Wildguzzi.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Lannis on November 13, 2015, 08:20:49 AM
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The phone in my study, next to me here, has been one of a series of modern phones that supposedly does tons of things.
It will display caller ID lists, has lots and lots of options, LCD displays of information, lots of buttons.
It also needs to be regularly fed AA batteries, the sound quality is horrible, it's so light that the cord often pulls it off the desk, the LCD displays are impossible to read, and now the headset connector is shot and I have to hold the cord in with one hand while I talk. It's the third in a series of such phones.
This week, we've been cleaning out my mother-in-law's house, who passed away last week peacefully at the age of 90. Up by her bed was an old Western Electric dial telephone that's been there since the 1960s, fifty years or more.
I brought it over to the house, unplugged the half-working ATT phone, and connected up the old dial phone.
The sound quality is great, no more buzzing and popping. The handset feels good and solid in the hand. The phone is heavy enough so that it doesn't go skating across the desk, and dialing is fun and just about as quick as pushing buttons. It's got a proper bell that doesn't sound like the microwave oven or the coffee maker. It's been working with no maintenance for 50 years or more and it'll probably outlast my time.
I'd forgotten how they used to make things back when stuff was supposed to actually work and last, and not just be the latest widget or gewgaw. For someone like me that just wants to talk on the telephone, anything later than this technology is just a waste ....
I'm getting to feel the same way about motorcycles.
Lannis
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Not only that but those handsets can be used as a home defense weapon in the right hands. My mom thumped me on the head with one when I was a kid. It got my attention!
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All we need now is a party line.
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My mother still has her avocado green rotary dial phone hanging on the kitchen wall. It's from about 1970. Like Lannis said, it still works great.
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ROFL
We just bought an antique wall phone (made in the 40's) and it still works. Pretty cool.
Compare the old bakelite stuff with moderm plastic. Heavy and they made them solid. Even the stamped steel baseplate is about double the thickness of any current stuff.
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now the headset connector is shot and I have to hold the cord in with one hand while I talk.
Phone.....Cord....W hat?????
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Old dial or push button phones won't work if you have switched service over from analog (POTS) to VOiP service. I think you can receive calls but not dial out.
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Old dial or push button phones won't work if you have switched service over from analog (POTS) to VOiP service. I think you can receive calls but not dial out.
My internet comes in on my phone line. Does this mean it's VOiP? If I locate an old dial phone, I'd sure use it if I could. Hard core Luddite here.
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My internet comes in on my phone line. Does this mean it's VOiP? If I locate an old dial phone, I'd sure use it if I could. Hard core Luddite here.
Guess we stilll have analog phone connection because we get both internet, portable push button phone, old phone like Lannis just got and they all work together. Frontier phone Co. did give us some filters to install to clear the signals of them all tho. Our house is 20+ years old.
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I've had telephone service that charged extra for the ability to pulse dial, but my current provider lets me use both. We have a couple old dial phones here. One is connected full time and one I carry outside to check the line at the NID when we have a problem. As a guess, a phone like of of the old ones would cost a couple hundred bucks if you could buy one today. There's a lot of hardware inside one.
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I want an old rotary phone, especially one with braided cord.
We have a 1950s-era GE electric range and oven at our cabin. It still works, and it works very well. It can boil water faster than our gas range at home, and it never needs repairs...
A lot of stuff made today is crap (intentionally, I think).
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I wonder how many old people are still leasing their ancient Western Electric phones for an insignificant amount each month, yet paying maybe thousands of dollars for a $12 piece of hardware.
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I want an old rotary phone, especially one with braided cord.
We have a 1950s-era GE electric range and oven at our cabin. It still works, and it works very well. It can boil water faster than our gas range at home, and it never needs repairs...
A lot of stuff made today is crap (intentionally, I think).
Not only is most of the new stuff crap, but when it breaks (because it is crap), it is non-repairable. No parts available.
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Lannis- On your bad cord phone, unplug the handset cord from the receiver and look in the whole. You will see 4 small wires handing down, take a small L-shaped tool (spark plug gapper) and carefully bend them farther down. Re-insert the handset cord and you should be good to go. The cheap wire loses its tensile strength and by pushing the cord in you are re-making the connection. :boozing:
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If you still have regular telephone connection you should be good with an older phone. Except you may not be able to dial out depending on the local switching station (pulse vs tone). So, if your internet comes in on the phone line...good. If you have cable service for phone, internet, and TV like we do then the pulse won't work. You can still take calls just not dial out.
There is an in between model. The phones that had the keypads on them. Some are switchable from tone to pulse as well.
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My internet comes in on my phone line. Does this mean it's VOiP? If I locate an old dial phone, I'd sure use it if I could. Hard core Luddite here.
