Retroichita Linesman - using old Field Telephones as a wired intercom

Repurposing field phones as a novelty retro intercom.
I bought my military surplus Linesman Telephones from here: ebay.to/2QZUa0M (Affiliated link)
The shirt is from Joe Browns: bit.ly/2JpMFk7 (affiliated link)
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[@Techmoan]

To everyone ‘correcting’ me - that the song Witchita Lineman is ‘ _actually_ not about a telephone lineman - it’s about a power lineman’ - let’s ask Jimmy Webb the songwriter, I’d imagine he knows what he wrote the song about. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Lineman Jimmy Webb stated in an interview for the BBC Radio 4 Mastertapes programme that the song was written in response to a phone call from Campbell for a "place" or "geographical" song to follow up "By The Time I Get To Phoenix". Webb's inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through Washita County in rural southwestern Oklahoma. At that time, many telephone companies were county-owned utilities, and their linemen were county employees. Heading westward on a straight road into the setting sun, Webb drove past a seemingly endless line of telephone poles, each looking exactly the same as the last. Then, in the distance, he noticed the silhouette of a solitary lineman atop a pole. He described it as "the picture of loneliness". Webb then "put himself atop that pole and put that phone in his hand" as he considered what the lineman was saying into the receiver. It was a splendidly vivid, cinematic image that I lifted out of my deep memory while I was writing this song. I thought, I wonder if I can write something about that? A blue collar, everyman guy we all see everywhere - working on the railroad or working on the telephone wires or digging holes in the street. I just tried to take an ordinary guy and open him up and say, 'Look there's this great soul, and there's this great aching, and this great loneliness inside this person and we're all like that. We all have this capacity for these huge feelings'.

[@CaptainHightop]

The only "correction" I would make as a lineman myself, is that the the title not say "linesman". Linesmen are tennis umpires.

[@sporkafife]

@@CaptainHightop that's the name of the device in the video though! And it's what we call them in the UK, he acknowledges that in the US they're called "linemen" right at the start to be fair.

[@thysonsacclaim]

@hawkturkey - Annnd here's another know it all. The literal artist of the song says what the song is about, and you have to try to pretend you know better. All of those metaphors can apply to the phone system, too. "Singing in the wires" -- telephone wires carry sound and electricity, both of which I can see in this metaphor. Overload can apply to telephone lines, too, and they also sag when it gets hot. Like seriously... are you really going to be the guy that replies to a comment about people making an incorrect assumption... and rebut it again? Yeah. You're that guy.

[@thysonsacclaim]

Also please read the Wiki on the song... really. Save yourself the time in your reply to me. "The phrase "singing in the wire" is evoked in two ways in De Lory's orchestral arrangement. He uses high-pitched, ethereal violins to emulate the sonic vibration commonly induced by wind blowing across small wires and conductors, making these lines whistle or whine like an aeolian harp. Similarly, the electronic sounds a lineman might hear when attaching a telephone earpiece to a long stretch of raw telephone or telegraph line, i.e., without typical line equalization and filtering ("I can hear you through the whine") are represented by a repeating "Morse code" keyboard motif"

[@esnebta]

Actually, this song is about american football offensive lineman 😂

[@FranLab]

Excellent fun! My uncle worked for the phone company back in the 70's and he gave me a couple old phones that he had wired up as an intercom as yours are - mine was powered by a single 6v lantern battery. It amazed me to no end.

[@holderbee7811]

This will be useful to ring 8 bit guy outside his house :)

[@arbutuswatcher]

Low tech is sometimes the best tech! K.I.S.S. - Keep it simple stupid, as the saying goes.

[@notmuch_23]

Unfortunately, David uses VOIP, which I learned from the video he did on that old digital answering machine, so that wouldn't work.

[@arbutuswatcher]

@@notmuch_23 Since he lives in Texas, I wonder if he's a Frontier (formerly Verizon) FiOs customer? If so, he's optical or 'riding the light' all the way back to the Central Office. POTS or Plain Old Telephone Service is slowly disappearing. Other than business customers with multiple lines, as well as residential customers in rural areas with poor cellular service, the majority of public is cutting the cord, and migrating to a cellular or IP-based telephone service. It's so sad, but seemingly inevitable. Traditional Telephony is soon to be just another chapter, in the books of history.

[@Gloworm17]

@@arbutuswatcher With modern cell phones /*If carrier enabled and phone capable*/ Wi-fi calling is a thing. My parents live in the rural with poor cellular service but are able to make calls with their cell provider (Verizon) through Wi-Fi (VOIP) with their Verizon number. Further negating the need for POTS. They are literally in Wi-Fi range or cellular range and the cell phone auto switches between the two with about a 0.5 second pause. POTS is definitely dying.

[@arbutuswatcher]

In our area, VzW, AT&T, & a local provider have OK coverage. For voice service, we've found that the land line is still a must, since the local wireless providers leave a lot to be desired. On top of that, the local broadband options are limited, and they all suck too. Hard to believe in the 21st century, that it's such a pain to find reliable voice & broadband service! :(

[@-abacchus]

Great video, but disappointed you didn't go climbing up a telegraph pole...

[@unfa00]

I wouldn't want to see him break a leg!

[@MrWombatty]

Here in Australia they rarely need to climb the poles as in urban areas the telephone cables are all underground with the wires accessible via cylindrical nodes (or large boxes)!

