[Elecraft] Keypad reversal

[Sverre Holm - LA3ZA]

My phone line was accidentally cut by some careless workmen, so I
haven't been able to read E-mail for a few days. But there have been so
many half true stories of why keypads are different between caluclators
and phones that I hope the list moderator allows me one comment.

I looked into this a while ago because my 20 year old mobile phone that
I just converted from the analog NMT system to a 70 cm rig, has a
calculator keypad. The story can be found in my web-page below.

The historian's version of why they are different can be found on:
http://www.phonetic.com/phrames/trivia.html#keypad

The story starts like this:
"A theory we have often heard is that the phone company intentionally
reversed the calculator configuration so that people who were already
fast at operating calculators would slow down enough to allow the
signals of the phone to register. It's a neat theory, but it isn't true.
Even today, fast punchers can render a touch-tone phone worthless."

Read on!

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA
Asker, Norway (59.8N, 10.4E)
---------------------------------
www.qsl.net/la3za


> Bell Labs decided to arrange the keypad the
> opposite of the adding machine so that users would enter the 
> keystrokes more slowly.

That sounds so outrageous it MUST be true!