Everything you wanted to know about step by step.

k0ua · Dec 9, 2019

For those of you that enjoy a bit of telephonic history and wanted to know more about step by step switching you can watch the below video from 1951.
I personally saw several of these types of systems in operation in my early career, Step by Step and crossbar mechanical switches too. But mostly I saw them being hauled out of building and taken to the recyclers, and the modern Stored program control electronic switches I was installing put into their place. I never worked on any step by step, as I was always busy replacing them, but I did work on a few crossbars, their more modern cousin's. All of it was just electro-mechanical junk to me at the time, as I was into electronic programing not relay cleaning!

It is all such a distant memory now..

k0ua · Dec 9, 2019

This video will show the type of equipment I installed and serviced.

Nortel. 1895-2009 may it rest in peace.

kenmac · Dec 9, 2019

Two million was a lot of dough back then !
I like seeing how things work. Most average people have no idea, or give a second thought about what actually goes on behind the scenes to make things click !

Like a internal combustion engine. so many moving parts working in sync to keep things going. Yet most people have no idea what's actually taking place. They just get in and turn the key, or push the button. Then, the magic happens

k0ua · Dec 9, 2019

Yes, it was a LOT of money back then. Yes I was glad to be a part of "making the magic work".

flyerdan · Dec 9, 2019

James, a looong time ago I read a book titled Tandem Rush, about the early days of the phone phreaks with the blue boxes. Still have it in the library (along with the 9k or so other books)

It was written in 1978 by Frederic V Huber, your typical good guy vs. bad guy trying to bring down society, albeit in a method not touched on by the usual suspects.

Industrial Toys · Dec 9, 2019

There was an old crossbar office in Toronto, and it was cool because you could hear musical tones as the street cars passed on the street and shook the building.

Those hackers sometimes knew more about the system than the Bell System people and would report problems. By the time I learned what the 2600hz could do, they had changed the system.

/pine · Dec 9, 2019

Lots of example of advancements in technology...similar to going from vacuum tubes to transistors, slide rules to RPN calculators, film/rf/analog to digital, CLIs to GUIs....etc., etc., etc...