[GreenKeys] Best laid plans..

[Jack]

When I joined "management" in 1978 (in NY Telephone),
the company was trying to introduce the SARTS testing system
in the NY metro area. The system used Model 40 terminals
as the system "interface". My first job was to find out where I could
get Model 40's without going through Western Electric. The
specific model was the "replacement" for the IBM 3270
syncrhonous terminals and Bell was selling them like
hotcakes, thus leaving the internal company projects
high and dry. Since I had been dabbling with TTY's since
I was 13, I knew of some of the alternative commercial suppliers.
I hooked up with a guy in Texas who had a warehouse of the 
exact Model 40's I needed and we bought two trailer truck
loads (I actually mailed him the check). He had bought them
directly from Teletype as a broker. Then we ("I") had to hide
the stuff from the WECO people and convince the union
guys that this was legitimate stuff. It was one of those
"...and the Division Manager will disavow any knowledge of this
project"...situations. Anyway, I pullled it off and the first
SARTS system was installed on the old test boards of the
AT&T NY1 Teletypewriter test facility on 6th Avenue and
Canal Street (what an irony). In fact, the terminals were placed
in the spot where the 28KTR used to sit in the test board. I
never did find out where all of those KTR's went (there must
have been 20 of them, all with 3-speed shifts).

73,

Jack WA2HWJ

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