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Rotary Cellphone

justine-haupt.com

91–100 of 172 posts

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#91

European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-dialing receiver is operational in most EU countries.

For someone not familiar with morse or pulse dialing, how does one do that?

You click the handset down, like you are hanging up the phone, but just very briefly.

So think of the cradle switches - what "hangs up" the phone - as a button, and you just click that button (quickly) for '1' and then you pause and hit it twice in very rapid succession for '2' ...

You need to be on a POTS line to do this, of course, but it will work even today. Even if you have no dialing mechanism, you can dial the phone this way ...

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#92
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For someone not familiar with morse or pulse dialing, how does one do that?

You click the handset down, like you are hanging up the phone, but just very briefly. So think of the cradle switches - what "hangs up" the phone - as a button, and you just click that button (quickly) for '1' and then you pause and hit it twice in very rapid succession for '2' ... You need to be on a POTS line to do this, of course, but it will work even today. Even if you have no dialing mechanism, you can dial the…

It's been awhile since I tried it, but isn't it n+1 presses to dial n? So you can dial 0 with one click.

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#93
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You click the handset down, like you are hanging up the phone, but just very briefly. So think of the cradle switches - what "hangs up" the phone - as a button, and you just click that button (quickly) for '1' and then you pause and hit it twice in very rapid succession for '2' ... You need to be on a POTS line to do this, of course, but it will work even today. Even if you have no dialing mechanism, you can dial the…

It's been awhile since I tried it, but isn't it n+1 presses to dial n? So you can dial 0 with one click.

"0" was coded with 10 pulses

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#94
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You click the handset down, like you are hanging up the phone, but just very briefly. So think of the cradle switches - what "hangs up" the phone - as a button, and you just click that button (quickly) for '1' and then you pause and hit it twice in very rapid succession for '2' ... You need to be on a POTS line to do this, of course, but it will work even today. Even if you have no dialing mechanism, you can dial the…

It's been awhile since I tried it, but isn't it n+1 presses to dial n? So you can dial 0 with one click.

No; if you look at an old rotary phone, you're counting the number of finger holes in order to determine pulses.

To dial a 0, pulse the line 10 times.

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#95
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You click the handset down, like you are hanging up the phone, but just very briefly. So think of the cradle switches - what "hangs up" the phone - as a button, and you just click that button (quickly) for '1' and then you pause and hit it twice in very rapid succession for '2' ... You need to be on a POTS line to do this, of course, but it will work even today. Even if you have no dialing mechanism, you can dial the…

It's been awhile since I tried it, but isn't it n+1 presses to dial n? So you can dial 0 with one click.

No, 0 is ten pulses.

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#96

European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-dialing receiver is operational in most EU countries.

There are so many of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_nu... In Europe many of them are variations of 1XX, but since there are so many and sometimes they change too, it's not trivial to remember which one. The American 911 is more memorable, even in Europe, simply due to it appearing in popular culture so often, I hope that if someone dials that one in Europe it'll also get forwarded to…

>In Europe many of them are variations of 1XX, but since there are so many and sometimes they change too, it's just ridiculous to remember them.

Eh? 112 works in the whole EU. As your link says. Of course old legacy numbers also work in many countries.

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#97

European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-dialing receiver is operational in most EU countries.

There are so many of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_nu... In Europe many of them are variations of 1XX, but since there are so many and sometimes they change too, it's not trivial to remember which one. The American 911 is more memorable, even in Europe, simply due to it appearing in popular culture so often, I hope that if someone dials that one in Europe it'll also get forwarded to…

It's almost as if Europe is not a country.

Just like the US, every country in has its own emergency numbers that you should probably know if you're in that country, but for Europe as a whole, 112 is the universal emergency number.

And while 911 might be known to many outside the US, as a number that requires actually navigating the dialing pad, it's not all that great. The UK's 999 or Europe's 112 are far better at being something you can dial while under duress (with 999, as a repeated number, being by far the superior choice here).

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#99
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the good old days, they looked at 111 at an emergency number but it was rejected because it was too easy for the digit 1 to be tapped out by in high winds by wires rubbing together. That's why the UK went with 999 as something memorable, but slow to dial.

AFAIK they changed it to 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3. Sorry. Someone had to.

just take my upvote

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#100

European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-dialing receiver is operational in most EU countries.

If I remember, some old payphones locked the rotary dial after 1 and 2.
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