To Anthony Watson

On what kind of patching to use, I would agree with Harold H. on this one. In addition to tip/ring jacks I use a lot of tip/ring/sleeve jacks. Like Harold, I buy 4 x 4 electrical boxes and plates. Usually I mount two rows of three TRS jacks on them for two loops. If I need more loops, I make more boxes and mount them side by side. I use cat-5 for four loops.

I am including photos of three of my TRS boxes. The new one I just built and two older ones.

Sometimes I solder directly other times I use cat-5 plugs and surface mount jacks - depends on my mood and my junk box.

I have a hundred or more TRS jacks and buy Chinese TRS plugs on eBay from a U.S seller if I can find one. I buy ten or twenty at a time. I use 2-conductor shielded wire. I ground the boxes and ground the shields to the Teletypes.

As for many machines on one loop - I am a firm believer in a 120 volt loop with series resistors and a pot to set it to 60 mils.  You can find multiple amp 120 VDC power supplies for about $52 on eBay. They must be ordered from China. One of those would probably run a model 19 or certainly all the loops you could want. I bought one I am going to hook up one of these days.

While I have TUs on several loops to monitor my own streams for testing Teletypes, I also have local DC loops for testing machines with their keyboards.

By the way, when soldering plugs, never put them in a vice, it will distort them. I clamp a long frame jack in the vice and put the plug into the jack. Or plug them into a jack on your electrical box before you mount it. It will be heavy enough to support the plug while you solder.

Jim Cooper,

While I like your idea of using fence posts. My underground wires run roughly along a sidewalk with nary a fence post in sight except for the electric fence running around my raised bed garden for only about a fourth of the distance.

Kevin Schuchmann,