[BC] Getting phones on the air

[Broadcast List]

Donna:

It was ALWAYS technically possible.  The technology existed from the
very beginning.  It was the law that prevented it -- or made it much
harder.  LONG ago as a kid I butchered a phone to do it.  It was not
legal because at the time ALL phones belonged to the phone company,
but a good friend of my father worked for the phone company.  He got
me all kinds of good stuff to play with.

The best way at the time was to butcher a phone or to build up your
own hybrid transformer.  It just wasn't legal to attach it to the
phone line.

The legal way was to use an inductive pickup on the ear piece --
though you COULD acoustically couple a mic -- and acoustically couple
a small speaker into the mouth piece.

Dana:

The inductive pick up could be put under the phone and it would pick
up the field from the hybrid, or put on the ear piece.  They worked
(work) well.  However, I don't see how it would work on an extension
that was on-hook.  The hook-switch uses a double-pole-double-throw
switch that switches the line from the hybrid to the ringer.  MAYBE
it was exciting the ringer solenoid enough to get some audio, but I
cannot imagine how awful that might sound.  I'm sure I have a coupler
buried in the basement somewhere, and I KNOW I have some old phone
sets (including one given to me by the phone guy) so I may be able to
try it.

As an aside, at one station I worked for we modified 4A speakerphones
for recording callers and for putting trusted people on the air.  We
had to reverse our modifications when the "phone company" needed to
get into the studio.  Some of the guys with the really Bell shaped
heads really didn't like us going into THEIR equipment.

--chip

On Jan 6, 2008, at 6:00 AM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

>Message: 18
>Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:22:46 -0500
>From: Donna Halper <dlh at donnahalper.com>
>
>Texas did so, whereupon his call was put on the air.  So, the
>suggestions you good folks offered about how America's Town Meeting
>of the Air might have put callers on the air live... that was in
>1935.  Would the same process have been possible for telephones in
>the late 1920s?