Old Northern Telecom SG-1 or SP-1

[GordonKapesMZ4]

Hi there, just curious. Does anyone have pictures of these pre SL-1 systems? Which phones were supported on these systems and were they electronic telephones or analog? What did the phones look like?

"Keep the Peace, Use RLS"

http://www.joetheucxguy.com

 

[SYQUEST]

Yes, the old NE SG-1 Pulse 80 and NE SG-1A Pulse 120 PBXs were manufactured by Northern Electric in the 1970s. I believe they were the first electronic PBXs made by NE. I have a set of practices for the SG-1. The SG-1 and SG-1A supported 80 and 120 analog stations only, respectively. The programming was fixed. Changes were made by strapping leads and diode pins on a COS block. Pacific Telephone (Pacific Bell post divestiture) installed a few Pulse PBXs around California during that era.

The SP-1 was a CO switch. I believe it was NE's version of the 1ESS. I have some data sheets on it in a box somewhere. I don't recall any other details.

....JIM....

 

[keelanl]

I'm a bit lat to the party here...

I have two SG-1A's. Some terrible old photos of my units can be found here:

http://beefchicken.com/comms/sg1a

They used standard analog phones the phones ('native' support for pulse dialling, DTMF supported via additional cards). The only deviation from a standard POTS line is the voltage -- the SG-1 uses +24v (tip) and -24v (ring), but from the phone's standpoint it looks normal. The operators console is connected by a big fat 150 pair cable.

From what I understand, these were the first electronic PBXes period.

 

[RLSbutton]

Hey there Keelanl,

I appreciate the photo and information. Pretty cool to see card based systems from the early 1970s.

Were the logic wedge set 1A2 multi line sets designed to go with this system? These Logic sets looked like an SL-1 Digital set, but were analog.

Talk soon,

Joe



Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[KE407122]

I don't thinks so. Logic 10/Logic 20 sets...As you say, they were 1A2 switch related.

At some sites, the SE-2 or SG-1 would feed other 1A2 switches with locals (analog extensions) for use if they wanted to go over the local limits of the PBX. Additionally, Private or Dedicated lines to the various 1A2 'tenanted' switches could bypass the PBX and connect directly to the 1A2 switch.

http://www.telephonecollectors.info...un79-logic-10-key-telephone-sets-installation

From 1978.
"These LOGIC 10 key telephone sets are
designed for use with NE-1A1, NE-1A2, or
NE-6A Key Telephone Systems (KTS). The sets
cannot be used with NE-1A KTS."



KE407122

"The phone was working fine before it knocked over my coffee.

 

[RLSbutton]

Awesome, look at how far we have come since those sets. Unfortunately Nortel is gone though. Did these Logic sets have an electronic or a bell ringer?

So were multi-line phones non existent on the SG-1?

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[RLSbutton]

Hi Keelani,

I hope you don't mind, I took a screen shot of the Early console to show the history of the history of Nortel attendant console on my blog (two guys and their phones). I gave your website credit.

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[SYQUEST]

A few points of information:
The 1A2 is a Key Telephone System. It is NOT a switch! No switching takes place in a 1A2 key system, or the 1A1 or 1A. Key telephone systems were used behind PBXs or stand alone as most were. When you wanted multiple line access, then you used a key phone for that purpose. Key telephone sets could have PBX stations, CO lines, intercoms, ringdown tie lines, or other special voice circuits terminating on them. Each line connects to a Key Telephone Unit(KTU) for its appearance. It provides various functions, like lites and hold, or common audible ringing, etc. and resided in a KSU.

Multiline phones have been around in the U.S.A. since the 1940s. The first Bell System combined key telephone sets were the Western Electric 400 series. They were available as 4-button and 6-button types with various wired options. The Key Telephone System that supported them at the time was known as the 1A. The line cords on those sets were all spade-tipped. The Amphenol ribbon connectors were not invented until the late 1950s (1958 early Call Director™). So in the case of the SG-1, like the other PBXs of the era, if you wanted multiple station/line access you had a KTS behind the SG-1. The Logic key phones used the same ringer as other 500/1500/2500 series sets, the C4A. It was the same as the Western Electric version. The Logic key telephones were designed for use with the 1A1 and 1A2 KTS. That was NE's design to get away from the 500 style.

Western Electric (WECO) also made electronic PBXs. I believe the 800 series PBX was their first electronic PBX, and they were manufactured in the late 1960s (1968-69). So this would predate the NE SG-1, which was manufactured starting in the 1970s in Canada, judging from documents I have. Back to the SG-1 console, it was available with and without a Busy Lamp Display Field. That is why the line cord of the console has so many conductors.

Thanks for the photos. At least they are better than what is shown in the practices...

....JIM....

 

[RLSbutton]

Thanks for the points Jim,

I never thought about multi-line vs. pbx this way before. Now that's probably why when I went to Purdue in 1995, their circa 1981 Automatic Electric switch had so many different key systems such a Comdial, Norstar and Tie behind the larger PABX. Switch dependent Multi-Line phones were added sometime in the late 1980s and had GTE digital badges with a fake wood grain. These were esentially Fujitsu Omni sets rebranded to work with a 9600 Omni switch that tied into the Automatic Electric Switch. So while not a part of the original equipment, the cards for these phones resided at the switch, while the power for them resided at the wall outlet with an AC adapter.

The at Purdue I remember in 1997 the entire AE switch and Key Systems were all ripped out and a cohesive SL-100 switch was installed with Meridian 1 cabinets for the digital M2000 telephones. Phones farther from the main node needed M5000 Centrex sets. Some departments complained because they liked that they had paging, or Intercom all built in with their key systems, but the university insisted that in long term the Meridian sets/analog sets were the way to go to make the whole university cohesive.

For some reason, I always thought that modern PBX systems developed after the 1960s had proprietary multi line sets but in reality, you just clarified the true set up for me. That's why today we still see some organizations with Key systems behind a large PBX. I can tell you that I know that Western Illinois University still operates this way.

The first small to mid size PBX to offer the built in multi line technology was the SL-1 if I am correct? That was probably a big deal in 1975 huh?

So was the first true large cariier switch to offer multi-line telephone set via a single or 2 pairs of wire, the DMS-100/SL-100 with the "P" phones? The first P phones resembled that of the wedge Northern QSU sets, but were developed for Centrex use. Later the familiar M5000 sets were released and also worked directly off the switch.

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast