[GreenKeys] Detroit's 'TELEX SYSTEM' of the late 1960s and later

[Ralph Irish]

Hard to believe, but read on:  (There is at least one other "GreenKeyer" who was
part of this system.)  -  Ralph - W8ROI

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                                                 Metro Detroit's own "Telex" System

There are still a few, walking around vertical and thinking straight, who would remember the "Telex" system set up 
by a few hams and non-hams in Metro Detroit back in late 1968 or so.

A few guys got a hold of some Bell System 101A Data Sets and set about putting them into the phone system.  One
of the sources of these Data Sets was the Chicago, Illinois area.  Illinois Bell had a different slant on disposal of 'dated'
equipment.  They simply sold it at a few outlets.  Michigan Bell and other Bell System companies put things under
the hammer and sold things as scrap.

I don't know who the first two users were, but it had to start very simply.  I first learned about it one evening, when I
stopped at the home of one of my RTTY friends.  His wife directed me to their basement where he was sitting at a Model
28 Teletype machine.  I couldn't see the keyboard, since I was standing at the back of the machine.  He would type a
few things, and then sit and wait.  I could hear the machine 'replying' to whatever he said.

When it was all over, he pushed an unseen button and walked around from that part of the basement.  I asked why he
didn't do a CW ID?  He smiled and told me that he was not 'on the air' but using the phone system to chat with someone
on the 28KSR.

Silly me, I figured that he was on 2 Meters.

I later discovered just how he did it.  He had a Bell/Western Electric Model 101A Data Set rigged up between the machine
and the telephone connect block.  Since he was a Michigan Bell retiree, I guess I was not at all surprised at all of this. 
I never did find out who was on the other end of the 'call' that evening.

A few months later I heard of a fellow in Detroit who had a few of the 101A Sets available.  I called him and identified
myself and told him how I heard about the devices.  He invited me over and we had a few beers and got to know each
other.  He sold me a Data Set and gave me the names and calls of a few other hams in the area who were involved in
this quiet, private network.  I knew several of them and recognized the calls of the others.

I took my 101A home and found a few people who had made a few simple drawings on how to easily connect them to
the phone system.  Back in the 1960s, Michigan Bell was quite 'touchy' about what got hooked to their lines.  Very
protective, you might say.  This was before the Carterphone decision and they pretty well could dictate what could
and could not be used.

It turned out that they didn't have a leg to stand on, since the Data Sets were designed and built by Western Electric for
use directly on Bell System phone lines. There were a few minor incidents where service was 'threatened' for using
these things, but it was all bluff.  The system continued to grow and at one time, there were close to 25 in this private
network.

Since I didn't have a  page printer at the time, I ended up using a Model 14 Keyboard Typing Reperf for the first few
months.  Paper tape was  fairly cheap back then!  I eventually got a Model 28KSR and was able to buy a "Call Director"
that bolted onto the right side of the Model 28 cabinet.  It had all of the right 'buttons' for operation of the 101 and allowed
'local' use of the system.  It had a rotary dial and a row of pushbuttons similar to a typical office telephone.  I will take a
guess at the legends on them:  ORIGINATE, END, LOCAL, ANSWER, and maybe one unassigned button.  They lit up
or flashed when in use, and it was quite impressive.

Anyway, some of the activities on this "Data Line" which it became known as in its later ears, were not unlike what might
happen on 2M RTTY.  One person would phone another and ask him to call him on the Data Line.  Eventually some got
a second phone line in their home or shack.  It was  not uncommon to call someone's number and mention that it was a
'data call', and someone in the house would push a button to 'wake up' the TTY machine.  Messages could be left behind
and when the originator was  finished, he just hung up and both machines went off.

One of the more ingenious members devised a way to use his one voice line to accommodate both types of calls.  He
isolated the phone lines in the house from the original Bell connection, and created a small PC board that used a few
components to make simple timers and added an AK-4 WireSpring relay to one of the vacant mounting holes in the chassis
of the 101A.  The incoming phone line came to the Data Set first.  If a 'ring' signal came in, not followed by another ring
signal, and 30 seconds did not pass the system was 'armed' waiting for a second ring signal which would go to the 101A
and activate it in the "ANSWER" mode, with the appropriate tone, etc.

If a second ring signal came in as for a typical voice call, the ring signals would be sent into the house wiring and the
phones would ring as normal.  A single ring, would cause the timers in his small PC board to be 'waiting for' a second
ring signal, later than a normal ring signal, but before 30 seconds had lapsed.  

He called this the "Call Back" system, and it was put to use by a number of others in this 'TELEX' system.  At that time,
ringing and voice signals were  sent on the same pair of wires from a Central Office.  It was this one 'weakness' that allowed
the "Black Box" and "Blue Box" crowd to do their thing.  But, that's another story for another day, or another 'group'.


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