so, what about the old AA5 intercoms?
Bill Noble
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300367175431
I haven't heard anyone talk about this kind of thing - so it got me
wondering - I recall in the 70s removing and plastering over a lot of old
intercoms - it must have been a fad because my house is so tiny that there
is no imaginable reason to have an intercom, much less one with a speaker in
every room - was this brand one of those pyramid scheme type things or a fad
like aluminum siding? was there really a surge in these types of things in
the late 50s that then died out? Is my impression that they are pretty rare
now match what you guys see?
--
Bill -
www.wbnoble.com
Terry S
solid state units, some pretty impressive. Lots of them still in
working condition.
But a nice way to promote your auction, Bill.
Bill Noble
"Terry S" <tschw...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:4cea53fd-c078-4703...@b2g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
> No, I see similar units in houses all over the city. Tube and later
> solid state units, some pretty impressive. Lots of them still in
> working condition.
>
> But a nice way to promote your auction, Bill.
actually, I wasn't trying to promote the auction, I was (am) curious - I
never understood why a little house would need one, I dn't see them any
more, and I decided to dispose of it - why keep it? So the auction provides
a convenient place to put photos. I have installed some newer units, but in
much much larger houses, where it actually makes some sense. I grew up in a
large house but we didn't have one of these things - maybe it's a coastal
thing? I can see an intercom from kitchen to detached garage (but the
original owners didn't do this), but from kitchen to a bedroom 15 to 20 feet
away? or to the front door 10 feet away? what sense does that make?
Michael Black
The neighbors had an intercom forty years ago, though I have no idea
whether it was solid state or tube.
Other than that, I don't remember anyone having them except in apartment
buildings. So I don't know how common they were.
But they were certain all over the place in the hobby magazines. All the
catalog places had them for sale, it was a common construction article,
all the books had schematics for them too. The catalogs seem a defining
point, since why would they all be selling them unless they were selling
(though even then, it doesn't define whether people bought them because
they were available, or they were in the catalogs because there was
demand). It was likely a good construction article since it was just
audio and required a relatively simple audio amplifier, though you'd also
see multistation ones and I seem to recall one that didn't require
pressing a button to talk (an intercom equivalent of the speaker phone),
so they could also provide some variety. I'm sure there was an article
about modifying an AA5 for use as an intercom on the side, and I remember
a CB set that one company sold that included an intercom function.
Surely they were common in movies and tv in the fifties and sixties, all
those offices where the man would press the intercom and say "Sally, can
you come in here now to take a message". Maybe that's where it came from
"hey, that's neat, we can see who's at the door without going
downstairs...". It surely was a "futuristic" thing without a lot of cost,
and yes oddly, something that faded when the future came along. That guy
in the office has his own computer to do his work.
Michael
Pete Bertini
transmitters, using the home's wiring for the signal
distribution. IIRC, they operated in the 300 kHz range.
I wonder if they made interesting listening on sets with
LW reception :)
Pete
Michael Black
Yes, those were definitely popular, no need to string wires.
When I was a kid and first interested in electronics, I worked
my way through whatever there was in the children's library (not
much, and most of it wasn't "electronic" but "electric" complete
with the two-nail hot dog cooker), and then got access to the books
in the adult library. It being 1971, there were still lots of books
leftover from the days of tubes, like a 1950 "Radio Handbook" that I
seemed to be the only one taking out, so I just would take it out again
and again.
One book that somehow especially appealed to me was a book of tube
projects, just a schematic and brief text for each. I think it was
by Rufus P. Turner, complete with a chapter at the beginning about
workshop practices.
And it had exotic items like AC/DC code practice oscillators and
a controlled carrier intercom, but also other things that sent their
signal over the AC line. I must have taken that one out a lot too.
And then at a used book sale a few years ago, I found that very book, and
in good shape. It's always amazing what I do find, that 2.00 Radiotron
Designer's Handbook or the time I found the 1971 ARRL Handbook for fifty
cents (the first one I ever bought and about the second electronic book I
bought, and I foolishly gave it to someone a few years later
when I had the next year's Handbook) and it was in perfect shape, better
than my copy when I let it go decades ago. But generally, I never find
big collections of old electronic books at such sales, it's just one or
two, which then seems to make the finds even more surprising. Why should
I find a book from the fifties that likely wasn't all that unique (but
valuable to me for nostalgia reasons) as the only electronic book at a
sale?
