And, in a lot of countries south of the border electromechanical switches are still in use.
When the earthquake hit Mexico City it took out the main XYX tandem office!
What is in there now is an ultra modern crossbar switch!
The cellular system operates totally independent of the land lines, in fact there is a surcharge to call any cellphones from the land line system and vis a vis.
99% of all payphones are now on the wireless network.
I worked step switches for 2 years. I'll tell you what, after the first three days of working in a 10,000 line exchange, I woke up in the middle of the night screaming from the migrain headache caused by all the noise. However, the quickest trouble-shooting was always done by "listening to the sound of the switch". You could tell by the sound when a switch was not right. Thanks for the video. :) Gotta check those "C" wipers!! ;)
I had to fix these ancient pieces of junk as late as 1981- for DataPoint. The oldest switch I know of is (was) just off 3rd street in San Francisco- whose sole purpose was Candlestick Park. Strowgers! Argh! The smell of ozone was thick in the air!
@matkovicha has been switched over to a DMS10 remote, if you go to the Phonetrips website you can hear recordings of the step switch in action only months before the replacement was to take place.
@hightechelec piece of junk that still works, not we have these digital switching units and they fail constantly. surely i don't like to many things mechanical but i don't expect the reliability from digital. example the POTS is still the five 9 when it's come to reliability.
I also remember the Step-by-Step Strowger Exchange, particulary the smell! I revisted an exchange that had strowger in 20 odd years ago, replaced by system x - and yep the smell minus the noise is still there!
Please, you video is very beutiful. Don,t not have others videos of exchange telephone automatic? I have a collection of telephone, switching telephone, I thanks for you interesing.
Yes I remember the racks of these in the rooms below the telephone exchange where I worked as a telephonist.The noise in that switch room was constant.
I worked on these switches for over 30 years I did the last sxs extension in ontario (terace bay. Ioved these old central offices
chantry55 4 months ago
I also worked at Datapoint, infoswitch section!
And, in a lot of countries south of the border electromechanical switches are still in use.
When the earthquake hit Mexico City it took out the main XYX tandem office!
What is in there now is an ultra modern crossbar switch!
The cellular system operates totally independent of the land lines, in fact there is a surcharge to call any cellphones from the land line system and vis a vis.
99% of all payphones are now on the wireless network.
Arabhacks 6 months ago
I worked step switches for 2 years. I'll tell you what, after the first three days of working in a 10,000 line exchange, I woke up in the middle of the night screaming from the migrain headache caused by all the noise. However, the quickest trouble-shooting was always done by "listening to the sound of the switch". You could tell by the sound when a switch was not right. Thanks for the video. :) Gotta check those "C" wipers!! ;)
tanglediver 1 year ago
@tanglediver I would love to see a working 10,000 line exchange in action.
wog222 8 months ago
early 1960 I visited two telephone exchanges and saw banks of these switches, it was magic to a young boy.
AbuAvital 1 year ago
I had to fix these ancient pieces of junk as late as 1981- for DataPoint. The oldest switch I know of is (was) just off 3rd street in San Francisco- whose sole purpose was Candlestick Park. Strowgers! Argh! The smell of ozone was thick in the air!
hightechelec 1 year ago
@hightechelec What year was the San Francisco switch from?
Just a few years ago, there were reportedly some in Havana, Cuba still in service which dated from 1912!
In the USA/Canada, I'm told the last working Strowger system was shut down in 2001, unless anyone knows different?
Jamiep84 1 year ago
@Jamiep84 I know there was one operational in Nantes Quebec in 2001, I am not sure of the status now.
matkovicha 1 year ago
@matkovicha has been switched over to a DMS10 remote, if you go to the Phonetrips website you can hear recordings of the step switch in action only months before the replacement was to take place.
JR9979 1 year ago
@hightechelec piece of junk that still works, not we have these digital switching units and they fail constantly. surely i don't like to many things mechanical but i don't expect the reliability from digital. example the POTS is still the five 9 when it's come to reliability.
NerdForMIT 8 months ago
you got some interesting stuff. i have seen these in use long ago before they were removed from service with southwestern bell.
traffety 1 year ago
I also remember the Step-by-Step Strowger Exchange, particulary the smell! I revisted an exchange that had strowger in 20 odd years ago, replaced by system x - and yep the smell minus the noise is still there!
one2nd1 2 years ago
Please, you video is very beutiful. Don,t not have others videos of exchange telephone automatic? I have a collection of telephone, switching telephone, I thanks for you interesing.
emperadorenator 4 years ago
Fascinating. Can you post more?
jtel 4 years ago
Yes I remember the racks of these in the rooms below the telephone exchange where I worked as a telephonist.The noise in that switch room was constant.
bamsywoo 5 years ago