[@MrWombatty]

The poles are only there for electricity, while there's covered pits along the nature-strips to which underground telephone wires from homes/buildings are connected. The already obsolete broadband network that our conservative govt is still installing, uses those existing copper-wires in many areas to connect via roadside 'nodes' (where bandwidth is shared, slowing speeds considerably) with it so far taken more than twice as long & going ridiculously over budget!

[@MrWombatty]

Hears sizzling & smells smoke after climbing pole & clipping handset wires to cables!

[@Jerbod2]

@@MrWombatty :o Australia is actually doing stuff underground? Nice. Here in the Netherlands we have like a few square kilometers left of aboveground wires, the rest of the country is all hidden below ground.

[@arbutuswatcher]

Matt, that was a good overview on the field telephones. Those style were a typical variant of field phones used by military forces across the world. The older units made use of a magneto to generate the ring voltage, for ringing the far end. In modern field phones, the audible ringer can be disabled, and a light can be used in its place, for more discrete work. CB or Central Battery was a typical arrangement, much like that of the civilian or non-military telephone network, where the Telephone Central Office provides ‘talk battery’. LB or Local Battery was more typical of facilitating a point-point connection, over a ‘dry’ pair. I suspect this arrangement was commonly used by the military in a trench or field environment. In the world of telephony, cable splicers routinely made use of a dry pair in a cable, to coordinate their work, at either end of a cable. In that case, they had headsets with local battery, to free their hands for the work of splicing the cable. There was also something known as the ‘Order Wire’, which was used in both the Telephony & Wireless Industry. It offered the ability of field technician to ‘ring’ the Central Office, from fixed points in the network, such as at repeater or microwave relay stations, and coordinate their work with C.O. Technicians. When I was a young teenager (around 13 years old), I was prone to 'hogging' or tying-up the phone line, especially when I was talking to my girlfriend (now wife). To remedy this ‘phone line occupation’, my parents put a time limit on telephone usage, after which I was cut-off for the evening. This did not go over very well with me, so I set-off for a solution. After a little research, I built a lineman’s test set out of an old phone & parts from Radio Shack. Along with this, I strung together several power extension cords, with either end modified with alligator (not crocodile) clips. Then I did a ‘Green Acres, climbing the stepped telephone pole outside my bedroom window, and connected to the neighbor’s line. The neighbors were nice folks, but up in years, which meant that they went to sleep early. This meant their phone line was idle & free for use. It wasn’t until many years later, that I realized the neighbor was a retired telephone company employee! As far as lineman test sets are concerned, Harris TS21 & TS22 have been the industry standard in the U.S,. for many years. I believe Fluke bought the telephony product line from Harris a few years ago. A ‘flavor’ of the TS22 is still manufactured, albeit cheaper in design, than the original.

[@SeanBZA]

I take it you are in an area ( probably the USA) with free local calling, otherwise your neighbours would have quickly figured out there was a problem when they got the bill after the first month. Most countries you pay for local calls as well, though some Telco's now also try to encourage local calling by allowing fixed rate calls to local numbers instead. I used to use that for dial up internet, going on line 7PM at night ( when the rate was available) and only going offline at 6PM the next morning, calling a local ISP POP. Would have it on all weekend as well as the rate was from Friday evening to Monday morning. Then came the miracle of DSL, where you did not get disconnected mid surf, and could still use the phone line to make calls, plus got to over 56k.

[@arbutuswatcher]

@@SeanBZA Yes, I'm in the States. We had measured service when I was very young, but they eventually went to flate-rate service after the divestiture in 1984. As luck would have it, my girlfriend lived within the local calling area, so no suspicious charges showed up on the neighbor's bill. I eventually pulled my temporary line down, after spotting some guys from the telephone company, who were 'milling around' my neighborhood. That was well over 30 years ago. I suspect a stunt like that today would have got me in serious trouble.

[@buddyclem7328]

@@arbutuswatcher I just love a good phone phreaking story! Unfortunately, the analog fun didn't last forever.

[@jaredwblack]

Plus one for the Green Acres reference, LOL. Did you wear a three piece suit and tie up on the pole like Mr Douglas?

[@arbutuswatcher]

That would have been appropriate, but I think I probably wore a Pink Floyd T-Shirt & Blue Jeans, since I was only 13 at the time. After all, it was Pink Floyd that introduced me to MF (Multi-Frequency) Signaling Tones, in the operator/ call sequence of "Young Lust". Sadly, with the advent of SS7, MF Signaling Tones were no longer used on the Digital Switches, for inter & intra office trunks. Just like the 2600 Hz tone, they've become a part of telephony history. Now where is that Captain Crunch Whistle?

[@Sleepdroidstudios]

The single most amazing part of this video is when you told us that there on online forums talking about these devices. The internet is amazing!

[@1337fraggzb00N]

There are online forums about almost everything and I think that this is quite splendid 😀

[@symonenry7442]

Right, time to look at these on ebay and watch the Techmoan effect happen. They'll all be sold out in days.

[@PaulWoodman83]

Time to cash in me thinks haha

[@U014B]

>in days Oh, ye of little faith...

[@derkeksinator17]

Thankfully I already have two of them...

[@dimitriymirovsky]

They already jack up their prices

[@fordtechchris]

Should we be concerned mMat isn't just trying to drive sales for his old lousy tech he wants gone?