No, the DSL "rides" on the phone line. You still have an analog line. POTs means Plain Old Telephone Service. In order to use a conventional analog phone on VoIP, or cable for that matter, there needs to be a converter box someplace to allow analog devices to work after it. A dedicated VoIP phone is another matter altogether.
In order for DSL to work properly, it is necessary to have a filter(s) ahead of anything other than the DSL modem. An improperly filtered device, such as a phone, answering machine, Sat dish, alarm system, can inter fear with the DSL signal and cause trouble. A phone not filtered will also have noise on it, which is the DSL signal.
On another note, I have never heard of any company charging extra to have pulse dial service, although I would not be surprised if some company out there was looking to make an extra buck.
When Touch Tone first became available, it actually went back to the CO and hit tone/pulse converters in order to complete the call. Many of the central offices of the time still needed pulses to work the line finders in order to complete a call. When TT started letting you check the bank and such, it might be necessary to hit the # key to "turn off" the converter to allow tones to be sent to the far end. Back then, TT was an additional charge, typically two dollars a month, regardless the number of phones you had. Pulse would always work on the line as well, so it was not unusual to have a mix. Many years ago, we made TT free to our customers, so the TT subscribers actually saw a reduction in their phone bill.
Party Lines: Some may recall when they would get two short rings or one long ring. Depending on which ring you heard, you knew weather to answer it or not. (Yes, you would hear them both.) There were more people on the party line than there were ring frequencies. So, two of you had the same ring frequency. Then, someone someplace figured out that if we had grounded ringing, we could make your phone ring ONLY when it was for you. You still had the same amount of people on the line but you no longer heard the neighbors ring. One person was wired from one side of the line to ground while the other was wired from the other side to ground. (Tip to ground and ring to ground. Tip and Ring being the two sides of the pair.) Over time, 8 and 10 party lines were reduces to 4 party, 2 party and finally only private lines, being the only thing offered any more except perhaps in very remote areas.
Now, does anybody know where the very first place in the entire country was to offer TT to its customers? (Yes, I know, and the answer might surprise you.)
John Henry
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ZZ regarding that TT thing , are you referring to the 17 year old student at OU ? He was a bad boy , and since the statute of limitations has me sheltered , I will admit to using the guy's little beeper box to make a long distance phone call . Damn , the guilt has been killing me , I feel much lighter now :laugh:
Dusty
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The phone in my study, next to me here, has been one of a series of modern phones that supposedly does tons of things.
It will display caller ID lists, has lots and lots of options, LCD displays of information, lots of buttons.
It also needs to be regularly fed AA batteries, the sound quality is horrible, it's so light that the cord often pulls it off the desk, the LCD displays are impossible to read, and now the headset connector is shot and I have to hold the cord in with one hand while I talk. It's the third in a series of such phones.
This week, we've been cleaning out my mother-in-law's house, who passed away last week peacefully at the age of 90. Up by her bed was an old Western Electric dial telephone that's been there since the 1960s, fifty years or more.
I brought it over to the house, unplugged the half-working ATT phone, and connected up the old dial phone.
The sound quality is great, no more buzzing and popping. The handset feels good and solid in the hand. The phone is heavy enough so that it doesn't go skating across the desk, and dialing is fun and just about as quick as pushing buttons. It's got a proper bell that doesn't sound like the microwave oven or the coffee maker. It's been working with no maintenance for 50 years or more and it'll probably outlast my time.
I'd forgotten how they used to make things back when stuff was supposed to actually work and last, and not just be the latest widget or gewgaw. For someone like me that just wants to talk on the telephone, anything later than this technology is just a waste ....
I'm getting to feel the same way about motorcycles.
Lannis
Lannis, our views re: technology are worlds apart. However, I agree with you re: the sound quality of cell phones. I have a rather high end phone, and have had several others in the past, none of which can compare with the old rotary phones.
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The sound of red suspenders snapping is deafening! But I agree the old phones where so much better but you have a couple of generations now that think a carpy connection, droped calls is the norm.
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From 1991 to 2000 I didn't have a phone, or a tv for that matter.
How was that possible?
Well for one thing, there were still pay phones back then.
For you newbies, that was a public phone that operated on coins.
Oh, and there were mail boxes on street corners so that you didn't have to go all the way to the post office to mail a letter.
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We have a party line. It's called Wildguzzi.com! :thumb:
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The sound of red suspenders snapping is deafening! But I agree the old phones where so much better but you have a couple of generations now that think a carpy connection, droped calls is the norm.
That was sort of the point of my post - there's a new low-quality, low-expectation "norm" when it comes to hardware.
There's no cell signal at my house so there's no need in me worrying about phones without wires. The old dialer on the phone still works well and works with my phone service - maybe there's still a big room full of clacking relays over the drugstore in Appomattox like there used to be when I were a lad.
