>Hello, and thanks for reading this. I'm the moderator of The Telecom
>Digest: for those who havne't read it before, it's an online e-zine
>that appears on Usenet as comp.dcom.telecom. I've Just joined the
>group, and I hope I'll be able to contribute a lot, but my first post
>is one asking for your help.

>This is an unusual question, so please bear with me.

>Once of the Digest's readers has asked for help interfacing a "Local
>Battery/Local Magneto" PBX with the PSTN, and I'm trying to think
>"outside the cubicle", and come up with a solution that doesn't
>require spending a lot of money.

>Here's the situation: there's a rustic vacation setting in Verizon
>territory, where every cabin has an honest-to-god wall phone with a
>magneto crank on the side and a battery in it to power the
>microphone. Yes, pretty much every image of Ma & Pa Kettle applies.

>The cabins are connected to a central cord board, which is, literally,
>the telephone exchange for every building on the property, and which
>_also_ has a magneto and batteries for the operator's headset: just
>imagine a 555 board with a magneto on the side (in fact, that used to
>be an option for 555 boards). The cabins signal the operator with the
>magneto, by cranking the handle when they want to talk to another
>cabin or the office, the restaurant, etc. The operator does the same
>for calls between the cabins (or restaurant, etc.), i.e., (s)he cranks
>the magneto on the switchboard to ring the phone at the destination
>phone. After a call is completed, one of the stations "rings off",
>i.e., cranks the magneto to activate the "drop" flag on the operator's
>console, so that the operator knows it's time to disconnect.

>Now, you're probably wondering why anyone would use such a setup, but
>AFAIK this is a real place, and the equipment is really there and in
>use every day. The Telecom Digest reader I'm trying to help says the
>owners feel
>strongly that the "crank" phones add a distinctive charm to the cabins
>and create an "old timey" atmosphere which is good for business, so
>they are determined to keep the existing equipment. However, they need
>to be able to route calls from the outside world to their cabins, and
>want to be able to originate calls from them, so my reader asked for
>help in finding out what's possible.

>Ergo, I have these questions, and I'd like to hear from Central Office
>technicians and engineers.

>1. Are central office dial tone circuits capable of accepting ring
>   signals from a magneto PBX? In other words, if the PBX in question
>   is attached to a dial tone "trunk", and the operator cranks the
>   magneto, is the CO capable of connecting the call to a Verizon
>   operator? (I know this *can* be done, because I once accidentally
>   cranked a magneto on a surplus field phone that was connected to a
>   dial tone line, and an operator answered, but the question is if it
>   is a regular feature of common central office equipment.)

>2. Are the CO's Verizon uses capable of supporting "Ring down" trunks?
>   Assuming that an ordinary "PBX trunk", i.e., a dial tone line,
>   can't work on a ring-down basis, could Verizon option a circuit
>pack
>   so that it can be done? I'm thinking of "manual service" lines used
>   by paraplegics and others who can't dial a call.

>3. Assuming that options 1 or 2 aren't available, what "work around"
>   is available that would allow the 555 PBX to interface with the
>   PSTN despite it's lack of DC supervision and the need to use
>   ring-down signalling?

>Thanks for your help.

>Bill Horne