Things you dont see anymore

[Spoonz Red E]

Ah, sadly I don't have one of those phones anymore.

They were great props in movies when phone calls were often anxious affairs.
They would dominate a room with the capacity for delivering the shrill 'alarm clock' bell tone to puncture a scene.
Often a cause of anxiety:
e.g. someone in peril tries to make an urgent phone call but has to wait for the mechanism to complete (999 being almost three complete rotations of the dial);
character stares at the phone for the next worrysome call;
the whir and the click of the dial moving as detectives / scientists / angry actors made crucial calls.

Not to mention the severing of the telephone lead or pulling of same from the wall socket or the phone being just out of reach.

You don't get popcorn thrills like that from a mobile.

 

[iscalad]

They were great props in movies when phone calls were often anxious affairs.
They would dominate a room with the capacity for delivering the shrill 'alarm clock' bell tone to puncture a scene.
Often a cause of anxiety:
e.g. someone in peril tries to make an urgent phone call but has to wait for the mechanism to complete (999 being almost three complete rotations of the dial);
character stares at the phone for the next worrysome call;
the whir and the click of the dial moving as detectives / scientists / angry actors made crucial calls.

Not to mention the severing of the telephone lead or pulling of same from the wall socket or the phone being just out of reach.

You don't get popcorn thrills like that from a mobile.

Yes, but you couldn't take photos with them.

 

[Greyhound]

Dial phones.View attachment 6845

I've still got one of those. Just for decoration these days, though. Rather like me.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Just thinking about communicating before mobiles/smart phones for utilities out & about

In the work vans in my industry,we had Westminster Radio sets until 1991

 

[DB9]

Just thinking about communicating before mobiles/smart phones for utilities out & about

In the work vans in my industry,we had Westminster Radio sets until 1991

View attachment 6847View attachment 6848

How good were they Olds?

 

[Spoonz Red E]

Just thinking about communicating before mobiles/smart phones for utilities out & about

In the work vans in my industry,we had Westminster Radio sets until 1991

View attachment 6847View attachment 6848

The good old squelch dial.

Recording studios in the late 70s started using noise gates / compressors / filters etc. a lot.
One studio engineer I knew used to refer to them as all as 'squelches'.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

How good were they Olds?

Not great.

Ok if you were close to the base transmitter at the Depot(20-25 Miles was the range)
There were 4 in Devon.Exeter,Torquay,Plymouth & Barnstaple,a different channel setting for each area.
If you were working in Okehampton you could only get reception from Exeter at the top of the hill by the Army Camp & even then it would depend on atmospherics.Usually if I was working there I used a pay phone every hour to see if there were any gas escapes or urgent work for that area.
Axminster was similarly hit & miss.

Reports of potential gas escapes & other time critical work these days are dispatched to a engineer within a few minutes of being reported.

I know which era I preferred to work in.

 

[DB9]

Not great.

Ok if you were close to the base transmitter at the Depot(20-25 Miles was the range)
There were 4 in Devon.Exeter,Torquay,Plymouth & Barnstaple,a different channel setting for each area.
If you were working in Okehampton you could only get reception from Exeter at the top of the hill by the Army Camp & even then it would depend on atmospherics.Usually if I was working there I used a pay phone every hour to see if there were any gas escapes or urgent work for that area.
Axminster was similarly hit & miss.

Reports of potential gas escapes & other time critical work these days are dispatched to a engineer within a few minutes of being reported.

I know which era I preferred to work in.

Working in such areas in Devon the reception would be hit and miss, Must have been bloody frustrating.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Working in such areas in Devon the reception would be hit and miss, Must have been bloody frustrating.

Not really DB9..You knew no different & there was not the pressure of ‘Standards of Service’ targets.(Which are response times to priority work)

What frustrated me more was when my laptop on which work was issued,played up(1996 onwards) that could be infuriating.

 

[DB9]

Not really DB9..You knew no different & there was not the pressure of ‘Standards of Service’ targets.(Which are response times to priority work)

What frustrated me more was when my laptop on which work was issued,played up(1996 onwards) that could be infuriating.

1996 that's early days for laptops being used for work!