Our party line was a blast to use. If you wanted to talk to someone else on your party line, you:
1) Dialed "2" + the number of the person you wanted. We were 352-3224.
2) Hung the phone up and waited. Meanwhile the phone of the person you were calling would ring.
3) They would pick up their receiver and hear nothing, so they knew that someone else on the party line was calling. They'd wait.
4) When you, the caller, had figured that the other person might have picked up the phone by now (if it was August, and you were calling Mrs. Painter, you knew that she would be making cucumber pickles and might take a few extra seconds to get to the phone), then you picked up YOUR phone and you were connected to the party you called.
Of course, during this call, anyone ELSE on the party line who picked up the phone could hear your conversation, so you listened carefully for that little click indicating that a gossip was on board with you ....
Long distance? Dial "O" for Operator ....
Lannis
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And getting up to change TV channels provided a lot of exercise for kids like me!
(in addition to the super strong spring in the refrigerator door)
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And getting up to change TV channels provided a lot of exercise for kids like me!
In 1967, Dad bought a 25" Magnavox color TV. It came with two remote control units. Each had two buttons: Channel and ON/Off/Volume. When you pushed a button, air in a bellows was compressed. As you continued to push, a lever tripped a valve, and the air was sent through an ultrasonic whistle. All you heard was a little hiss, but the receiver on the set would either activate the motor that drove the channel selector knob, and index it to the next preset channel, or rotate the volume through the high-medium-low-poweroff cycle. It's amazing how much remote control they got from such primitive but clever means.
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That was sort of the point of my post - there's a new low-quality, low-expectation "norm" when it comes to hardware.
There's no cell signal at my house so there's no need in me worrying about phones without wires. The old dialer on the phone still works well and works with my phone service - maybe there's still a big room full of clacking relays over the drugstore in Appomattox like there used to be when I were a lad.
Our party line was a blast to use. If you wanted to talk to someone else on your party line, you:
1) Dialed "2" + the number of the person you wanted. We were 352-3224.
2) Hung the phone up and waited. Meanwhile the phone of the person you were calling would ring.
3) They would pick up their receiver and hear nothing, so they knew that someone else on the party line was calling. They'd wait.
4) When you, the caller, had figured that the other person might have picked up the phone by now (if it was August, and you were calling Mrs. Painter, you knew that she would be making cucumber pickles and might take a few extra seconds to get to the phone), then you picked up YOUR phone and you were connected to the party you called.
Of course, during this call, anyone ELSE on the party line who picked up the phone could hear your conversation, so you listened carefully for that little click indicating that a gossip was on board with you ....
Long distance? Dial "O" for Operator ....
Lannis
We never had a party line since my father was an officer in the Air Force. :tongue: But I had to answer the phone, 'Jones residence, Wayne speaking.' Nowadays that will not be done if you want any privacy.
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hey Triple Jim, if someone in the room farted would the T V change channels?
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I never noticed that. I guess if you squeezed tight enough to go ultrasonic it could have worked. :laugh: I did play around with clinking glasses and pieces of metal, and could occasionally get that to work.
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No, the DSL "rides" on the phone line.
(snipped)
Now, does anybody know where the very first place in the entire country was to offer TT to its customers? (Yes, I know, and the answer might surprise you.)
John Henry
Thanks John. Answered my question.
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In 1967, Dad bought a 25" Magnavox color TV. It came with two remote control units. Each had two buttons: Channel and ON/Off/Volume. When you pushed a button, air in a bellows was compressed. As you continued to push, a lever tripped a valve, and the air was sent through an ultrasonic whistle. All you heard was a little hiss, but the receiver on the set would either activate the motor that drove the channel selector knob, and index it to the next preset channel, or rotate the volume through the high-medium-low-poweroff cycle. It's amazing how much remote control they got from such primitive but clever means.
The first TV remote control I saw was my uncle's. It had 4 buttons, each connected to a little hammer that struck a "chime" (for lack of a better term), emitting a sound beyond human hearing. All you heard was the mechanism cocking the hammer each time a button was pressed.
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Over time, 8 and 10 party lines
We had one of those. Our number was 2 shorts and a long. You could dial direct to anyone else on the line by ringing their code. Naturally, everybody picked up and listened.. :smiley: One long ring got the operator if you had to call someone else.
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No Dusty. for real. Besides, using a device to send tones will only work if there is something to receive them in the first place.
No takers on the first place to actually offer TT to its customers?
John Henry
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No Dusty. for real. Besides, using a device to send tones will only work if there is something to receive them in the first place.
No takers on the first place to actually offer TT to its customers?
John Henry
Good point John , and please don't report my , er , indiscretion , was but a boy of 17 :laugh: . Actually , didn't pay phones have TT before home phones ?
