1979 until 2008.When we had to transfer lines, or "rearrange" cable facilities, we weren't supposed to interrupt a call in service, BUT, I learned to use advantage of "Call waiting" to get some long winded callers ( usually 2 teenage girls talking about nothing for over an hour) to switch off of a call by calling the number they were tying up. as soon as they switched over to my call, they got cut and transferred over (usually took less than a few seconds up to a minute) and they may have had to wait a short period to complete a call again, but technically the line was clear when I cut it ( it was dirty pool, but I had to complete work) The alternative of using the "gated" circuit he shows here, is to connect a "frame shoe" to a test jack at the vertical frames, and then either test it locally, or have the responsible test center break into it and "tickle the meter" like he does here to measure for ringers, shorts, resistive faults and crosses with battery ( that board couldn't do AC voltage induction noise well)
I well remember in SxS when doing bank and wiper routines at night, we delt with long winded callers by hitting the release relay and they were gone. Funny story: Some nights you'd get a call from the Suicide Prevention Bureau for a back trace to the line finder group. You then had to go to the test board pull the line card for the calling number and subscriber information. It then had to be called back to the Chief Special Agent and forwarded to the proper authorities. Had a wrong back trace one night and while I was monitoring the line the police came to the poor guy's door (who had been asleep) and demanded to search his house for someone wanting to commit suicide. He'd fallen asleep on the phone while talking to his girlfriend and was quite startled.
There’s still a few of these guys still working at AT&T as technical support. They are a wealth of information of old and new technologies. Thanks for these video’s. My ncs date is from 1978. I retired in 2016 and contracted back to at&t to work in at&t labs in testing the new esinet network for 9-1-1.
@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd Yes. It’s already out there. It’s called ESINet. Also known as NG911. It’s rolling out in Ca. And several states in the east coast of the US.
@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd in some cases yes if the CPE eq at the psap can’t handle sip traffic. There will be a sip it CAMA gateway at the site.
@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd the connection setup is really fast. The Ali will come in thru Pidflo. No more serial links needed at the psap. The connected is encrypted end to end.
That was a very convoluted way to cut into the line. The operators were able to do it so much easier. They used to call it verification and they could cut right into the line from the operator console by dialling the number and holding the verify key down. The other advantage the operator had was they could cut into a line regardless of what exchange you were on. Crossbar, step, etc. It’s amazing how the operator console had the capability to cut into any line in any exchange office and with various types of exchange equipment.
ds99 He is telling you how it worked. The operator pressed a button and then magic happened. All of the COs were wired for the operators to be able to do that but they could only monitor. He is explaining all of the testing available and how and why it worked. "B Y verify O D, please" was the request to the INWARD operator.
TSPS was before my time, but as far as I remember from working at BellSouth, AT&T and MCI for a hot minute, Here's how it's done from an operator's perspective:
DMS (TOPS): Station key -> Enter NPANXXXXXX -> Start Key -> Select "Interrupt, Administrative" or press the softkey under INT ADM (If it isn't there, the line is free). TOPS will let you know on the display if there's voice activity. Also, there will be a beep every 5 or so seconds to let the two parties know that you've interrupted their call.
ESS (OSPS): BLV INT -> Enter NPANXXXXXX -> Enter Key -> Enter "18" -> Enter Key.
(If you see the regular handset icon hung up, the line is free. I don't recall the error code.) OSPS will let you listen to scrambled voice activity for a short period of time. In an emergency, you could barge but the connection was limited in duration. There was also a "Force release" command to disconnect the call in progress, but I don't remember how to do that.
MCI TOPAZ: Press F9. Enter NPANXXXXXX -> Enter Key -> Press F6 (I think)-> Click "Yes" on warning screen. I only had about a month's worth of OJT with TOPAZ. It was nothing special, just a regular PC with keyboard _and mouse_ ...
@@NortelGeek Thanks for the info. It’s amazing that one of them scrambled the voice. That was a good idea. Where I’m from the operator switchboards were made by Siemens Electronics. They were from the early 60s. There was no digital display, just lamps over switches to let you know when the parties hung up. There were springs in most of the switches so that if you pulled it down and let go it would automatically return to the middle position. Your line would also be held until the operator released it in case they needed to trace the call. There was also a manual ring button so if the party hung up the operator could ring their phone back by pressing the ring button. It’s wasn’t automatic. It would only ring while holding the ring button. The switchboard could perform the verification, manual ring, line hold functions on step by step or crossbar exchanges. There was no beep on verify but the caller’s would hear a click.
