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Thread Number: 77407
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
Telephone jacks |
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Post# 1013827 , Reply# 1 11/8/2018 at 22:16 (1,992 days old) by ea56  (Cotati, Calif.) |
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Sometime about 1975 or 76
is when I first recall the modular telephone jacks first coming into use. This coincided with the “Phone Stores” opening. Before that,you always had to have an installer out to the house whenever you moved or got telephone service. Once the home was wired with the modular jacks the customer just went to the Phone Store, set up their service and picked up their phone(s), and went home and plugged them in to the jacks that had already been activated at the central office. It really was a big step towards utility convenience.
Eddie | ||
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Post# 1013828 , Reply# 2 11/8/2018 at 22:17 (1,992 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey) |
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growing up, our house had an outlet on the wall, a cover for the TV antennae plug, and a four prong for the phone....
which I never understood, as we had the square covered boxes mounted the baseboard and the phones wired direct, with a very short cord...dial phones in fact, those seemed to have the four prong plugs.... seems early in the 70's when you had Touch-Tone turned on, the jacks went to the modular ones.... which also seems odd, it was still 4 wires either way, and only two hooked up... there may have been an adapter for converting a 4prong to a modular plug.... Ralph might know..... I forget what the sequence was to dial and make your own phone ring....gives new meaning to the call coming from inside the house... | ||
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Post# 1013835 , Reply# 3 11/8/2018 at 22:48 (1,992 days old) by neptunebob (Pittsburgh, PA) |
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A movie mistake | ||
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Post# 1013837 , Reply# 4 11/8/2018 at 22:58 (1,992 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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Robert, | ||
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Post# 1013849 , Reply# 5 11/8/2018 at 23:44 (1,992 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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Growing up, our phone was direct wired to a wall box, so you couldnt wire a phantom phone into it as Ma Bell knew if another phone rang. We had extensions, but only one rang, My mother worked for the phone company and knew these tips. I still keep a landline rotary phone as it always works when power is out. I put jacks in here in '95 when I moved in here. Now all my phones have to be connected to filters so my internet and phone works right.
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Post# 1013892 , Reply# 6 11/9/2018 at 11:06 (1,991 days old) by kb0nes (Burnsville, MN) |
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There is a Wiki entry for the RJ (Registered Jack) that details its history.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered... Our 1965 house we moved into in 1977 was all originally 4 pin jacks. Had a handful of the 4-pin to RJ11 adapters as all the phones installed had the new crimp on ends. Slowly one by one all the old 4-pin jacks have been excised from the house. The interesting thing with this house is it was wired with 25 pair loose bundled wire (with only 2 pair used as usual). I suppose that was normal in the day. At a point when I started transmitting 100 watts+ RF on 1.8-30Mhz I had issues with telephone interference. I ended up stripping the ends of all the other pairs in the basement and grounding them to largely eliminate the noise. I replaced the old carbon static block too as it was the likely rectification point. The new gas discharge impulse suppressor is way better anyhow. I looked back on Instagram and it appears I removed the final 4-pin jack back in 2016. Still looking for the Bell system address so I can return their jack to them.