Dusty
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The early TV remotes that used radio signals caused all kinds of problems with neighbors' televisions responding to each others remotes. The current infrared units were created to solve that problem as "pairing" wasn't around yet.
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The first TV remote control I saw was my uncle's. It had 4 buttons, each connected to a little hammer that struck a "chime" (for lack of a better term), emitting a sound beyond human hearing. All you heard was the mechanism cocking the hammer each time a button was pressed.
Now that you mention it, I've seen that type too, probably at a friend's house in that era. The sound activated remote systems had the advantage of not needing to be line-of-sight to the receiver. You didn't have to point at the TV and keep the coffee table out of the way.
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I still remember getting a tour of the local Bell office. Watching all the relays go through a dialing sequence was really cool.
Of course, everything in that 20,000 sq ft building is now done on a microscopic chip.
Sound quality was not always good either. We had lines that had cotton insulation. Everytime it rained you got a lot of cross talk on the lines and random connections. Dial across town and you ended up connected to someone in another area. Long distance was a crap shoot. Sometimes it sounded OK and sometimes you both had to yell to be heard over the static, and that was within 100mi of each other. Cross country long distance was really bad sometimes. And you have to pay a HUGE fee to get the bad service.
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I still remember getting a tour of the local Bell office. Watching all the relays go through a dialing sequence was really cool.
Of course, everything in that 20,000 sq ft building is now done on a microscopic chip.
Sound quality was not always good either. We had lines that had cotton insulation. Everytime it rained you got a lot of cross talk on the lines and random connections. Dial across town and you ended up connected to someone in another area. Long distance was a crap shoot. Sometimes it sounded OK and sometimes you both had to yell to be heard over the static, and that was within 100mi of each other. Cross country long distance was really bad sometimes. And you have to pay a HUGE fee to get the bad service.
It's interesting to remember that you as the homeowner were not allowed to touch any of the wiring or equipment all the way to the phone, including the phone. You wanted the luxury of an "extension phone", the phone company installed it.
When you think that AT&T rented every phone in the country (tens to hundreds of millions of phones) to people for $2 a month for 100 years, you realize why they were one of the biggest, richest companies in the world - and why they went bust when that model changed ....
Lannis
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Dusty,
Old rotary dial coin phones began to be changed out en mass so they would be noticed. Think of it as free advertising. If there was a TT pay phone in an exchange, TT was likely available to its subscribers. These days, collectors covet the old 3 slot rotary coin phones. I suppose the single slot phones are collectable as well, but not as much. Regarding residential service, many were not willing to pay two dollars extra just to have TT. I remember when we began to introduce TT. I looked at the boss and said "what's up with these two extra buttons?" (Meaning the * and #.) "Did someone just not want those spots to be empty?" His reply was "Someday, those are gonna do something!"
Back to what Lannis and others said, the older equipment was much better built. Before modern plastic, they were made out of bakelite, a very heavy and brittle early type of "plastic". For a very long time, someone could actually repair a phone. Replace the dial, transmitter, receiver. adjust the hook switch or dial contacts, and replace ringers. IMHO, everything about the old stuff was better than much of the junk being sold at discount stores these days. You could actually fix them. Not any more, other than cords, or handset, or the entire phone.
I really don't miss party lines as they were a PITA to work on, particularly with grounded ringing being used, but the rest, yeah I miss it. As technology becomes more and more IP based, the solution to troubles that arise become more difficult to locate. Some little piece of information is missing in a packet of data someplace that can make all kinds of weird troubles. A lot of the transport is being hauled via IP any more, even if the last mile is still analog. ( The last mile is what the last Central Office, CO, to your home, is commonly referred to.)
John Henry
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It's interesting to remember that you as the homeowner were not allowed to touch any of the wiring or equipment all the way to the phone, including the phone. You wanted the luxury of an "extension phone", the phone company installed it.
Right, and it's very different now. I think it's up to $75 if the repair guy is called to your house and he finds that the problem is indoors. Taking a phone outside to the "NID", disconnecting the house, and plugging the phone in to test the line is pretty much mandatory before calling for a repair.
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Back to what Lannis and others said, the older equipment was much better built. Before modern plastic, they were made out of bakelite, a very heavy and brittle early type of "plastic". For a very long time, someone could actually repair a phone. Replace the dial, transmitter, receiver. adjust the hook switch or dial contacts, and replace ringers. IMHO, everything about the old stuff was better than much of the junk being sold at discount stores these days. You could actually fix them. Not any more, other than cords, or handset, or the entire phone.
Sounds familiar! That's why I didn't put a "No Guzzi Content" tag on the post .... !
Lannis
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I wonder how many old people are still leasing their ancient Western Electric phones for an insignificant amount each month, yet paying maybe thousands of dollars for a $12 piece of hardware.
I was going to point this out also. Wait until the extra lease payment charge shows up on you phone bill.
