Telephony switches - is there anyone out there collecting these? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

27 Jun 2007

...
  Are there people out there, on the list or otherwise,
that 
 are actively collecting these machines? Admittedly, unlike a 
 PDP8 you can use (as Dave McGuire does) on a daily basis, a 
 twelve ton NEAX isn't too 'dramatic' as an attention piece. 
 But, according to my little book here, they tend to be 
 multiprocessor, reel-to-reel storage (as they 'reboot' so 
 infrequently they need a very long-lasting storage medium), 
 all sorts of good stuff.
 And with an average "Mean time between failure of 1 failure 
 in 40 years"... boy, that just speaks for it.

 So, anyone out there have one of these in their... basement? 

I'm into telephony, but not on the CO-sized equipment. I've had many
PBX's in my houses over the years. Everything from an AT&T 1A2 system
(relay based) to an AT&T System 75. Along the way I've had AT&T,
Siemens, Nortel, Lucent, Iwatsu, Mitel, NEC and others.

At this point I'm using a 32 line, 128 station Iwatsu ZTD. I have many
digital (Key) phones for it, operator/programmer consoles, doorphones,
analog and digital (Key) station cards, ringer supplies, relay boards
and lots of other neet options for them. And I have the all-important
documentation to make it run. It's one of these.

http://shorterlink.org/2642  (ebay link)

The only old CO equipment I know of in private hands is a guy in
Pennsylvania that runs a boys camp on a Strowger (relay CO).