Test Frame Tuesday - Originating Sender Test 

Thank you for another great video, as a former software test manager I'm absolutely loving this hardware testing series! The thing that amazes me just as much as the technology though is how on earth you manage to keep all this information in your head Sarah, I'm surprised it hasn't gone pop yet! 😄

Thank you for these videos. I was a switchman in the 70's and loved every minute of it. This brings back good memories and very interesting technology. Keep the videos a comin.

That’s very amazing that this much functionality was built in to the exchange to let you step through a test call in progress at such detail. Such an amazing piece of equipment that was invented so long ago. Thank you for this presentation. I love watching these videos. They’ve been quite an eye opener.

Thank you Sarah! I’m a network engineer and it’s amazing to see the similarities between these two worlds in time. “Poking the machine” in a very specific way to test a very specific piece, is absolutely an art form. As you get better and better and learn to to feel the machine’s quirks, you usually get a hunch of where to start and things to try. The manual will have you run step by step through it (no pun lol), but eventually art/intuition kicks in and you can fly. Your overall debugging attitude and methods are hilariously close to mine when something goes wonky in a system. Thanks for another great video! Every time I see a new video it’s a “drop everything and watch” moment lol!

Thank you and please continue with these videos. They are very informative and enducational. It's encouraging that younger people are interested in this technology.

5:04 I love that little dance you did 😄

Looks fun to play with in some ways.

I started my employment with Western Electric in 1963, early February. I never worked in panel or number one crossbar, number five crossbar I ran cable and wiring line links mainly, but I was not satisfied with that. When number one ESS program for started, and I was fortunate to see one being installed in Bridge Street Brooklyn, mid-60s, I said that's for me. Western Electric started sending me to school in Manhattan to learn basics, then in Pennsylvania to learn peripherals and software and Hardware applications, then to Chicago Learning System testing. I continued my education with tsps, traffic service position systems, our systems qualified there as well, then my launcher number for ESS first digital electronic switching system, then number 5 ESS All Digital fiber optic switching. Then I start working and technical support. I appreciate all your videos concerning even step panel and number one and number five crossbar, I never had the opportunity to learn those systems because I got involved with the electronics switching, but you do a great job keep it up, I enjoy when you go step by step in isolating a problem. My Success started when I read a book on half split method. I used to build TVs radios I built my own oscilloscope all sorts of test equipment, and when I was visiting an electronic store I happened to come across that book. It was only 50 cents, but throughout my career I use the methods I learned there in every single system, I might add I was extremely successful doing what I did. But again your methodology showing the public what it takes to isolate and resolve a problem, the general public absolutely has no idea, what a switchman's job or any technician in Communications took. Keep up the work you doing I wish I could visit your Museum, unfortunately I don't have the health required to travel as I used to. God bless you and all your support out there. Today is October 5th I think 2022.

Test Frame Tuesdays are a hit!

Looking at the incredible complexity of this system and all the work that went into testing and maintaining it, it surprises me that anybody except the extremely rich could afford telephone service... and yet by the 1960s it was taken for granted in most middle-class homes...

Thanks again Sarah.

I worked private line in the 70's and 80's. Pretty much the line side of the trunks you are testing. Also did fdm mux between the toll office and the microwave radios for the long haul. Things are so different today with IP telephony. I never would have thought "long distance" would be "free"

Thanks once again Sarah for an engaging and informative video..always a joy to watch.

Ohhh noooooes. I understood everything you said. Does this make me a nerd? I just found this channel and can’t wait to watch the rest. I would have given anything as a kid to get a demo like this.

Thank you for doing these. I've long been interested in the old electromechanical switching equipment. There seems to be a lot of information around about Strowger switches, but not much about crossbar and almost nothing about panel. So I'm really enjoying these videos.

Although not the equipment I worked on My early days as a tech was spent on NEC NC400 CrossBar Very similar to your "No. 1 Crossbar" every time I see the old equipment is the smell and the noise all comes back to me. It was not till after this equipment was cutover to the modern stuff (NEAX61 K,L,M&S and NEAX-61E ancient now) that you could just hear the brains ticking over most often the call markers. It's all In the Manuals and if it is not in the manuals it does not exist!

Do you have a video on how revertive pulsing works?

Is the billing information checked or handled on the test frame?

Very interesting technology back then wow 💙 it

I am still struggling to to understand how unearth you can use relays to do logic. I know there are old computers that are made just using relays, and I think they used telephone relays. That is just amazing to me, as is all this telephone switching equipment. This is all very interesting.

In a post EMP world these systems will still work. In that scenario living in a place where this is your telephone system will be a "good thing". Whether you want to live in such a place though is a decision you need to make today.

For min break and max break, the rest frame presumably needs a calibrated time standard. How is that implemented?

Amazing! Do the test frames also have buttons for A B C D digits as well, or would testing of those tones need to be something else?

I have watched almost all videos on this channel and still don’t get what a marker is 😅

you are amazing

Sarah, could you explain the Diamon(d) Ring Translator? I once seen a bit but it was hard to understand (in the "cyclopedia" [sic], i think) in more layman's terms, I think you are well qualified to help. It's so confusing how a bunch of criss crossed wires weaved in a X can indicate a line number regardless of its placement on what I remember being called the O.E. or was it L.E.N.? sorry I was a service rep in the sop/doe days, and got calls from various plant people asking from further pages into the service order, like the asgm section from assignment. After I went on disability from the company, our proprietary information I wasn't privy to, seemed to become available on the internet, so in my "too much time on my hands" time I began exploring. In Missouri where I previously lived, I found a interesting book that talked about independent telephone companies in the state, which companies they bought, and some about their equipment, I checked the book out many times from the library, in the town in Iowa where I previously lived, I was surprised to see the Iowa version of the book, but being reference, you had to read it there and photocopy interesting parts. Surprisingly as well, that library had no out of town phone books and a weak reference section, and was said to host more than twice the number of books before remodeling. I checked online and no other libraries stack this book. High 5 to you Sarah, I'd love to come see the museum someday, I heard there's some connection to Denver, what do they have? Being on disability I have to consider expenses, and the economy is well "tits up", as a pig farmer would say. 18 MPG and $5:a gallon when 18 months ago it turned $2.07, let alone other prices, and I have to drive 45 miles each way just for the better Walmart. BTW my town, Victor IA, 319-647 (if you want to look up the switch type) has a new switch that handles 4-5 small towns, to me, it offers more features that RBOCs never offered on a 5ESS or DMS. The only thing they don't offer you here.. is a wide calling area, they might have a single office code in further and bigger cities that have nobody to call, south slope customers, but it's like VOIP offices of a smaller company overlapping/ overbuild another companies area.

timewarp

Hey Sarah! I was at the museum today and you showed me and my family your panel system; it was really cool! What are your pronouns? I want to be respectful :)

2nd one to comment.