Our household does not have land line service and has not for many years. When we ditched the wire, my Wife was in panic mode and did not want to give up "Her" phone number she had for many years. I was able to manipulate the phone company system and port our land line number to cellular service. We are the only people in our exchange to have a local number that is cellular as far as I know. The monopoly for land lines in our area is ATT. I went to the ATT store and ask them to port our home phone to cellular. They did much to my surprise. After the 1 year agreement was up, we were free to move "our" phone to any service we wanted. Your phone number belongs to you, not the phone company. We have since moved the number a couple of times and now are using prepaid cellular service. Which is actually the cheapest way to buy cellular phone services.
Most people do not know or believe prepaid is what poor people are force to use because of bad credit. In reality, cellular post paid plains are just a finance plan for a over price handset. I am in and have been in the cellular phone business since 1994. I can buy a new, nice top of the line handset wholesale for $15.00, sell it for $60, activate it and get a $40 commission. I can get some phones for free and get paid to activate them. The cellular services providers cost are pretty much flat. The more customers they can bill, the lower the operating cost is per customer. Don't tell anyone I told you this.
Back to your old phone story. The phone company infrastructure has to be duel platform to handle the old analog and new digital equipment. I am quite surprised that the companies have not phased the old systems out due to the increased use of power require with the analog. When I was young, 60's, we would take the handsets apart and build our on communications system in the house. connecting set of microphone s and speaker up to a battery. It was always on when the battery was connected. Using a transformer made the system buzz.
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I remember my dad and the neighbor having it out over the ham radio and the t.v. signal. My dad would go pull the antenna cord in two.
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I think the Fed. Govt. made your ph. # accessible to any phone service source. That's why your cell ph. # can be from you no matter what area code it says you are in when you are really in another state then.
We use land line for local calls and cell ph. for trips, long distance, and like you pay $15 mo. for it. I get 200 min./mo. and since we don't use the cell ph. much we have over 5,119 min. left to use on it. :huh:
Then there's that Majic jack that charges you $29.95/year for unlimited local/long distance calling too that they say you can hook up any where on your phone lines. My son uses that.
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Just replaced my cow with a .....
(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Penderic/Penderic047/electronic-laser-cow-comment-gunnerkrigg-court_zpsgs334ni9.jpg)
Next: Replace your old fashion expensive and troublesome human workers with happy cute robots.
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I know some you had these type of remote control for th"e tv. See if this sounds familiar. " Boy, change the channel! Go up...go down....okay." 2 minutes later. " 'ey change the channel....up....do wn...back...down... up". "Dad....how come I gotta do this?" "You're turn!" "Your sister is doing the dishes." "Daaad.....". etc. etc..
The remote control worked best on Saturdays before the cartoon festival.
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I know some you had these type of remote control for th"e tv. See if this sounds familiar. " Boy, change the channel! Go up...go down....okay." 2 minutes later. " 'ey change the channel....up....do wn...back...down... up". "Dad....how come I gotta do this?" "You're turn!" "Your sister is doing the dishes." "Daaad.....". etc. etc..
The remote control worked best on Saturdays before the cartoon festival.
Back when men were men and you were but a grasshopper. :grin:
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Agreed. How about this one? "Wot?.....sit down....you made of glass?" I've used that one on the youngest when he was small.
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Then you had to rotate the yagi antenna head on the tower just right to get Buffalo and Hamilton to tune to, nice and ghost free. Rabbit ears? Forget about those.
Time for: Soupy Sales! TV Frozen Dinners! Commander Tom! Professional Wrestling! Don Messers Jubilee! Hee Haw!
I think we got 7 channels out of 12 .... not bad eh? UHF 22 was iffy.
(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Penderic/Penderic047/old%20tv%20family_zpsuhzbonvf.jpg)
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I know some you had these type of remote control for th"e tv. See if this sounds familiar. " Boy, change the channel! Go up...go down....okay." 2 minutes later. " 'ey change the channel....up....do wn...back...down... up". "Dad....how come I gotta do this?" "You're turn!" "Your sister is doing the dishes." "Daaad.....". etc. etc..
The remote control worked best on Saturdays before the cartoon festival.
Do you remember that some TV's could be turned on/off, or changed channel by jingling a bunch of keys on a ring? There was no way you could select what was going to happen, but you could affect it. (I believe these were the second generation remotes, just after the ones you refer to.) :wink:
John Henry
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Then you had to rotate the yagi antenna head on the tower just right to get Buffalo and Hamilton to tune to, nice and ghost free. Rabbit ears? Forget about those.
Time for: Soupy Sales! TV Frozen Dinners! Commander Tom! Professional Wrestling! Don Messers Jubilee! Hee Haw!
I think we got 7 channels out of 12 .... not bad eh? UHF 22 was iffy.