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| Post# 1013906 , Reply# 7 11/9/2018 at 13:59 (1,991 days old) by Blackstone (Springfield, Massachusetts) | ||
"Black Boxes" to get free long-distance calls
Slightly off the original topic, but still within the same time period:
When I was in college at UMass, class of '75, phones were hardwired into the dorm walls. Some students added so-called "black boxes", which allowed the reception of long-distance calls, without the caller being charged. This is back in the days of expensive long-distance phone calls. The "black boxes" worked like this: a student would pre-arrange for someone to call in long-distance; when the student's phone started ringing, he would flip a switch and pick up the receiver, and talk as long as he wanted. What the switch did was to trick the phone company into thinking that the student's phone was just ringing, without being picked up. Thus, no phone call was completed, as far as Ma Bell knew. When I moved into a room at the beginning of a new semester, I was wondering why I was not receiving any phone calls, since I was trying to sell some old textbooks. The student from the previous semester had removed his "black box", but did not properly rewire the inside of the phone. | ||
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Post# 1014456 , Reply# 9 11/14/2018 at 18:14 (1,986 days old) by Ultramatic (New York City) |
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When we moved in the our COOP back in 1968, we had multiple phone outlets, all four prong. The building was completed in 1965. Each room had a least 3 jacks. The wall phone in the kitchen was hard wired to the wall outlet. When my folks switched to touch tone in the mid 70's I remember the jacks where changed over to RJ11's. Oddly the kitchen phone remained the same (WE 554), but a new plate was installed in the back making it modular and thus compatible with with the new modular wall jack. The other phones were swapped out. Two 500 sets for 2500's and a dial Trimline for a TT Trimline. After many years of throw away phones, I've switched back to 2500's and the kitchen phone will once again be a 554. | ||
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Post# 1014457 , Reply# 10 11/14/2018 at 19:07 (1,986 days old) by JustJunque (Western MA) |
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Louis
Nice phone choices!
We have Western Electric phones in almost every room. The kitchen wall phone is a 2554, which I have a couple of, but I do have a couple of different color modular 554s for some variety. I grew up with an ivory 554. To me, that was just what a kitchen phone should be. In the bedrooms and computer room, we have 500s. We have to use converters, in order to be able to dial out, because our phone service doesn't support pulse dialing. I have a small collection of touch tone Trimlines, in various colors, but I don't currently have any of them in use. In our basement, there's an original, red, hardwired 554. Can't dial out on that one, but it's a beauty! Barry | ||
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Post# 1014460 , Reply# 11 11/14/2018 at 19:22 (1,986 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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I have no idea what their numbers are, but I have 2 Bell desk rotary phones, one avocado and one black my mother got when she was at the phone company. I have an orange trimline wall model in my kitchen with a very loud bell, white rotary dial in my garage. All have to use filters for internet but all work when the power goes out but on regular landline.
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Post# 1014461 , Reply# 12 11/14/2018 at 20:12 (1,986 days old) by Ultramatic (New York City) |
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Most likely they're "500" sets Tim.
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Post# 1014462 , Reply# 13 11/14/2018 at 20:18 (1,986 days old) by Ultramatic (New York City) |
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Post# 1014473 , Reply# 14 11/14/2018 at 20:39 (1,986 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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Yes, that is the exact green phone and it too can ring loud. The orange Trimline is touchtone and the white garage wall one is dial. I never got any phones, when I was working at the phone company, but got all the jacks and wiring I needed when I redid this place. In the past few years our landline service has started with NE Telephone, to AT&t, to Verizon, to Lucent, to FairPoint and now Consolidated. Who will they sell to next year?
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Post# 1014496 , Reply# 16 11/15/2018 at 04:31 (1,985 days old) by JustJunque (Western MA) |
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Louis:
Granted, I don't hit the thrift stores as often as I'd like to, but I never see any older phones at our stores. Maybe the occasional foreign-made feature phone or something. That Trimline was a great find! I had a gold one in my room as a teen, and still keep my eyes open for one in that color. Tim: The same thing happened here. Probably just about everywhere, actually. We now have our landline phone service as part of a bundle with our cable and internet. I'm getting fed up with our cable company though. With the high rates, and cutting channels that we like. We would drop them if there was a viable alternative, but they pretty much hold all the cards; and they know it. Barry | ||
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Post# 1014506 , Reply# 17 11/15/2018 at 07:23 (1,985 days old) by askolover (South of Nash Vegas, TN) |
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 I don't remember if I've shared this funny little story or not so here goes...
A couple of years ago on Christmas, my niece and her husband along with their two young daughters, came down and were staying with my parents. I went down to have supper with them one evening. While we were eating, one of the girls pointed to the wall and said, "What is that?" She had never seen a wall phone. Cell phones have always been a part of their lives. I felt so old! | ||
| Post# 1014520 , Reply# 18 11/15/2018 at 11:02 (1,985 days old) by twintubdexter (Palm Springs) | ||
Greg Your comment really hits home. Today's young people (for me that's anyone 50 and under) are consumed with technology and that's perfectly acceptable. Show most kids a phonograph record or a phone with a dial and they'll have no idea what they are. Frankly, this oldster likes clinging to things from my past that make me feel comfortable. I like wall phones.
