No more coal power stations

[RWD3M]

So similar to very old phones needing a DTMF adapter fitted so they can work on the current system?

As an aside, mobile phones have been widely available now for 30 years at least, the old people that struggle to use them weren't old back then. Don't fear change.

You make a fair point, but the mobile phone nowadays is a very different beast to what it was back then!

I'm all in favour of change for the better, but not just for the sake of change.

 

[cheb]

It wasn't that different, you pick up the device, dial a number and speak if it's answered.

I'd class myself as a slow adopter, wait until the early faults and peeves have been sorted and just use it.

 

[RWD3M]

It wasn't that different, you pick up the device, dial a number and speak if it's answered.

And that was all you could do!

 

[brightspark]

And that was all you could do!

texts and mucky picture - jokes

 

[cheb]

I was chatting to a friend today who is much younger than me. He grew up in house without broadband, the poor thing.

 

[addjunkie]

I was chatting to a friend today, they are much younger than me. He grew up in house without broadband, the poor wee thing.

Next he’ll be telling you ha had to do with out sky tv so his parents could send him to an expensive school!

 

[brightspark]

I was chatting to a friend today who is much younger than me. He grew up in house without broadband, the poor thing.

never had a puter till i was 25 no mobile phone till i was 40 and that was a nokia 101 belonging to the firm i did callouts for

 

[RWD3M]

never had a puter till i was 25 no mobile phone till i was 40 and that was a nokia 101 belonging to the firm i did callouts for

That got me thinking, I was 43, and again, a company phone, a Nokia 6310!

 

[optima21]

You make a fair point, but the mobile phone nowadays is a very different beast to what it was back then!

yeah Ive just got another one so I can listen to the radio while Im working, take photos or what Im making and use it as a calcluator...... the one thing it doesnt have in it is a sim card as I dont want to be disturbed, and my normal mobile wont get damaged when Im "working"

 

[cheb]

texts and mucky picture - jokes

Don't forget the mucky pictures made using only letters and punctuation marks. Works of art they were.

 

[minimutly]

and speaking of power cuts in America, it is off topic, but it would be rude not to post a video of James Burkes Connections from the 1970's about a powercut that went all across America. He has a way with words on his documentaries.

Question for the clever ones - who wrote and sang the song based on this power cut - if I recal the line was "747 coming out of the night", or something like that.
I know cos I googlied it last Saturday - isn't that spooky?

 

[MetalMonkey]

So similar to very old phones needing a DTMF adapter fitted so they can work on the current system?

As an aside, mobile phones have been widely available now for 30 years at least, the old people that struggle to use them weren't old back then. Don't fear change.

Old (pulse) phones still work on the current phone system, as it still supports pulse dialling (until they switch over, of course). You don't even need a functioning dial, you can dial a number using just the hook.
Obviously you can't use it for accessing services which require DTMF tones.

If you are talking about pulse-to-tone converters, I believe they are usually powered by the telephone line.
For using VoIP you will need an adapter which plugs into the mains, and then this will provide the power to your current handset. Or you can just buy a one of their VoIP phone (digital voice) handsets.
Not too sure what the situation with third party handsets is, but I assume they will come in time if they aren't already available.

The main drawback is, apart from all the extra equipment you have to find somewhere to put, that you won't be able to dial out in a powercut.
Which means you will need a mobile (and signal) or an alternative power supply in cases of emergency.
I also suspect it won't deal very well with a very poor quality line, but we shall have to see.

 

[minimutly]

Oh, and for @Wozzaaah , appologies if my post was political and needed deleting (it was political), but I have noticed that some political posts are tollerated, depending on which side of the fence they come from...

 

[minimutly]

Old (pulse) phones still work on the current phone system, as it still supports pulse dialling (until they switch over, of course). You don't even need a functioning dial, you can dial a number using just the hook.
Obviously you can't use it for accessing services which require DTMF tones.

If you are talking about pulse-to-tone converters, I believe they are usually powered by the telephone line.
For using VoIP you will need an adapter which plugs into the mains, and then this will provide the power to your current handset. Or you can just buy a one of their VoIP phone (digital voice) handsets.
Not too sure what the situation with third party handsets is, but I assume they will come in time if they aren't already available.

The main drawback is, apart from all the extra equipment you have to find somewhere to put, that you won't be able to dial out in a powercut.
Which means you will need a mobile (and signal) or an alternative power supply in cases of emergency.
I also suspect it won't deal very well with a very poor quality line, but we shall have to see.

This only works until they do away with it in your area - it's very much started here - Yealink voip is the new norm in the dim and dark areas of West Wales...

 

[pawsnizzy]

Question for the clever ones - who wrote and sang the song based on this power cut - if I recal the line was "747 coming out of the night", or something like that.
I know cos I googlied it last Saturday - isn't that spooky?

Saxon 'Strangers in the Night'

 

[Greeves246]

You're clearly overestimating the stability of the UK's grid system, as we are averaging at least one of those a month in my village.

You might say I’m paranoid but it’s a coincidence that a leaflet from SP Energy Networks “preparing for a power cut” has just come through the door.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Oh, and for @Wozzaaah , appologies if my post was political and needed deleting (it was political), but I have noticed that some political posts are tollerated, depending on which side of the fence they come from...

No, it’s just because we don’t spot them. We can’t see everything but a thread like this gets our attention right from the start. Please report them so we can deal with them. Thanks.

 

[Martin Hocking]

I don’t know anything about batteries other than where to find them in Tesco, but my uncle used to work for BT back when someone with a briefcase used to tap you on the shoulder at the exchange and move you out of the way to listen to persons of interest.

We had a conversation a while back about the change over from analogue. I don’t know if this was one of the reasons they used them but he said that the dc current used to do something called ‘DC wetting’ which basically stopped the connections from furring up with corrosion.

 

[jmp49]

The only thing about old phones I'll really miss is SS7 exchanges. All those free international calls from dtfm dialers.
The same people still listen in on calls, except now they sit in a donut shaped building in cheltenham (and have done for well over a decade now), and tap into the call server remotely and put a LI link on remotely. Its all digital no matter how you dialed once it hits the 21CN core.

 

[cheb]

You might say I’m paranoid but it’s a coincidence that a leaflet from SP Energy Networks “preparing for a power cut” has just come through the door.

I had one of those from some organisation, Fire and Rescue I think. The first line was basically 'If the power goes off your electrical devices might not work'