(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Penderic/Penderic047/old%20tv%20family_zpsuhzbonvf.jpg)
We only got two. WHAS and WAVE out of Louisville, KY. Dad absolutely refused to buy a UHF converter so we could get one more. Said two channels were plenty for anyone.
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Then you had to rotate the yagi antenna head on the tower just right to get Buffalo and Hamilton to tune to, nice and ghost free.
You sure it wasn't a log periodic?
Do you remember that some TV's could be turned on/off, or changed channel by jingling a bunch of keys on a ring? There was no way you could select what was going to happen, but you could affect it. (I believe these were the second generation remotes, just after the ones you refer to.) :wink:
Our whistle type could definitely be fooled with keys. As a kid, I had plenty of energy to experiment. :laugh:
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We never had the electric thingamajib that rotated the antenna for more clear channels. :cry: We never got a color TV until our `49 16" Hoffman B&W wore out in the late `60s. :cry: 'Course by then I was on my own going to college in an apartment, working part time to pay for it, w/o any TV or even a radio. Spring break at the beach? Are you kidding? Next stop, Vietnam in the US Navy.
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Hope this never gets out, but in the early days of TT, all the C O equipment came programed for TT. We had to backwards program for dial pulse and then charged people $2 a month to put it back to the way it came! My first TV changed channels every time the phone rang. :boozing:
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You sure it wasn't a log periodic?
Yea, usually LPAs. We would put up some Yagis in our area since you were only getting one or two channels anyway, so you didn't need a broad bandwidth.
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Yea, usually LPAs. We would put up some Yagis in our area since you were only getting one or two channels anyway, so you didn't need a broad bandwidth.
I made a fairly long Yagi tuned for a particular UHF channel that was marginal at my father's house. It allowed us to watch that channel by swapping coax from the broadband antenna to the single-channel antenna. It was a fun but long forgotten (until you reminded me) project.
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In laws had one of the big satellite dishes when they first came out. Before the feeds were encoded. Some of the live news feeds were kinda funny since it was raw stuff from the vans. People cussing each other out or dirty jokes since they weren't 'on the air' at the station.
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Then you had to rotate the yagi antenna head on the tower just right to get Buffalo and Hamilton to tune to, nice and ghost free. Rabbit ears? Forget about those.
Time for: Soupy Sales! TV Frozen Dinners! Commander Tom! Professional Wrestling! Don Messers Jubilee! Hee Haw!
I think we got 7 channels out of 12 .... not bad eh? UHF 22 was iffy.
(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Penderic/Penderic047/old%20tv%20family_zpsuhzbonvf.jpg)
I remember when the world was that color..
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Still have this one, haven't plug it in for some time but I assume it still works. A little dusty.
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r317/blackkat-1/IMG_0928_zpswrkqr5km.jpg)
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r317/blackkat-1/a2271723-83ba-4f69-9686-b6af3c489a1c_zpsqib2sumk.jpg)
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Those rose colored glasses sure make the past look good. I started working in the telephone industry in 1983 and the party lines and old step by step switching systems were a nightmare to maintain. I was a central office tech and had the misfortune to keep two of the last step by step switches running in the state of WI (for an independent telco) I was fortunate enough to get my 30 years with the company and retired in 2013. No way would I want to go back to operators and 4 dollars a minute LD calls. We might as well go back to the Stone Age and live in caves, no roads,no electricity, no clean running water...yup them be the good old days.... :grin:
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Those rose colored glasses sure make the past look good. I started working in the telephone industry in 1983 and the party lines and old step by step switching systems were a nightmare to maintain. I was a central office tech and had the misfortune to keep two of the last step by step switches running in the state of WI (for an independent telco) I was fortunate enough to get my 30 years with the company and retired in 2013. No way would I want to go back to operators and 4 dollars a minute LD calls. We might as well go back to the Stone Age and live in caves, no roads,no electricity, no clean running water...yup them be the good old days.... :grin:
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Yeah , and little guys like me have a tough time sticking one of those old dial phones in a front pocket :laugh:
Dusty
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Those rose colored glasses sure make the past look good. I started working in the telephone industry in 1983 and the party lines and old step by step switching systems were a nightmare to maintain. I was a central office tech and had the misfortune to keep two of the last step by step switches running in the state of WI (for an independent telco) I was fortunate enough to get my 30 years with the company and retired in 2013. No way would I want to go back to operators and 4 dollars a minute LD calls. We might as well go back to the Stone Age and live in caves, no roads,no electricity, no clean running water...yup them be the good old days.... :grin:
Combining the old rotary phones with the rest of your stated past is a bit of a stretch. :thewife:
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I'm still working for ATT after 26 years.They are in the process of converting everything to fiber-optic including the service wire directly into your house and are gradually abandoning everything copper related.They'll need much less people,vehicles,unions,ect. in the near future.