[@alandixon7248]

CB is “Central Battery” which means the power is fed from the telephone exchange. This position would be used when connecting to a normal telephone line. I used these in the 60’s and 70’s when I worked for Post Office Telephones which is now BT. The vans we used at the time were the same colour. Later Post Office and early BT lineman’s telephones were Yellow, as were the vans. The telephones were exactly the same unit as your Military one and made by the same company.

[@DOGMA1138]

These phones in the military are more than often used without any exchanges, CB central/common battery mode just means that the phone ring will be be centrally powered with a 48V line voltage, with LB the line voltage would drop to 3.3V. In CB mode the line is constantly powered and the "ring" would be an attenuation on the line, in LB mode the line would only be powered on a ring.

[@KingMoronProductions]

Quick question, what DC adaptor would I have to purchase to connect in lieu of these 3x D cells? I have these exact units and would like to get them working in situ without having to mess around with batteries, thank you :)

[@KingMoronProductions]

@@JasperJanssen Thank you :)

[@stevejones8665]

@@KingMoronProductions You would be fine using any 5 Volt power supply Or usb type charger just make sure you get polarity right + to + and - to -.

[@KingMoronProductions]

One more question if I may, I've powered these up using an old DC adapter and it works great, however only the powered side can ring the other side. Will I be ok using two DC adapters on either unit at the same time so they can both ring? Thank you again for the help, it means a lot :-)

[@hyperion8008]

I was hoping one of the puppets would answer the phone.

[@CarlosPerezChavez]

Indeed!

[@worldtraveler930]

I second that motion!

[@mistakay9019]

"why not use a mobile phone?" - 98.4% of techmoan's audience: "SHUT UP AND LET THE MAN SPEAK" *Watching Intensifies*

[@MrKillerpics]

KZbin notifications still broken even with bell icon activated i've got no notification... But nice a Techmoan Video ^^

[@darikdatta]

I'm subscribed and this isn't showing up on my subscriptions page, something must be broken.

[@tallman11282]

It's not in my subscription feed either. Thankfully it popped up in my home feed.

[@lwvmobile]

Same. Only caught it because it was on the recommended feed but not on my subscription feed.

[@billmyke746]

Notification fail here too

[@karfan2290]

@@billmyke746 Same here.

[@trampdrift]

Looks like it was last signed for by FS Beattie, "FS" being his rank that would make him a Flight Sergeant so it'll be ex -RAF.

[@BigKelvPark]

That just means he was the last person to sign the F731 before it was returned to the MoD supply system. I signed loads of stuff off when closing down RAF Coltishall.

[@doddsy2978]

Yes quite. However, Inv CVC- or whatever three letters identifies an inventory and so, having served in both the Air Force and Army, I would quite confidently suggest that this was an RAF asset. Now in my Army days and RAF days I have used these devices and they were not used for testing anything other that of you superiors' patience (well, in my experience :-) ). They are battery powered and are used, mainly for end-end comms. Say, from a Guard Post to HQ (hence the patience comment, earlier). They can be connected to an exchange in the field to create a network. The exchange was a bit like the old fashioned hotel switchboard with the plugs and cables and would be operated by a Soldier lying in front of it with the cables fanning out across the location. The cable we used was called Don 10 and was basically stainless steel twin core and was as bullet proof as cable can be. If you look carefully at armour, you will usually see a reel of this stuff attached to the outside of the vehicle for connecting to such a network. The phones, by the way, we called Frogs. I don't know the reason but, probably coz they were green.

[@markmartin-davy5633]

The CIS Eng stands for Communications Information Systems Engineer. That is a Royal Signals Trade in the British Army. It would most likely be the CIS Engineers detachment field telephone for when they deployed on operations or exercise.

[@s90210h]

This is the kind of content that got me hooked on this channel. Thank you for trying these things out and demonstrating them! I would never in a million years want to buy this but I still enjoy your video about it. Please keep going at these "silly" experiments, I think they're a service to us all.

[@cammyboy011]

I want a red one so I can scramble some Spitfires from the shed 😎👍

[@emmajacobs5575]

What-ho, Squiffy!

[@MrEvilWasp]

Lol cheers that made me laugh :)

[@cmb9463]

This brings back memories. I was statiioned at RAF Luchars 1983-85. These are RAF units I worked in the Ground Radio Flight as marked on the second unit. I usetd to install and maintain these for the station These were used as part of an emergency private phone network on the station. They were connected to a field telephone exchange which was operated by a telephone operator Great video

[@PlonkapplePrequel]

This video didn't show up in my Sub feed. Weird.

[@eukaryote-prime]

You're not alone. Me too and threads in the comments saying it just didn't show up at all. Wtf.

[@crapgaz]

Or mine..

[@Sheevlord]

Same here

[@ciaphascyne8866]

same here! now im looking through all my 100+subs to see what im missing haha

[@summ0ner]

+1 NOT showing in my subscription feed either. Bizarrely the video did show up as a 'up next' video on the far right while I was watching something else

[@ole9421]

Yes, perfect! I have a wood shop located about 150ft from the house. Something like this would be great for whenever the wife needs to ask me a question. Ah, yeah never mind, that's a bad idea. lol

[@Shermanbay]

That would work. If your celfones gave out.

[@tylerrip11]

Isn't this why they invented the telephone

[@Dorelaxen]

Just rig up a line with a little bell so she can ring you at any time. That sounds great...right?

