(Snip, ship, snip...)
>> A long time ago, when they first started allowing other people to
>> connect modems to a phone line, but NOT directly, there was the DAA
>> ("Data Access Arrangement", I think). I worked with these in the late
>> 1970's. You rented it from the phone company. It had a defined
>> interface so you could pass voice through it, take the phone off the
>> hook, pulse dial, detect ringing, etc. For tone dialing you'd just...
> (More Snippage...
> There was also a gizmo of much the same circuitry called a VCA --
> Voice Connecting Arrangement. A VCA was used on a trunk connecting a
> common carrier's service to a customer owned PBX. While a stand alone
> VCA was pretty simple, when there were a lot of them there was a lot
> of stuff -- equipment racks, mounting shelves, distributing frames, and
> who knows what other manner of monkey business. At least there was no
> power -- as I recall these VCAs (made by TelLabs) used no external
> power. (A "DanRay" PBX I installed in the early '80s had nearly 300
> trunks and an equal number of VCAs! These were installed in a room
> separate from the PBX and consumed quite a footprint).
> Al
> (Oh -- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thanks for helping to educate me
> throughout all of 2005 -- and several years before that as well!)
Many years ago I had an old magneto phone on my line (before deregulation) my daughter at the time was about 1 1/2 years old and cranked it, to say the least it caused problems, first the fuses on my both sides of my line were blown, and it must have taken the protector on the frame out, PacTel was out within an hour and they were not happy with me, I pointed out it had been a phone that was made by for for The Western Electric Co., that did not seem to impress them, I was told not to put it on the line again; I did, but disables the magneto.
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably what you should have said to the repair service people (after pointing out the Western Electric/Bell stickers on the phone) "I have been trying to get a new phone for X years, you people would never come to do it." PAT]