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What's coming next....
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/30/tech/pioneers-google-facebook-spacex-oneweb-satellite-drone-balloon-internet/ (http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/30/tech/pioneers-google-facebook-spacex-oneweb-satellite-drone-balloon-internet/)
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What's coming next....
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/30/tech/pioneers-google-facebook-spacex-oneweb-satellite-drone-balloon-internet/ (http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/30/tech/pioneers-google-facebook-spacex-oneweb-satellite-drone-balloon-internet/)
Bring the whole world together........... .good and bad. Be careful what you wish for. :boxing:
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Those rose colored glasses sure make the past look good. I started working in the telephone industry in 1983 and the party lines and old step by step switching systems were a nightmare to maintain. I was a central office tech and had the misfortune to keep two of the last step by step switches running in the state of WI (for an independent telco) I was fortunate enough to get my 30 years with the company and retired in 2013. No way would I want to go back to operators and 4 dollars a minute LD calls. We might as well go back to the Stone Age and live in caves, no roads,no electricity, no clean running water...yup them be the good old days.... :grin:
Well, I get that a lot. "No cell phone" = "Well I guess you want to go back to stone axes huh?"
We weren't all that primitive in 1990 before cell phones and the internet. We survived, and it was a pretty good life.
Lannis
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It may have been, but, I like it better now.
Heck, I wouldn't have a Guzzi if not for the internet.
PS I also would not have my home business
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PS I also would not have my home business
I think about that a lot. Before the Internet, to sell ignition and other electronics and parts for Kawasaki triples, I'd have to have a network of dealers, circulate printed catalogs, and whatever else I could struggle to set up. Overseas sales is probably half of what I sell, and that would be miserably difficult without the Internet. I doubt I could have made it work. Think of all the small businesses like yours and mine that are possible now, and that wouldn't have been in the good old days.
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It may have been, but, I like it better now.
Heck, I wouldn't have a Guzzi if not for the internet.
PS I also would not have my home business
This :1: And considering that none of my local friends will leave town or even consider camping out , who would I hang out with W/O my WG buddies ?
Dusty
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It may have been, but, I like it better now.
Heck, I wouldn't have a Guzzi if not for the internet.
PS I also would not have my home business
I had a Guzzi before I was connected to the Internet.
And I think it's a bit sad that many people "live their lives" "online", through social media, and think that it's all somehow "real".
Kids will get "cyber-bullied" to the point of suicide, without considering that they can just turn their stupid little device off and the "bullying" all goes away. People on on-line lists complain that someone is trying to "destroy" them or "discredit" them, without considering that all they have to do is ignore it and the problem will disappear; IT'S NOT REAL. The most horrible and destructive kinds of porn are instantly available to kids anywhere.
I guess the "on-line" business thing is worth it, but I'm not positive. I dabble around the edges, like this list or paying my bills, but I'll never risk the possibility of thinking this is all "real" somehow without personal interaction.
Lannis
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No one said it was 'real'. Sadly many youngsters think it is. But, there are also just as many people that think just cause you shook someone's hand that they are best friends.
Like we told our daughter many years ago, 'they can't be your best friend if you don't know their last name and where they live'.
I love the amount of information that I can reach in seconds. 90% of my masters thesis was spent in research that could have been done in hours these days. Or, like finding out what is wrong with my Guzzi when it has stopped in the middle of nowhere.
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I love the amount of information that I can reach in seconds. 90% of my masters thesis was spent in research that could have been done in hours these days. Or, like finding out what is wrong with my Guzzi when it has stopped in the middle of nowhere.
Me too. But too often, I see the signs of "addiction". Men who used to be strong and self-reliant clutching their GPS to their chest like my 2-year-old granddaughter clutching her blanket, and cooing "Oh, I NEVER consider going on a trip anymore without my GPS. I just don't know WHAT I'd do". Or people who ask how I recharge my cell phone on a long trip, and I tell them I don't have one. They recoil back like they just saw a cobra ready to strike, as if I said I were traveling to Ramadi to preach a series of sermons on Paul. They can't believe it.
I need to make sure I haven't caught it somehow. I think I'll try a little experiment.
Lannis
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I'd forgotten how they used to make things back when stuff was supposed to actually work and last, and not just be the latest widget or gewgaw.
I keep a rotary at home on my land line because when the power goes out the old rotary still works - which most people don't know.
Also when there's a major problem the first thing to be overloaded is the cell phone towers.
Men who used to be strong and self-reliant clutching their GPS to their chest like my 2-year-old granddaughter clutching her blanket, and cooing "Oh, I NEVER consider going on a trip anymore without my GPS. I just don't know WHAT I'd do".