[@Wagoo]

I think a long tube rigged up from an upper floor of the house to shout down would be better - the bonus is after yelling down the tube she can pour your cup of tea down it, and having had the warning you can be ready, empty cup in hand at the other end

[@dashcamandy2242]

If you do that, be sure to rig up an external power supply. Either that, or buy batteries by the pallet-load. lol

[@danrulz98]

I do a lot with phone and intercom stuff so I have a modern-ish (I think 90s vintage) lineman's telephone that's more of the civilian type, often called a "buttset". Instead of being a big box it's just a self contained handset that's bright orange in color and has two ABN clip leads. The clips are special in that you can pinch them onto a wire and they'll make contact or you can connect them on to a telecom terminal block. Since mine's modern it has a digital keypad and will use touchtone dialing although there's a switch for doing pulse dialing. The ringer on it is an obnoxious beep. The rotary version did not have a ringer at all. It doesn't have the ability to ring another phone (outside of being connected to a telephone line and calling someone) and can't directly power another unit. However, if you take two buttsets and put a cable tester in series with them (this was in the instructions for the cable tester) you can use that to talk. It uses a 9v battery and a CR2032 coin cell basically jut to run some detection circuits and to use the speakerphone function (which works extremely well), but you can often buy them really cheaply because when that CR2032 battery dies the whole unit is nonfunctional. If you'd like pictures or video of this, let me know :)

[@mikecowen6507]

Daniel Haworth I've got an original AT&T rotary model. No batteries at all. Generally built like a tank by Western Electric, but the one part that failed before I got it is the cast metal belt clip. Otherwise it works like the day it was built (it's not handy, so I don't recall the build date).

[@denniswoycheshen]

When the battery is low the butt set tends to get gassy.

[@danrulz98]

@@mikecowen6507 I do actually have a GTE rotary one. So between it, the more modern Harris unit, and my cable tester, I can actually have a conversation between them! I find the Harris unit a lot more useful because of the speakerphone on it though :) Since you can listen to pretty much any audio source through a buttset, the Harris unit is much more sensitive to low signals and it's very convenient to have it sitting on a nearby shelf while I'm probing 66 blocks

[@peregreena9046]

I watched this last night while waiting for my cousin to pick me up for a family dinner. He's been a signalsman in the German Army in the 1980's and on the way there he talked about his service in the army and how fieldphones work and how they were used back in his days. (When he wasn't laying cables, he worked hand-operated exchanges.)

[@Weaponsandstuff93]

These are interestingly still in use for two reasons. The primary military reason is unlike radio calls they cannot be intercepted remotely but more importantly can't be jammed with electronic warfare so they are a reliable way for forward positions to call back to a HQ. The second more sinister and I find a bit more interesting is the ringer on these either if it's the switch magneto or the retro crank magnetos sends out typically about 60-120 volts to ring the phones on the other end of the line, therefor it's used as an easy torture method where some poor guy is wired up to the phone and the torturer rings out, basically painful electric shocks at the flick of a switch or a crank. This was known as a Tucker telephone after a US prison did it to prisoners and it's been used in pretty much all wars these phones have been present in when interrogating prisoners. The Soviet TA-57 field phone was visible being wired up to a suspected terrorists private area in some photos the Russian's put out recently.

[@justandardprocedure]

Just wanted to say, your explanation/reviews/etc are the best on YT. Thanks for everything you do.

[@TheRealBobHickman]

Your neighbours across the back - "He's at it again Edna! ...I dunno, just standing in the garden looking at the house with a telephone in his hand"

[@dorishosegarden]

Loved seeing this, brought back memories of me playing with one as a child. My father worked for British Telecom and had exactly this unit.

[@Seiskid]

"I was obsessed with intercoms as a kid". Brought back memories for me too, of playing with a pair of old army telephones as a kid that for some reason we had in the garage. Great fun as a kid. And educational.

[@TheSektorz]

Eventhough i’ve been subscribed for years this vid doesn’t show in my feed, I randomly found it browsing the homepage...

[@shadymikhiel3885]

I like watching your videos before going to bed

[@randomworld1]

Same.

[@user-ym7kr8gl5i]

Shady Mikhiel same^ ^

[@spoosh7751]

Same. His voice is so soothing.

[@QuintinGellar]

same

[@MrNeilypops]

I used these in the 1980s...broadcast tv comms engineer...standard in the industry at the time for remote comms...nice video took me back in time.

[@ChrisJones-wh5ek]

I've got a few WWII-era field telephones at home, the "Telephone set F" and "Telephone set L". They're much the same except that they have a hand-cranked magneto instead of an electronic ringer and, as you mention in the film, they do have actual bells instead of just a clattering noise. When I was a child, we used to use them to play with, making phone calls round the house and down the garden. Great fun!

[@hellothere7802]

>Techmoan mentions how to get one >Item is sold out within the week

[@TCGProductions03]

more like within the hour

[@PjotrStroganov]

Surprised that it still is going for 30 pounds.

[@NoJusticeNoPeace]

We called those cheeseboxes in the old phreaking days. We made them from old phone receivers and clipped them into a junction box, then called the operator and hijacked her trunk line with a bluebox.

[@BertGrink]

Don't tell me your old handle was Capt'n Crunch back in the day? hehe

[@NoJusticeNoPeace]

Heh, no, but I did participate in the Big Mattel Hack, where we hijacked their voicemail system and everyone in the phreaking community got their own voicemail there on a WATS line, which was a big deal back then.

[@SuperFinGuy]

Ahh the phreaking and BBS days, when the internet was too expensive for me as a kid.

[@3DJapan]

Yep I used to read about them in 2600 mag.

