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A short while ago our fixed phone emitted a short length of piped music. There was no subsequent indication that the phone had received a call. Was this BT testing our telephone line?
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Perhaps you need an exorcism?
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Just some low-grade MI5 boffin pressing the wrong button and giving the gastropod the contents of his Ipod instead of listening to Escargot's dangerous plans for a slow transition to a mollusc-dominated world...
'You utter fool Carruthers! Fancy a five-year posting to South Georgia eavesdropping on penguins do we? Shape up man!'
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As far as I understand land line phones, the caller "grabs the line" and holds it until they hang up, regardless of whether or not the receiving party hangs up.
The irritation for the receiving end comes later on when they pick the phone up to make call, and you still have the line (phone not on hook at your end), and they can here you and yours slithering about.
So, the "receiving party" can only get use of their phone back by making a huge noise down the line and hope you hear it - you may because your phone is "off the hook" - and hang up.
Or something like that...
Last edited by: AnotherJohnH on Sat 21 May 11 at 18:06
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>> As far as I understand land line phones, the caller "grabs the line" and holds
>> it until they hang up,
That certainly used to be the case, presumably a function of how the old electro-mechanical (Strowger?) exchanges worked. It doesn't seem to be the case now - the digital ones must be smarter.
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>>It doesn't seem to be the case now - the digital ones must be smarter.>>
If the person on the other end of the phone doesn't put it back in the cradle for some reason when a call is over, you can't make an outgoing call until they do so.
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This seems to be where we came in...
>> If the person on the other end of the phone doesn't put it back in
>> the cradle for some reason when a call is over, you can't make an outgoing
>> call until they do so.
>>
It doesn't seem to be the case now - the digital ones must be smarter.
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>>It doesn't seem to be the case now - the digital ones must be smarter. >>
Well it happens reasonably frequently in my case, usually when someone's kids are messing about on their phone (my number comprises ones, twos and threes - presumably they are lucky when they hit the keys!)
It's only a few weeks ago that I got very irate with one mother after her phone was eventually put down after nearly an hour-and-a-half, because she thought I was making too much fuss when I rang back after a 1471 check.....
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>> It's only a few weeks ago that I got very irate with one mother after
>> her phone was eventually put down after nearly an hour-and-a-half, because she thought I was making too much fuss when I rang back after a 1471 check.....
>>
It may be she's the one getting irate - when she gets the phone bill!
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>>It's only a few weeks ago that I got very irate with one mother after her phone was eventually put down after nearly an hour-and-a-half, because she thought I was making too much fuss when I rang back after a 1471 check.....
I ran into my inventor friend this afternoon, who in a past life was involved with lots of development at BT. You might be interested in his comments.
The Strowgers are long gone. Not surprising really - when I stop to think, I had recalled them from my Daily Express Science Annual of about 1965! They were replaced by another electromechanical system called 'cross-bar' switches. In turn these gave way to analogue electronic exchanges, and now virtually all, if not all, exchanges and calls between them are digital and only the local loop is analogue.
It is still the case that the calling phone controls the call. If the receiving handset is replaced, the call will be held for a short period - a few minutes. This would allow a person receiving a call to put down the handset without cutting off the call and move to another extension, pick it up, and continue the call. If the receiving handset is replaced but the calling one isn't, the call will automatically disconnect a few minutes afterwards (my informant couldn't tell me the exact period) and a 'howler' tone sent to the caller's handset.
If your line is being blocked for an hour and a half at a time, there's apparently something wrong - unless you are attached to some very 'legacy' equipment locally.
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>>If your line is being blocked for an hour and a half at a time, there's apparently something wrong - unless you are attached to some very 'legacy' equipment locally.>>
It was only the one occasion it was as long as that...:-)
It's a BT line; been with TalkTalk since April 2006 for broadband and phone services and it installed its LLU equipment in the exchange in 2007.
Last edited by: Stuartli on Mon 23 May 11 at 00:04
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I wish Talk Talk would install it in my exchange.
I was promised it would be available by February 2011, but still having to have my phone line from BT and pay just over £20 for broadband from Talk Talk at the moment.
Pat
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>>The Strowgers .........were replaced by another electromechanical system called 'cross-bar'
Not true I'm afraid. The old Strowger system co-existed with Crossbar and other electronic systems. The replacement was System X and system Y (AXE 10).
IIRC the howler didn't make it to modern systems either.
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Clearly they co-existed for extended periods, but crossbar came significantly later than Strowger, nothwithstanding that there were probably examples of both in use until the 1990s, notwithstanding the introduction of digital in the early 80s?.