Some of us still use those ancient wood fiber & ink displays called maps. This along with the ability to "over there", we navigate by the sun and stars. We don't trust those little battery powered picture boxes that talk to you. Maybe it comes from not wanting to get lost in the mountains where the boxes don't work.
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Me too. But too often, I see the signs of "addiction". Men who used to be strong and self-reliant clutching their GPS to their chest like my 2-year-old granddaughter clutching her blanket, and cooing "Oh, I NEVER consider going on a trip anymore without my GPS. I just don't know WHAT I'd do". Or people who ask how I recharge my cell phone on a long trip, and I tell them I don't have one. They recoil back like they just saw a cobra ready to strike, as if I said I were traveling to Ramadi to preach a series of sermons on Paul. They can't believe it.
I need to make sure I haven't caught it somehow. I think I'll try a little experiment.
Interesting, Lannis, as 1 of the few times I use my cell ph. is on road trips. Otherwise, like you, I use the internet as you do, mostly for e-mail, MC interest, bills. Don't have/need a GPS either. Have map/holder for that. :boozing: No computer messaging for me(don't even know what you call it.).
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I almost always have my cell phone with me. It is used mostly for entertainment, like reading books, listening to music, surfing the net, responding to folks in forums or playing games. On a trip it is also used as a GPS, trip planner, and weather radar as well as a moving 'beacon' so the wife can keep track of me :)
I also keep my good paper maps in a map pocket on top of the tank bag.
I do like being able to communicate almost full time, especially when I am traveling alone.
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I love the amount of information that I can reach in seconds. 90% of my masters thesis was spent in research that could have been done in hours these days. Or, like finding out what is wrong with my Guzzi when it has stopped in the middle of nowhere.
I'll give you that. Back in the day, I used to practically live in the library when I wasn't at work. :smiley: Not really, but a lot of time just the same. Now, most of the world's knowledge is available by a little internet sleuthing. There's a lot of crap to wade through, too.. :wink:
What little I know about Guzzis is definitely mined here. :thumb: Reminder to self.. make a donation..
That said, when I'm traveling on a bike, I prefer it to be solo with maps. I prefer to be places where fones don't work, and there is no real need for one. <snapping suspenders> I guess you'd have to say I swing both ways. :shocked: :smiley:
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Uh Chuckie , oh never mind :grin:
I don't really trust GPS , it get people from Memphis lost in the Ozarks of Missouri :evil: Now the cell phone , well now , that is a different :evil:hing . Pretty handy when sitting at the intersection of " this road ain't on the map " , and " what the hell are you doing out here?" at 2 AM , almost out of gas , and hungry .
Dusty
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I don't miss my first mobile phone, it weighed about 3 kilos, required a shoulder bag and I had to hang it in a tree while I was working in the bush. While here, I'll mention our toaster which is about 50 years old, you have to flip the bread half way through but it has survived a long line of modern offerings and keeps reappearing (smugly) on our kitchen bench .
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As long as it has some tactile feedback.
(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Penderic/Penderic047/ink%20pens_zpsh4fbnad2.jpg)
My keyboards gotta click!
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LOL, I used to keep an old IBM keyboard. They made them specifically for people like me who were used to typing on an IBM Selectric. Solid, heavy duty, and distinct CLICK. I gave it up when I moved to laptops.
Fountain pens. Another item I used to use a lot. Now days they sit in a drawer, hoping that someday pen and paper will become popular again. Also have my father's Esterbrooks (the Bic of fountain pens).
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LOL, I used to keep an old IBM keyboard. They made them specifically for people like me who were used to typing on an IBM Selectric. Solid, heavy duty, and distinct CLICK. I gave it up when I moved to laptops.
A lot of people are into those now. My son has a couple that he has completely disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled, and also added circuitry to make them USB compatible. There's information on the web (of course) to make it fairly easy if you like projects. I used to like projects more when I was my son's age. Now they appear out of nowhere in droves, and I have to ignore the non-urgent ones. :grin:
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Being trained to type on a manual typewriter, there's no way I can type on a computer keyboard w/o numerous errors due to the keys being too light. :rolleyes: I'm hamstrung.
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Wayne,
That's why I liked the IBM, it took a bit more force than the little electronic ones. And, yes, I learned on a very old Remington. It was the portable that my Dad used in college in the 40's. The original "laptop". :)
Jim,
I guess I should go back down to the surplus place here in town. They have stacks and stacks of old keyboards. Although probably most are Zenith (the original govt PC contract).
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Jim,
I guess I should go back down to the surplus place here in town. They have stacks and stacks of old keyboards. Although probably most are Zenith (the original govt PC contract).
Only if you or someone you know wants a project. :-) Actually you might be able to make a profit by selling them on eBay, but some specific models are more desirable than others, and I'd have to ask my son which ones are the good ones.