[@NoJusticeNoPeace]

+SuperFinGuy There was no Internet back then. There were university intranets and a few military Arpanet nodes you could telnet into, but this was before even Gopher.

[@makers_lab]

The rotary dial sound brings back memories of our home phone growing up. Used to have an intercom between downstairs and my bedroom and one to a friend next door. great fun!

[@jakalair]

From my time in the US Army I can let you know that these were used when setting up temporary locations in the field. They were useful for sending messages where we didn't want to use radios.

[@alastairbarkley6572]

Not encrypted though. Well, I doubt it. Non-contact (no-break) inductive line eavesdroppers were in use by both British and German armies as far back as WW1. Get your trench tunnelers to dig up an enemy phone line and.... voilà!

[@0311Mushroom]

@@alastairbarkley6572 short distance, most times inside the encampment. Or at most a few dozen meters outside.

[@DraxTrac]

I wasn't notified about this video, nor did it popped up on my subscription. But it did popped up on my recommended.

[@michaelharrison1093]

You should see if you can find some old stepper relays - wire these up to the old rotary dial phones and you can demonstrate how an old stepper exchange worked.

[@richierex]

Its called a Strowger exchange after the guy who invented it, and no, he wasnt an American

[@caitthenerd7470]

@@richierex Almon Brown Strowger was an American. He was born in New York. Not sure where you got the idea he wasn't, but it's not correct.

[@baitcommajail]

A local artist to me had 4 of these set up in their house - 2 by the kitchen, and then 1 each in the kids’ rooms. I don’t know if they’re still there now that the kids are grown, but I always loved that setup.

[@bjornolson6527]

My Grandfather, 94yo and skill kicking, was a radioman/linesman during the Korean Conflict/War. He says, this is quite reminiscent (albeit in metal) to what he often used in his duties “In Country”. He hardly ever can be brought to speak of his experiences, so this really helped us future generations connect in a way we haven’t previously. Thanks!

[@craftythings2341]

you are middle aged around 30

[@bjornolson6527]

@@craftythings2341 i’ll be 50 in September.

[@garethfairclough8715]

"Lechars FP"... yeah, that'd be an RAF item, allright. They're the ones who tended to have dedicated "FP" elements in their units (FP standing for "Force Protection", i.e. the guys who stand around and protect the bases). That's assuming I'm right about that FP, of course. EDIT Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure this'd be a force protection/guard item rather than a linesman's phone. Basically, this'd be put in at the guard positions and wired up to what they'd call the "guard room", which is where the guard commander and the rest of that days/nights guards are. This would allow the guy in that guard position to report anything without either having to run back himself (leaving the post unmanned or undermanned), or use a radio (with all the risks that entails). That headset jack confirms it. When I was in, these were replaced with much smaller models which had a touchtone keypad, though they worked more or less the same way. I'm guessing these particular ones were old ones that were just hanging around at the back of the stores and had been for years.

[@Clipbrd]

That appears very military... Having retired from Bell Canada.. For the last 50 years North America has used what is known as a Butt set.. varying shapes and sizes and forms.. No box.. Also Butt sets are powered from the phone line, newer butt sets have batteries only to store numbers and/or displays..

[@aspectcarl]

We used these at RAF Brize Norton during the early 80's while I was stationed there, I was of a few that set them up during Mineval and Tacival exercises at temporary checkpoints set up outside our squadron building. We never ordered cups of tea via them but briefed the officers when visitors arrived. That decadic dialling was something I ended up working on in civvy street according to British Standard BS6317 on small phone keysystems. Happy days :)

[@OriginalPineapplesFoster]

It's so cool how Mat figures out how to demonstrate things like this without having another person to help. 😁🍍

[@God-yb2cg]

of course if you're using it as an intercom, you want to connect it to a DC power supply so it needs no batteries

[@Milnoc]

Colin Furze could have a set wired between his shed and his apocalypse shelter! 😁

[@Grunchy005]

He might wire it up to detonate dynamite, though. He definitely doesn’t need one.

[@spyrothehuman]

@@Grunchy005 not at all

[@UzumakiNarutoX3]

I actually used 2 old ex german army field phones as an intercom between our house and the workshop when I was a teenager. The phones had 2 D-cells providing power to talk and had a crank to make the other phone ring. I ran the wires overhead using existing old porcelain insulaters which werde used for power lines in the old days. They were no longer in use as we put our power lines underground decades ago.

[@techman2471]

I was a telephone tech in the US Navy. Used a line powered test set to ring out my lines. These were used by all branches of our military for years to debug lines. Brings back lots of good memories, thanks a lot for the video. Though I like the others didn't get a ring up from KZbin.

[@Bandit-Darville]

This is proper prepper stuff!

[@Grunchy005]

The way that rotary dial works (going back to phreaking days), is it quickly and regularly interrupts the line; like the Flash button. The Flash button is in fact the same as dialing ‘1’ on a rotary. The upshot is that you don’t actually need the rotary dial to dial somebody’s number, just the hang-up switch. Just tap it the same number of times as the digit you want to dial; slight pause between digits; and that’s all you need to dial on a land phone. It even works on a touch tone phone. Doesn’t work on a wireless handset though, because hanging that up, even briefly, interrupts the wireless radio connection between the handset and the base, which definitely drops the line.

[@tieline1333]

phreaking isn't over just so you know :)

[@julia_ruby]

Ugh, I freaking love that shirt. Every time I see it I wanna go op shopping for something similar.

