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Old phone systems...

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bigcat919

Technical User
May 16, 2005
216
US
Just for a laff or two, what is the oldest phone system you have worked on recently? A small amount of our cutomers still have the 6X16 KSU and a mini Startalk Flash v/m. Have seen some old 8X24's with DR3 s/w and others still using the old Startalk A,B,or C v/m's.. (could never figure the diff between those three...lol).
 
Stevethephoneman: I think the 8X24 was original to around '83 wasent it?

RyanEOD my temp for that was a sliver of the voilpaper that cigarett packs were wrapped in, it would blow out under load.

I just was helping a cust id phone cables in their office and I started wondering what was plugged into the 110 outlet on the wall. so I followed the cable into the ceiling and found a small 1A2 still chugging away up there.

apparently someone was swapping out a phone system sometime in the past and just cut the 25 pair cables and left the system hanging on the wall above the ceiling tiles.

----------------------------
'Rule 29', "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less."
----------------------------
JerryReeve
Communication Systems Int'l
com-sys.com

 
You know it wasn't that long ago that Langley AFB finally replaced their plug and play switchboard. Maybe 10 - 12 years ago.

Signature===========================================
Artificial Intelligence Is No Match for Natural Stupidity.

The latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the population.

The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.

Red meat is not bad for you, it is the green fuzzy meat that is bad.
 
Where does a Vantage fit in with all the antiques you are talking about? Isn't it newer than the 1A2?

Company I work for is still using it, about twenty five years old. Had a source for parts and phones, but business closed about a year ago. I had extra main boards for the system, untill August of this year. While I was on vacation, one board went out. I was on vacation, on an island with boat and float plane access. New guy at work hadn't been taught (err, OK I hadn't found the round2it and taught him) so work paid for the boat gas, overnight moorage, plane ride and car rental back home on Tuesday afternoon. Reprogrammed the system that night. Dropped the car off at a local airport, and flew back to the big city, transfereed planes and flew back to where I moored the boat. Long 24 hours.

Sooooo, how old is the Vantage compared to the systems above?

Jeff

Nope, owner has dug his heels in and still won't replace the Vantage. Will replace when they build a new office, which might happen in one to two years.

Anbody have parts or phones for a Vantage?
 
WOW!!!I guess we all have some salesmen that need to get in gear!! We still have a few 3x8's & 6x16's still around...love programming on a 7208...We have a few old Toshiba dinosaurs around yet too, Strata 6e & Se's...I've torn out lots of 1A2's...they make great boat anchors
 
A few months ago, I was working as a consultant to the Commonwealth of KY. I heard a familiar click coming from a closet and I opened the door to find an ITT 10A2 hanging on the wall. There was also a newer Comdial to which the phones in that office was connected, so I was suprised that I had actually heard someone dialing on the 10A2. After some investigation, I discovered that one person not, assigned to the agency that occupied the building, had a 10A2 phone. Yep, that's right - one line, one phone on a 10A2 that uses a tremendous amount of electricity. I tried to convince him and his supervisor to replace it with a 2500 set but the 10A2 is still there and I'm not!
 
I do remember years ago when I used to go with my dad to service calls to work on the Tandem mainframes, when we went to FedEx's IT center, they had an old SL-1 system for the entire building with the really old style SL-1 phones. I think this system was still operating until 2003 or 2004. I also remember his office when I was really little had a Comdial Executech system (this was in 1993) before they moved and got a Meridian1 Option 11c. The Option 11c lasted from 1994, through another move in 1999, and then until they closed the office in April of this year.

John Panzer
 
About a year ago I worked on DR1. I didn't need a password and set relocation is on with no way to turn it off. I have only been out to this customers site a couple of times and they never call for service. We have customers that have the same phones that they have had for 15 years. The issue that we are having is our Norstar customers don't want to upgrade because everything is working fine and has been for years. We have customers that I have only talked to on the phone, I have never been to their site.

SHK Certified (School of Hard Knocks)
NCSS
 
My first Norstar was in 84 and at the same time we were taking out a vantage from another location. Someone please chip in here because I remember that the late vantage sets could work on the earliest Norstars. Something about Nortel buying some of the tech?
At the same time I can't remember it the vantage was a two or three pair system which would make the rest of the memory just smoke.

NARSBARS
 
1A1, 1A2.
SE2
SG1
SL1-S/ST
Phillips Step
Vantage
Siemans 192/195
Siemans Sat II
Siemans Sat IIe
Vodavi
Trillium 616, 1032 2064
Trillium Panther II
Cascade 30 (by Teltone)
NEC 1400
ITT 3100
Isoetec EZ
Toshiba Strata 3, e and S, XIIe, XXe, Perception
Panasonic VA412
Tie 1032
Tie Ultracom, 2260B etc.
Tie Meritor
Mitel SX10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 200D, 2000Dark, 2000Light
Rolm 8000, 9000, 9751, 9751 mod 10, and Deadwood's coming out my yin yang. Got about 40 still running.