Grew up with one of these on the kitchen wall. Just the picture brings back lots of good memories.
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This post was last edited 11/15/2018 at 16:18 | ||
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Post# 1014529 , Reply# 19 11/15/2018 at 12:18 (1,985 days old) by JustJunque (Western MA) |
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Joe,
Absolutely!
That's a 554. My parents had the same phone in ivory. We have one in ivory, and one in green. But our current kitchen wall phone is a 2554. A little smaller than the 554, and it's touch tone. We have one of those in ivory as well, which came with our house, and we have a yellow/gold one that we're currently using. Actually, it was white when I bought it, but in horrible cosmetic condition. I bought the gold plastics online, and it looks like new now! We opted for the extra long handset cord, so we can sit around the corner in the living room while talking on the kitchen phone. Barry | ||
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Post# 1014715 , Reply# 20 11/16/2018 at 20:20 (1,984 days old) by countryguy (Astorville, ON, Canada) |
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Post# 1017335 , Reply# 21 12/8/2018 at 12:37 (1,962 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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No Lily Tomlin skit like that 'round here...!
Well, in my house, there are NO old fashioned land-lines, whatsoever...
An attempt to plug a phone down here, resulted in zilch, as this one jack is not even connected to anything... Just one phone line run off the computer's modem, with a no longer-used second one in the bed room plugged into an electrical outlet until the cord and unit and even phone itself all broke... So, an open 'n shut case! -- Dave | ||
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Post# 1017336 , Reply# 22 12/8/2018 at 12:52 (1,962 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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Post# 1017338 , Reply# 23 12/8/2018 at 13:22 (1,962 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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Re: Reply #21
We have VOIP from Comcast and phone jacks in almost every room, except the bathrooms. I disconnected the AT&T wires from the service box on the outside of the house and taped a note inside to NOT reconnect, internal wirining now connected to VOIP.
I then back fed the voice signal from the modem into a phone jack nearest the modem. Now ALL the phone jacks have VOIP signal through out the house. And since the modem has a battery backup, in the event of a power outage, as long as the cable service is still up, we have phone service if we use a corded phone. So, upstairs in both the bedrooms we use corded phones. In the kitchen we have the cordless main station connected to the wall jack and have a cordless extentsion in the living room. It works just great. And when I’ve had Comcast techs here of other issues they have said I did an excellent job setting this up, and that they’ve never seen another customer that was able to do this on their own. I just looked it all up online and You Tube was a great resource and help. It was really very easy, all accomplished in less than 20 mins. Eddie | ||
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Post# 1017348 , Reply# 24 12/8/2018 at 15:11 (1,962 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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Yes, in the event of a power outage in which I was advised to use such as device, I'm afraid I would be helpless as my little one is not connected to anything, so everything is the new fiber-optically-operated stuff...
-- Dave This post was last edited 12/08/2018 at 16:52 | ||
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Post# 1017358 , Reply# 27 12/8/2018 at 16:22 (1,962 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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We can dial out and receive calls during a power outage. The longest outage we’ve had since we had this set up was about 8 hrs, and the phones worked the whole time.
Of course, we only used them as necessary, not knowing how long the outage would last, and also cognizant that the backup battery wouldn’t have a limitless charge. But, all in all it works fine. We have a Wireless Gateway supplied by Comcast that controls the wi-fi and the VOIP. If Comcast does the install to backfed the signal its at least a $99.00 charge, so I did save some $, and it was easy. The corded phones are Crosley repoductions of vintage dial phones, they have pushbuttons and operate like touchtone, not pulse phones. No line filters have been necessary. www.xfinity.com/learn/hom... Eddie | ||
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