[BC] putting phone calls on the air

[Lane Radiolanes]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rockwell Smith" <rockwell at rmci.net>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: [BC] putting phone calls on the air


> It seems to me it was more regulation than technology.  While the
> sophisticated hybrids we use today were not available back then, it was
> really quite easy to successfully put a call on the air using the simple
> canceling available in a the network in a normal phone, which brought the
> "near end" volume down to a level it didn't overpower the "far end" audio.
> My "hands on" knowledge only goes back to the early 60's, but various
> techniques had been around for quite some time then that made coupling a
> phone into the air mixer quite simple and satisfactory.  I have a Western
> Electric catalog from 1950 where the "recorder interface" was available,
and
> I know many stations used that exact interface for many years to get phone
> audio on the air.

I recall calling them "Beeper Boxes"  We built a hybrid out of a 111C repeat
coil and a cap, fed mic and program less phone feed (before they called it
mix-minus), back down the pots line. Ma Bell was not happy when they first
saw it.

Lane