@@ds99 Yes. Before OSPS, there was TSPS and they used "Nixie Tubes" in the beginning. Later they were replaced with LED segment displays because the tubes burnt out too quickly. Where are you from, if you don't mind my asking? I had a look at your precious kitty cats, and judging by your accent, I'd guess Quebec, Canada?
@@NortelGeek I’m in Ottawa, Ontario which is Canada. However, I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia and that’s where my phone knowledge is from. That’s also in Canada but east coast. Halifax seemed to use very unique equipment as I’ve looked for it and cannot find it anywhere. I do have one photo of the operators at their switchboards in Halifax but there’s no information about them. The phone company there at the time was Maritime Telegraph & Telephone (MT&T) but has since been changed to Bell Aliant. I moved from there in 2001. Lived there since the early 60s.
Worked as a "combination man" for GTE in two little central Iowa towns, Cambridge and Elkhart, late 70's early 80's. My central office was a "stepper". The outside plant was open steel wire, eight party lines with grounded ringing.
My great grandmother lived in Lake City. I have a stack of old GTE phone directories (1964-1995, excluding 1977 and 1982-1986). While I may never know for sure, I suspect the 712-464 CO was a step. (The instructions for calling another person on your party line are VERY convoluted, and even in 1995 mention listening for a ticking sound.) The 1979 directory has an insert about an upgrade project in Lohrville, where they had to change a bunch of numbers in the 465 CO.
I never got a free call, that could get you fired. It was interesting that while working as operator at Stuttgart Germany Military board, my supervisor ask if I wanted to call home on afternoon. Of course I did, and she let me because they had installed direct dialing to the US and the billing part of the system wasn't yet in place. Later, as a toll fraud investigator, I wondered sometimes if the guys at the poll or terminals might be making a call on a customer line that billed them.
Next time please give him a lapel mic
Back in the old days you would go to the OGT or be monitoring with a test set. If you had to test the line, waiting was an option. Not waiting meant the customer was disconnected for testing purposes if urgent. Much testing was done at night when circuits weren’t as busy.
Somebody commented about not having computers back then but in the late 60s we started with number one ESS number 2 number 3 number 4 number 5 tsps and 80s they were all computers we had to call the processes CC we were not allowed to call and processes that are called in computers today Play Systems back then we're all computerized starting around 1964 on up and it took several years before different locations to catch up with electronic switching number five years this was the fiber-optic switching system that still used today I was in technical support and qualified on all those systems thank you I apologize for the voice recognition misspelling words using the wrong words I don't have that system voice recognition down pat yet sorry about that
In 1980 I was working in the intercept office. What a terrible job. The console had a keypad the three lights. The "processor" was a IBM system that gave routed the caller to a recording that would tell them the status of the phone number they dialed. But, if the call came in with a red light, it was called a special intercept. For a special intercept, the operators ask "Who are you calling" and looked up the name or company in a written list. We had a man who called every week, then wanted a supervisor. When I would ask what the problem was, he said he was an attorney, and we were giving out his ex-wifes unlisted number. Upon move investigation, when the operator ask who he was calling he gave his ex-wifes name. So, they gave the number for her. Had he ask for his name they would have given his name. So, he never understood and kept saying he was going to take us to court. I called the wife, and we were doing it per her instructions and said "Only an attorney could screw it up like that"! Funny stuff, but operators saying "What number did you dial" over and over all day long was very boring. And small town people only wanted to give the last 4 digits. When we explained we were in a different state, they started complaining they did not want to pay for a long distance call. Some simple things just could not be fixed.
I don't know I would think that of all the places you could cut into somebody's line the CO would definitely be the place to be to do that unless maybe this was some sort of alternate way then that would be very surprising.
Fun video you can see the goes here that goes there it goes their Oh yeah it's been a while since I've done this... oh going through that as the brain warms back up.
Sarah, have you ever thought about doing some sort of commentary or reaction to this video? It would be interesting to know how some of the things he's talking about fit into the overall picture, as well as if anything has changed in the years since.
That stuff about testing the line before calls (turned off during high traffic), how would that be reported? Would it drop a card?
I'll never understand what he's talking about even though I'm an I.T. Analyst. :/
So Bob doesn't need SAS 😉