[@bobuk5722]

Decades ago Dad got me a pair of Army field telephones. No dial, and a chest mounted transmitter and headphone receivers. Came in a very sturdy wooden box. I think they were for artillery spotting. Sadly, long gone now, but this brought back memories. BobUK.

[@MrShahspice]

I dont understand why none of the major TV networks pick up Techmoan and turn it into a proper tech show??

[@silverdollarswede151]

They would ruin it for everyone.

[@sporkafife]

The internet is killing traditional TV anyway

[@nathaniliescu4597]

You arnt very bright if you think most people would like this guy as much as you do.

[@BrownDogDuke]

That was a great video. Thank you for posting it.

[@Ziegeri]

When i was serving my time as a conscript at defense forces I used similar thingies. You had shit tons of thin cable that you could use to connect two points with phones like these - luckily i didn't have to do that for long, since running kilometers of wire in a forest is quite anal job to do. Instead of doing that for a year like few my friends did, I got to sit in a warm communications cabin in a warship and keep everything working.

[@Keepingthefaith72]

We used to use these at BT when changing a damaged cable over to a new one , You connected it to the last pair in the new cable . The guy on the other end did the same thing and we could talk to each other as we changed the damaged cable over ......

[@Rompler_Rocco]

This is maybe a dumb question, but do you have a special routine for keeping all your equipment clean & dust-free?

[@Jerbod2]

Spend little time in the room, dont have carpet, drapes, furniture with cushions...

[@kushith]

In one of his videos he mentioned that he has house maids 😜

[@Jerbod2]

@@blitzwing1 The remastered version is really worth playing. Even with a walkthrough it's a great atmosphere game.

[@chinabluewho]

I have pollen filters taped to the back of box fans at my house but everyone I guess has thier own ideas.

[@scharkalvin]

I thought that the Glen Campbel song was about a linesman working for the power company, not the telephone company. There was the line "searching in the sun for another overload." That sounds more like a power line problem, not a phone line issue.

[@millerrmann]

But the next 2 lines are: "I hear you singin' in the wires I can hear you through the whine" which would point to telephone linesman

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

scharkalvin telephone lines output high voltage as well, this is to power old rotary telephones as they were mostly mechanical in construction

[@tracyscott3261]

The high voltage is for ringing. About 90 volts.

[@duncan-rmi]

he was definitely a comms engineer, not power.

[@JeffDeWitt]

I'd always assumed it was about a power guy too, but that's not the case. Wiki has a long piece on it. The song was written by Jimmy Webb and he said it was inspired by seeing a long line of telephone poles disappearing into the west, and a solitary lineman working on one of them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Lineman

[@comicmania2008]

Hi Techmoan. I forgot about the existence of these phones. We used these when I was in the RAF, years ago, back in the 1980's. We used them at guard posts, or sangers on the perimeter of the airfield or strategic check points, so we could keep in touch with the guard commander - usually on 'tac-eval' (exercise). If we saw intruders, we had to use these phones to check in and report, and the guard commander would also phone back to give instructions. Also saw them in use at the gate house, so the gate guards could keep in touch with the guard room.

[@dpfreedman]

Back in my college days, we still had rotary dial phones in the dorm rooms. Standard practice would be to put locks on the dial so your roommate couldn't run up a huge phone bill while you were in class. However, it was common knowledge that the phones could still be dialed by tapping the call disconnect buttons the appropriate number of times for each digit in the phone number. I was quite proficient by my senior year :-)

[@sam64evo]

you should try plugging it into wireless receiver unit see if that will work could be little mod hack

[@zach_attakk]

"Daddy what's a landline?"

[@Fluteboy]

"When I were a lad, ee it were grand! I used to push that bloody bike up that bloody hill, just to deliver t'loaf of bread. But it were good bread in them days, not like the pansy stuff you get now!"

[@zach_attakk]

@@Fluteboy I was waiting for a casually racist comment at the end. Good show.

[@moonshine3333]

Zach Groenewald Sad life, waiting to be offended 😢

[@maxxykitty6112]

I have used something similar to this linesman phone. I work in the telecommunications industry. We had to use a few of these for a big cable overlay project (Cable replacement). One was placed in the local exchange using a spare cable pair on the cable being worked on. The techs working in the manholes go across the same cable pair and it provided a good intercom for all of us. We had to tone out each pair at the exchange and at each manhole and to ensure the right pairs were cut over due to the old cable not having any color coding to it.

[@mummymonkey]

I was stationed at RAF Leuchars in the 80s. These were used during exercises to communicate with the airmen out in the sangers. We ran some 2 core wire out to each sanger from the local guard posts. We didn't use croc clips but just poked the wires through the holes and screwed down the black plastic bit.

[@thatwill616]

Does anyone know what the high-pitch noise at the end of every Techmoan video is? I kinda assumed it was some sort of secret message/picture encoded in some way. I've never seen anyone else mention it though.

[@BertGrink]

it's the sound of a reel-to-reel tape recorder winding the tape at high speed, with the tape passing close by the playback head.

[@user-vz7mu4su9n]

I'm pretty sure it's the sound of a really old computer from the opening of the million dollar man.

[@user-vz7mu4su9n]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZnSze2B3l6imipo at about 2:12.