The sad thing is, what happened when those old books left the library?
Did someone who wanted them actually get them, or were they just tossed
as being way too old? I suspect they stayed there for decades, until the
library moved and did a real cleaning.
Michael
Bill Noble
"Michael Black" <et...@ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.64.09...@darkstar.example.net...
> On Sat, 14 Nov 2009, Pete Bertini wrote:
>
>> I imagine most of those were controlled carrier type
>> transmitters, using the home's wiring for the signal
>> distribution. IIRC, they operated in the 300 kHz range.
>> I wonder if they made interesting listening on sets with
>> LW reception :)
>>
> Yes, those were definitely popular, no need to string wires.
>--------------snip------
well, this particular unit, the one that started the discussion, is
definitely of the "wired in" type - you can go to the auction link in the
first post of the thread and there is a picture of the back with the
terminal strip for the remotes - and worse, slide switches to select which
ones are "listen" and which ones are "talk" - the remotes are all just a
speaker and a pot - wires run in the attic crawl space. My house was built
in '47, so this must have been a later add in.
So, what about this brand, "step-saver"??? I haven't found anything listed
yet, though I did stumble over this interesting telephone poster
http://www.porticus.org/bell/the_bell_system_telephone_story.html while
looking. I like the logo - the feminine ankles and skirt bottom - you'd
never see that today.... I guess it's also a good thing fire codes were
different - I'm not sure that today's codes would allow the open chassis
inside the wall - you could take it out and really ZAPPP! your self, and of
course something overheating could possible set a stud on fire -
Engineer
> this radio/intercom came with my house when I bought ithttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300367175431
Interesting, but I have to ask... were these things left on 24/7?
Would be a pain to switch on and wait for warm-up. If left powered
up, I can't imagine the tubes would last very long. Also the power
cost would sure add up over the months... years. Or did one only use
the intercom when the radio was on?
Cheers,
Roger
Jeffrey D Angus
> Interesting, but I have to ask... were these things left on 24/7?
> Would be a pain to switch on and wait for warm-up. If left powered
> up, I can't imagine the tubes would last very long. Also the power
> cost would sure add up over the months... years. Or did one only use
> the intercom when the radio was on?
Nope, they were designed to operate 24/7. Never know when the wife
might want the hubby t come in out of the garage instead of fiddling
with his latest HeathKit.
Jeff
--
�Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.�
Frank Leahy, Head coach, Notre Dame 1941-1954
Michael Black
> Interesting, but I have to ask... were these things left on 24/7?
> Would be a pain to switch on and wait for warm-up. If left powered
> up, I can't imagine the tubes would last very long. Also the power
> cost would sure add up over the months... years. Or did one only use
> the intercom when the radio was on?
> Cheers,
> Roger
>
I think that was the point of combining an intercom with a radio. It
didn't add much in the way of parts, but if you were likely to have a
radio in the kitchen and turned on (and that wasn't uncommon in the old
days), then why not use it as an intercom too?
Before transistors, there wasn't much choice but to leave things on all
the time if you needed it to be ready at all times. Probably some did
just keep the filaments on, or even keep the filaments on at half voltage
(via a diode in series with the AC line, just line "instant-on" tv sets),
so current draw was diminished but it was still available "right now".
Michael
Bill Noble
"Michael Black" <et...@ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.64.09...@darkstar.example.net...
this particular unit has not standby function - it's either on, or off. I
never used it, though I did make it work shortly after moving in, on the
general principle of it all - then later I removed it and just covered the
hole with a more modern AM/FM radio. There was an outside speaker that was
a cheesy little speaker stuffed into a Ford spotlight with a screen grill,
and the whole mess painted white.
sho...@trailing-edge.com
> I haven't heard anyone talk about this kind of thing - so it got me
> wondering - I recall in the 70s removing and plastering over a lot of old
> intercoms - it must have been a fad because my house is so tiny that there
> is no imaginable reason to have an intercom, much less one with a speaker in
> every room - was this brand one of those pyramid scheme type things or a fad
> like aluminum siding? was there really a surge in these types of things in
> the late 50s that then died out? Is my impression that they are pretty rare
> now match what you guys see?
