Post #2027519

2025-09-17 20:05 UTC

@alicemcalicepants @leymoo Quite likely the muitple circuits (eg 01 484 5255 with 10 lines which would be known as 01 484 5255/1 to 01 484 5255/10) ended up on something like a key and lamp unit (link below) - they can be set up to forbid the lines communicating with one another, but if the wiring change was not made it would be possible. That might be deliberate for a radio station to get more than one caller to air at the same time without having multiple channels on the desk hybrid (those channel strips aren't cheap and its more work for the broadcast engineers) and/or all 10 keys are left active late at night with fewer staff At some point Capital would have gone to a more modern ACD (automatic call distributor) which would have removed this loophole https://www.britishtelephones.com/klu2a.htm

Replies (1)

@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de 2025-09-17 20:11

@alicemcalicepants @leymoo this makes some sense if you consider how a radio studio got telephone calls to air in the 80s, and what would likely be done to save on having an extra staff member to deal with the key and lamp unit - the hybrid is just a kind of "telephone" that connects to the studio mixer, and if it is left in "seized" mode all the connected lines at the key and lamp unit would be bridged. BT wouldn't have particularly liked it, and there could even be a risk of putting the entire lot of calls to air (unless they were terminated on a hybrid at a studio not in use) (I had to set up hybrids for the community radio station, they are somewhat cursed devices to get and keep running so this is very likely a hack someone at Capital thought up to save time/effort)

Open ##2027520