[@BertGrink]

@Οδοιπόρος I don't know if you have actually used a reel-to-reel tapedeck, but I have used many different ones since 1977, and i'm willing to stake my life, my reputation (such as it is), and everything I own on it being the sound of such a machine fast-winding a tape. Please listen to this video starting at 13:07 and notice how perfectly the sound matches the deck shown. I will grant that there is some similarity between the sound you refer to, and the sound we hear but I am 100% certain that is *IS* in fact a tapdeck.

[@nickwallette6201]

It's just digital noise. It's the kind of thing you get through the audio output of a less than perfectly shielded sound card (or onboard audio on a motherboard or laptop) while doing something else on the computer, like moving the mouse around or accessing something on the hard drive.

[@jeepstermario9912]

I was a lineman and you dont clip on the wire in those times, you opened a box that was located up on the pole it was a service box. it had lines for every house in the surrounding block or neighborhood you select a house in the neighborhood and clip on and send a signal by pushing the button to test the phone if they sad it was not working or if its a new install dial it up. as well if you double tapped the button you got the operator. at least ours did and min was touch tone orange and the keypad wos on the back of the phone and it clipped on my tool belt

[@petelamb1493]

I also was a BT linesman, and I never used one of these clumsy items. You wanted as little weight and bulk up a pole as possible, and I always had a one-piece handset hanging on belt or in a tool bag. My early one had a dial, later a keypad. I only ever saw jointers and cable-gangs in manholes using those monsters! They would bash them about so they needed to be sturdy. We always tried to get hold of a Telephone Exchange issue handset - made of solid rubber. A real trophy phone for a mere linesman....( I've still got mine.)

[@RichSDet]

We used TA-50’s in the us army with a crank on the side to generate the”ring”. Of course we had loads of fun telling newbies to hold the wires while another soldier would crank the phone. Yeoww! They put out quite high voltage , around 110 if I remember. Basically the same thing as what you’ve got there but without the battery and the handcrank.

[@synchro505]

Quite a handy device. Love the rotary dial and that mechanical buzz the ringer makes.

[@11679MRT]

They could have used that on Green Acres.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

I grew up with rotary phones....

[@blueribb99]

We had candle stick phones throughout our house in the 1950's and 60's. They were converted to intercoms by my dad. The dials were removed and a button was installed. They're long gone now - I think my dad sold the phones in the 70's or 80's when he heard their value was increasing.

[@TimHollingworth]

Good to see the green linesman phone again! I used to have one years ago. Off to the deepest darkest part of the garage now to see if I still have it, somewhere! - By the way the bell icon was set to occasional! I soon fixed that as it didn't show up in my notification either. - Check to see if the bell icon has a "ringing" effect on it (a line either side of the bell mine didn't.)

[@flybobbie1449]

After a nuclear attack these phones would come in useful.

[@kcuhc84]

I understand one of these units was left on the moon in 1969 and they ran out of cable on the way back. Just a Russian Rumor I'm sure.

[@richierex]

No. The Russians used 2 tin cans and a length of string. It was the string that ran out

[@xaenon]

It's Thanksgiving Day here in the United States, and I'm thankful for channels like Techmoan's. I am absolutely fascinated with old technology, and any day Techmoan posts a new video is a good day indeed.

[@DRDCC]

I felt like a kid again. So much fun watching this. You in the garden was priceless. Thanks.

[@allanadam4553]

Good for parents to! Give one to your child when they go outside to play with 500m of phone line. Can call them back for dinner and you know they aren’t further than 500m from home👍😂

[@andymadden8183]

*too

[@cyxceven]

OK, but can you phone phreak with them?

[@arbutuswatcher]

Yes, but you'd need an external DTMF (Touch Tone) Pad, and a respectable cord with alligator (not crocodile) clips.

[@buddyclem7328]

The only way to do real phone phreaking now is to go to a country that still has analog electromechanical phone switching. I think there are a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa still.

[@StephanWahlen]

I got a similar intercom when i was a kid from german (possibly gdr) forces. My dad got them back from work. We used them for days and ran wires from my room to my brothers and had fun.. ah these childhood memories

[@gonzo_the_great1675]

The terminal posts have a bed of nails in them. So you don't need to bare the ends of the wires, just poke them in and screw down till you get a connection. I brought a few of these for exactly this purpose. But ended up just connecting the intercom line to the POTS line and have these in the workshops as phones. (Even have one on a SIP adaptor, running through Asterisk.)

[@l0wpass]

Love your videos. Happy to be a patreon. But if I'm honest, the picture in picture is a bit discombobulating in this one.

[@Techmoan]

I won’t be doing it again. This video was rubbish.

[@Trispefear]

Techmoan I think the effect was neat

[@planetX15]

Techmoan I really like the shirt

[@mikecowen6507]

Techmoan Mat, I think it's *very* useful angle for doing inserts, but the visible screen itself could be distracting for some. I'm used to having worked in a studio for a number of years, so for me, so looking at a wall with 30 screens doesn't faze me.

[@unfa00]

I really enjoyed this video! Though the latency of the display was a bit off-putting I must say.

[@numbers9to0]

☎...................................................................................☎

[@U014B]

🥫________________________________🥫

[@nmmm2000]

When I was in the army, we used similar phones. They were Bulgarian made with lots of Russian parts. Phone called TAP - Telephon Aparat Polevi (means Phone for field). It was local / central battery only. There were no dialer, but there were magnito-inductor. I was told there is a dialer as add-on, but I never saw one. Also microphone was Differential dynamic microphone - very cool Russian piece of technology, still have one of these around.