I think that it was pretty much a case of "keeping up with the
Joneses", and the fad wasn't just in the 50's, IMHO it was common up
through the early 70's.
Remember, those were the days of Tom Swift and putting "electric" or
"electronic" or "atomic" in front of anything MADE IT BETTER!
Electric cars, electric trains, here comes a robot with electric
brains!
Tim.
Terry S
very large mansion in St. Paul. The intercom system in that house was
a series of copper pipes called, I believe, "speaking tubes" that ran
from each room down to the kitchen.
Each room was supposed to have a flexible hose with a bakelite horn
attached to the pipe, into which you could speak, or put up to your
ear to listen. All but one or two of those hoses were long gone. It
was great fun to use the system late at night, make ghost noises into
it from the kitchen, and scare the bejeezus out of the other
tenants...
The same house had a dumbwaiter system running from the basement up to
all three floors above ground. Manually operated. We could fit an 8
gallon keg into it.
Growing up in a *much* more modest house, dad installed a FEDTRO brand
intercom system. Fedtro was a line of cheap Japanese imported consumer
product crap marketed in drug stores and the like. $omehow they
managed to get Mickey Mantle to endorse their junk.
This intercom had a master station in the kitchen. Dad ran the wires
up the laundry chute and put a speaker in the hallway upstairs, and
one in the basement. The audio quality was so poor that it was really
much more productive to simply open the laundry chute door, and shout
"dinner's ready" than to try and use the stupid intercom.
Terry.
Michael Black
> As a 20-something, for a short time I rented a room in a very old,
> very large mansion in St. Paul. The intercom system in that house was
> a series of copper pipes called, I believe, "speaking tubes" that ran
> from each room down to the kitchen.
>
Just like in a ship.
So it wasn't a fad that arrived in the fifties, it had existed before
tubes, well before vacuum tubes.
Michael
Jeffrey D Angus
> So it wasn't a fad that arrived in the fifties, it had existed before
> tubes, well before vacuum tubes.
Look for annunciators. Great old stuff used in mansions to
call the staff for various sundry tasks.
Phil Nelson
last year. Complete with radio, clock, and phono option.
http://antiqueradio.org/art/TalkaRadio.jpg
It came with a few speakers. I got as far as verifying that the AA5 inside
works fine, then put it all back in the box. With luck, maybe I can give it
away at next year's swap meet.
The people who built our house were wire-happy. It has a s-s intercom with
AM/FM radio, little intercoms in every bedroom, wiring in other rooms for
speakers. The name Nu-Tone is a giveaway. The radio sounds about as rotten
as you'd imagine. The house also has two large TV antennas in the attic
space, with wiring for antenna jacks in many rooms. An armload of coax
spills down from an upstairs closet ceiling, and I gather there was some
kind of powered distribution unit, since they all hang down next to a power
receptacle mounted halfway up the wall.
An intercom is one of those things that looks good in a list when you sell a
house, but never gets used. Even when our kids were small, it was simpler to
yell "Dinner's ready!" up the stairs.
Phil Nelson
Jeffrey D Angus
> I just remembered this tube "TalkaRadio" which a guy gave me at a swap
> meet last year. Complete with radio, clock, and phono option.
>
> http://antiqueradio.org/art/TalkaRadio.jpg
>
> It came with a few speakers. I got as far as verifying that the AA5
> inside works fine, then put it all back in the box. With luck, maybe I
> can give it away at next year's swap meet.
OOooh, how much to shop to Texas?
Phil Nelson
>
> Jeff
If you're interested, shoot me an email via
http://antiqueradio.org/contact.htm and we can work something out. You
shouldn't have made me look in the box -- it's cooler than I remembered.
Instead of a couple of bare speakers, there are four, with matching wall
panels, each with a slide switch and volume control. I don't know if this
meant Miss McGillicottie could talk back to the boss, or just switch off the
speaker and ignore him.
Phil
Jeffrey D Angus
> If you're interested, shoot me an email via
> http://antiqueradio.org/contact.htm
Done, thankies.