[BC] question for you engineers

[Donna Halper]

At 11:51 PM 12/31/2007, you wrote:

> >When a phone call leaves the local exchange for
> >other exchanges, it's split into separate transmit and receive paths.
>
>A standard channel (1/24 th of a T-1) provides a 64 kbps transmit path
>and a 64 kbps receive path, the same bandwidth in both directions.

Would that have been the state of the art back in the late 1930s?  As 
I understand it, affiliates of NBC had fans of the program (America's 
Town Meeting of the Air) come to the studios to listen as a 
group.  Usually, they just listened and enjoyed the show, with a 
local facilitator to discuss things with.  But sometimes, the show's 
moderator in NY would have a listener's fan letter read on the air, 
and from what I was told, the fan him or herself got to read it. I 
was just trying to figure out how, because the one transcribed show I 
heard, it sounded like pretty good quality for a phone line, assuming 
it was done via telephone.