[@GarrardAT6]

Identical unit to a GPO Tele 704B known to the engineers as a Tapper. The later BT tone dailing version was a yellow Tele 286A. We used to use them on a spare pair of wires in a cable (Or one wire and earth) to talk to each other while doing cable length changeovers, or from the Exchange to a colleague outside at a PCP, joint or Pole while doing Exchange diverts etc. No mobile phones back then. We always used them with a headset with one ear piece,Tapper to one ear, oscillator or amplifier on the other ear. Both hands were needed to twist, crimp or machine joint. We rarely used them to test or talk on live circuits...For that you use your Butt (Tele 282 282A) which couldn't power a line and was basically a phone with crocodile clips on. Push the ring button on that fine old Tapper and hold on to the wires...It will wake you up nicely...haha!!!

[@retardgroove]

In the US we call them 'butt sets'. Retired Lineman.

[@Rompler_Rocco]

I vote this "through the window" segment as Techmoan's MOST RANDOM SHOT.. Anyone with me? Other contenders?

[@AeroModule]

It wasn't at all random. It was on purpose.

[@Rompler_Rocco]

@@AeroModule Touché! I used incorrect grammar. I meant quirky / unexpected, as any planned shot is unrandom.

[@maineboy1979]

My grandparents had a telephone-based intercom system exactly as you described in your video: my grandfather had an ancient hand-crank telephone in his workshop (a separate building 20 to 30 meters from the house), and there was another ancient hand-crank telephone in the kitchen of the house. Both were powered by D-cell batteries. I loved to play with them when I was a kid. :)

[@Chrissy4605]

From the late '50s to the late '70s this was the line technicians field telephone. After 1979 the Butt set came into service made by Harris Dracon. CB on that fieldset was Case Battery. LB was Line battery. As for LB, the power was derived from 24VDC carried across the signal lines.

[@pancudowny]

Never heard that Glen Campbell song, but I did hear about the Native American who got a job installing electric lighting in outhouses on government land he grew-up on... he became the first "Indian" to wire a head for a reservation!😄

[@fixman88]

...take your upvote.

[@alexquant1335]

Quit stalking 8bit Guy!

[@Jerbod2]

@@staticfanatic Haha that's hilarious.

[@realJoshiBOI]

I always love watching videos about technology, whether they're yours or someone else's, but I mostly watch yours. Keep finding new things to make vids about :)

[@ishouldgetalif3]

heeh, reminds me that time when our dad bought a crate of old Ericsson landline phones off a mil surp auction once. my brother, and my cousin next door legit ran phone lines from our rooms to each other. worked surprisingly well! and saved us phone bills too! :D

[@Jacksirrom]

the future of post-brexit telecommunications technology.

[@varikvalefor]

Keep making videos in the same way. Your enthusiasm is wonderful.

[@WARDANT1]

As a kid I had a pair of field telephones. My dad being ex army acquired from a quarter master friend. The telephones were in steel cases & did not have a dialler. To ring you cranked a handle. The cases contained batteries for maintaining the call, but the ring was generated by a dynamo. Us small boys were fascinated by the ability to give ourselves electric shocks by placing our fingers across the wire contacts when winding the handle. For some reason when I was around 13 my cousin persuaded me to sell them to him for a pittance; something I still regret.

[@tonyknight3690]

I was a lineman in the Royal Signals and we where using these in the nineties, we used them with a UNIT LOCAL SWITCHBOARD 16 EXTNS.

[@noelj62]

The sound of the rotary dial and the pick up switch are so relaxing.

[@tonybuttifant9422]

The pulse dialling reminds me that when as a kid, parents put a phone lock on the dial so you couldn't dial out and waste the phone. So what we used to do was tap the number out on the little knobs under the handset. This would mimic the pulser and enable you to make a call. Secondly, an elderly army friend gave me some of these from ww2, the issue was that a line could break, so what you would do is twist the two wires together, and with two metal stakes, use the earth as a return. Surprisingly it worked - albeit a bit quieter.

[@fraggit]

I was using, and still have, a "Tapper" in the late 80's into the 90's, when I worked for British Telecom. My "Tapper" was the same as you have there, green with dial. I also still have the later push button more square yellow one. Brings back memories of conversations you used to "not" hear :) Happy days. Thanks for the video.

[@chikkn]

Another great video techmoan you really do a great job researching and putting these together.

[@1inDnile]

as ever great video, thanks I too had wires all over the house and intercoms, still like them today in my late sixties. I always wanted one of those office intercoms on my desk too with the switches on and built in speakers.

[@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21]

We use one of these for checking landline faults on 2-way radio systems. The fact yours is a Pye made one tells me is was intended for 2-way radio landline tests rather than general telephone use. Pye were huge in UK 2-way radio from the 50's until selling out to Philips in the late 80's & subsequently Simoco in the late 90's. Richard (UK)

[@freesaxon6835]

Matt you have have exactly the same techie mindset / interest as I do, as a youngster In the days of old bare copper wire telephones I threw a couple of leads over the local telephone line, and connected a telephone up, and it worked just like a shared ' party line'. Great video 😎

[@ShokaLion]

This is the first time I've encountered a video not coming up on my subscriber feed page. Just double checked, and no, Techmoan's listed videos are the Mission Impossible video first, then Audities 3, I only knew of this one because I clicked on Techmoan's page directly. Very cool video. Side trivia note, when you see those old phones on old time films, where someone picks up the handset and winds that handle, what the winding of the handle is doing is generating power which then rings the bell at the other end.