I also mentioned the electronic analogue systems which some exchanges probably leapfrogged, and the transition to digital (which would include System X and System Y/AXE10, and the subsequent 21CN).
I was merely trying to illuminate the subject by passing on as much as I could remember of a 10 minute conversation at a barbecue.
I shall inform my inventor pal about the demise of the howler ;-)
To the point, how long can the calling phone hang on to a call when the callee has hung up?
Last edited by: Manatee on Mon 23 May 11 at 12:43
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The howler is alive and well, because of a software quirk (soon to be resolved) we have to leave the phone off the hook at the local CAB whilst writing up cases - it starts howling in protest after a few minutes.
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As a former Strowger Group Switching Centre maintenance man I have some happy memories of some great times.
Even back in the days of Strowger there were Local Call Timer (LCT) relay sets which governed the metering and would cause a forced release of any call where the called party had hung up, this happened, IIRC, on the second meter pulse after the hang up. Thus if the call was being metered in three minute units then the longest you would be held would be 5:59 in theory.
Strowger (TXS), Crossbar (TXK), TXE2 and TXE4 all existed together in the network until they were all superseded by System X and System Y (AXE10).
Strowger had three types that I worked on Pre-2000, 2000 type and 4000 type, most of the network was Pre-2000 and 2000 as 4000 was pretty unreliable.
Crossbar was used in a small part of the network but was soon overtaken by the Common Control reed relay switched matrix TXE's.
The last two analogue exchanges, one local to me at Leigh-on-Sea, changed over to System X/Y on the same day in 1998. System X is British STC/GEC/Plessey, System Y or AXE10 as it is more properly known is Swedish, manufactured by Ericson. Both should now be in the process of being replaced and are pushing their design lives but I believe they are now going to have their lives extended for some years as local exchanges, they are no longer used in the core network having been replaced by the Next Generation Switch (NGS) which interfaces with the core 21CN network, as I understand, not being involved in that world any longer.
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>>most of the network was Pre-2000 and 2000 as 4000 was pretty unreliable.
I started in '65 (ND only) and the only pre 2K I can recall was in a pre-war mobile (it had shrapnel holes in it from the war). I always thought the 4K stuff was better than 2K, but far more expensive.
I also touched on TXE1 (a thermionic valve one-off), TXE6 (a big electronic matrix switch one-off) and a TXE4 that was neither RD or the other design I can't now recall. Leighton Buzzard was used for this experimental stuff.
I was disappointed not to be invited to the closing of Leigh-on-sea E4 (the last in the country IIRC) as I was doing the data control for the region at the time.
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>> I started in '65 (ND only) and the only pre 2K I can recall was
>> in a pre-war mobile (it had shrapnel holes in it from the war). I always
>> thought the 4K stuff was better than 2K, but far more expensive.
I was at Southend Main and we had Line and Final Pre-2000 until the late 70's and Pre-2000 Groups until the early 80's. We only had two racks of 4000 G/S but we used to have a standing joke that the guy whose section it was on used to come in every morning and pick the anti-bounce plates up off the floor and spend most of the morning putting them back on......
>> I was disappointed not to be invited to the closing of Leigh-on-sea E4 (the last
>> in the country IIRC) as I was doing the data control for the region at
>> the time.
>>
Yes, the closure of Leigh was quite a big deal at the time as it marked the final piece of the digital jigsaw. Bit of a pain for us though for some years later as during the lead up to the big day they got some one to have a big tidy up, he binned all the myriad of record cards as well!
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>>pick the anti-bounce plates up off the floor
I've absolutely no recollection of that. Bank cleaning as a Youth In Training (YIT), yes, and the myriad of experimental bank cleaners that followed.
I was on construction, and had to install an AC9 routiner. I was closely beaten by the guy in Cambridge to be the first, followed by several months on maintenance, to get the damned things to pass the routiner.
I never got to be a GSC man, the mechanical pulse re-generators fascinated me.
I ended up as an E4, T&G man. Remember FMTR? I was was the region's CIRCUS clown!
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>> old electro-mechanical (Strowger?) exchanges...
AFAIR, the reason for the man Strowger making an automatic exchange is interesting: he was an undertaker by trade and he was loosing business to his opposition because of a corrupt operator in the exchange.
Dial the person you want, rather than rely on a person to do what they feel like.
I'm sure google will have a more complete version of events.
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Piped misc, it was Alex Salmond checking for a referendum.
Coat, hat, out of here...
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You can get this if someone sends a text message from a mobile to a landline.
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Was BT testing our telephone line? - Fursty Ferret