Today's iP will all be toast before I retire too.







KE407122


When I find myself on the road less travelled, it just means I'm lost.
 
ok don't puke what about the old IWATSU phone system.
i think it is the japanese meaning of P.O.S.

no problems only solutions

strmwalker
 
Correction to KE407122: Siemens PBX 192/232 and 192MX
(I installed a lot of those)
Siemens Saturn I, III, and III Duplex also

Before 1A1, 1A2 there was 1A. Next what about Crossbar PBXs:

NEC NA409, NA120 Diana

OKI made XBAR for Litton

Fujitsu FXB106 & FXB304

various Ericsson PBXs

....JIM....
 
I checked some prints for the Vantage and it was a two pair set. I dont ever recall using a Vantage with the Norstar. I had some old Vantage systems sitting around the basement just collecting dust so I gave them to the Salvation Army.
 
You can't forget about the Comkey 416 or better yet, the 2152. Half the time you couldn't close the cabinet all the way as the cable assembly would short out.

I use to work on 1A2 with buttons and buzzers and 16 pair cable. I still remember the first 1A key system I worked on, the customer told me the lights quit working. I looked all over and couldn't figure out how the lights worked and finally found out from another tech that there were no lights on the 1A.

Steve Anderson
 
When I first started in the business I worked on many of those listed here. Oh, the memories!

SHK Certified (School of Hard Knocks)
NCSS
 
Bob3470,

I wish I had the stuff you gave to the Salvation Army. It's really hard to find parts for the Vantage.

I had a supplier, owner died, and as I understand it, nobody wanted to buy the old Vantage stuff. I don't know why the supplier didn't call the customers and offer to sell the parts to me, or the other customers. We were buying parts from them...

Any case, I think our solution is to have another system ready to go. We have a Nitsuko 124i at another company office which is underutilized. I can stick a Partner we already have in that location, take the 124i out and get it ready to replace the Vantage. We would need some system phones, and maybe a few analog station trunks...but then I could have a backup ready to go.

Vantage is two pair, 124i is one. I think I could make a cable that would attach from the 124i to the Vantage cable and then all we would have to do is swap the phones.

Some of us are reluctant to replace the Vantage with the 124i, since the company owner might want to stay with the 124i instead of buying a new system that isn't end of lifed.

Comments?

Jeff
 
I never worked on this particular system, but now that I recall- before my church moved in 1998, they had an AT&T Spirit system. It might have been a 616 or a 1224, but more likely the 616, since they only had 2 phone lines on it and the fax line. The building was also very small too. I was too young and too innocent to be even remotely interested in it, but i still remember it from when i was little... I do know though that it was probably installed when they moved in the building in 1985, so they got their use out of it, that i do know. Now they have an AT&T Partner system in the large building with almost about 20-30 phones on it. But whoever did the wiring for it did a crappy job. Ah, the memories....

John Panzer
 
Had an attorney call me today that got a great deal on a Norstar 8x24 DR5 with a Star Talk Flash 2, she wants me to install and program. She could have gotten a CICS with CP 100 for the same price. Keep looking for those bargains attorneys of the world.
 
When I was a brand new pup in the military, my first install was a 1A1 in a aircraft fuels storage unit. We also had a 402 in a RAPCON. Our command post was a massive 1A2, and their "secure" intercom was a 1A system. Our CO was Stroger step-by-step. At the beginning of the Afgan war, the AF sent me on an all-expense-paid trip to Bagram AB to maintain...you guessed it...the same 402 in a RAPCON in the middle of their airfield! PMIs remained the same through the years...clean the contacts with a dollar bill!
 
I moved an OLD dr5 with The original startalk voice mail that has been running since the early 90,s to a new building.
after moving the KSU, i went back to the old building and carried the old startalk still attached to the ups out to my truck and drove it to new building still running. The harddrive had been spinning for 12 or 13 years, and i wasn't going to be the one to shut it down.
 
I also saw something of interest yesterday in the "dust bowl" of our university. The phone switch was recently upgraded over the summer to an Option 61c or an 81c, I think. The system they pulled out? A Nortel SL-1! I think from what I heard, it was installed in 1980 or 1984, somewhere around that timeframe when they put the first digital switch in the school. This would be around the same time they had their old Digital VAX systems running all over the place. I think though that they had to take out all the M2009's, M2018's and M2317s either because they were too old to work with the system or because they were out of warranty and are out of production.

John Panzer
 
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