[GreenKeys] Telephone Men

Fri Nov 29 20:05:57 EST 2013

Interesting stuff!  Especially the slash zero stuff.  Always wondered about that.  

I applied to IBM just before leaving the USAF and didnt quite pass their entrance exam.  The tester told me I needed to get out of the electronic field or get more education.  However, most of the IBM techs I ran into were pretty decent to chat with.  I got a little emotional revenge on IBM when they needed me to repair a couple of 33 ASR's in their Burlington, VT plant in the 1980's.  

One morning in a Wichita, KS coffee shop a couple of us WU guys were comparing wages with IBM.  We made a few cents an hour more than they did and didnt have to wear the gray suit and tie.  Then the UPS man who was getting a coffee to go overheard us and he was making about $2 an hour more than IBM or WU.  

Once while installing a Telex, I found the phone circuit that SW Bell had installed for us.  He labeled it "Western Onion".  Having a little fun with us.  

Thanks for letting me chime in.  

Wayne
KB1FDW

-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Hart <wa2hwj at att.net>
To: greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Fri, Nov 29, 2013 5:39 pm
Subject: [GreenKeys] Telephone Men

Quote from Don:
"Most of the IBM, Burroughs, HP, and other representatives I met during my
areer could never make a mistake or do anything incorrect.  They always
epresented themselves as higher level life-forms than us lowly Teletype and
ata Communications Servicemen."
I worked in the NY Telephone Teletype/Data/Radio repair gang for about
 years and then moved into an engineering group called
DATEC" (data technical support). Data communications
xploded in the mid-1970's and all of the "big guns" mentioned
n Don's email were hooking up their computers and modems to
ur lines and then blaming "the telephone company" when things
ouldn't work. Ma Bell created the DATEC group to specifically
roubleshoot "customer equipment" issues. We had a great time
howing IBM and Burroughs and others how the RS232 interface
as supposed to work and how their modems didn't meet
pecifications for tone levels, noise immunity, RTS/CTS intervals, etc.
hile the
ypical "telephone man" repairman couldn't do much to solve a
roblem due to a non-Bell modem, DATEC had the authority to
ubstitute a Ma Bell modem to demonstrate how things should
ork. 99% of the time our modem would make everything work...
hen we'd unhook it, put back the IBM (or whoever) modem
nd leave it to the "field engineer from IBM" to figure it out.
he other half of our job was to make sure the expensive
conditioned" telephone lines met specs...one major problem
as dirty jack fields in Central Offices. They'd cause intermittent
ine interruptions whenever a switchman was testing anywhere near
he data circuit jacks. We'd go into a CO, walk up to the jack bays
nd pound on the jack panels with our firsts...it was amazing when all of
he
larms went of!!! A lot of switchman had to work a lot of overtime
leaning the jacks...HA!
Jack K0TTY
NNNN

-----Original Message-----
rom: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net
mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Robert House
ent: Friday, November 29, 2013 4:17 PM
o: Jim Haynes
c: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
ubject: Re: [GreenKeys] The Model 33 ASR
Jim,
I remember a couple of things about the Model 33 and it's users...
Bell sales sold the "Dataphone Teletype" with a telephone handset mounted on
t's side.
e had several of these "alternate voice machines" so as to not be in
iolation with WUTCo.
ad plenty of gray "Trimline" wall phones as nobody else wanted them.  
ost of the people
sing these 33s taped the handset to it's base so no one would knock it off
ook.
One was at the Barrington, Illinois High School in the Math classroom.  I
ad the privilege of maintaining the machine so all of the students could
rite programs for their time shared computer dial-up system.  Most of the
chool year was okay but about the middle of May the machine would be so
orn and plastic parts broken that I had to replace the entire machine,
hich was less time consuming than repairing everything that was needed. We
et Western Electric decide whether to repair or recycle the machines we
emoved from service.
Another problem was the computer folks like to do things backwards from
ther industries such as the military. We had to change typewheels so that
he computer folks could have their slash through the letter "O" and the
est of the world had to have the slash through the number zero "0"  Stands
o reason then that computer folks to this day refer to Teletype machines
ackwards: ASR 33 instead of the correct as produced 33 ASR.
Most of the IBM, Burroughs, HP, and other representatives I met during my
areer could never make a mistake or do anything incorrect.  They always
epresented themselves as higher level life-forms than us lowly Teletype and
ata Communications Servicemen.
Don
On 26 Nov 2013, at 8:51 PM, Jim Haynes wrote:
On Tue, 26 Nov 2013, Teletypeparts wrote:
> 32 Telex were supposed to be throw away machines after so many hours.  
 Maybe it was 500?

he original saying I heard was that they were aimed at TWX customers who
ould use them for a maximum of 2 hours per day.  Customers with heavier
raffic needs were to get heavy-duty machines.
I've read that the original designs called for felt clutches as in the M15,
ut that W.U. pressured Teletype to use Model 28 style all metal clutches.
When the minicomputer industry sprung up the Model 33 ASR was quite a boon
n holding down the cost of an installation.  Previously they had to use
lexowriters, which I'm told cost in the $5000 range, to get keyboard,
rinter and paper tape I/O.  But in minicomputer service the 33s were often
un 24/7.
Also the 32/33 line was originally to have very limited options as part of
olding the cost down.  Later they got sprocket feed and form feed features,
hich I'm pretty sure were not intended from the beginning.
ome customer must have had a lot of clout!
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
reenKeys mailing list
ome: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
elp: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
ost: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
2002-to-present greenkeys archive:
ttp://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
998-to-2001 greenkeys archive:
ttp://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
andy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool:
ttp://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
lease help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
______________________________________________________________
reenKeys mailing list
ome: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
elp: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
ost: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
andy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool: http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
lease help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20131129/cbdda2f0/attachment.html>