[GreenKeys] Teletype Loops

[Tom Hunter]

To Anthony Watson

On what kind of patching to use, I would agree with Harold H. on this one.
In addition to tip/ring jacks I use a lot of tip/ring/sleeve jacks. Like
Harold, I buy 4 x 4 electrical boxes and plates. Usually I mount two rows
of three TRS jacks on them for two loops. If I need more loops, I make more
boxes and mount them side by side. I use cat-5 for four loops.

I am including photos of three of my TRS boxes. The new one I just built
and two older ones.

Sometimes I solder directly other times I use cat-5 plugs and surface mount
jacks - depends on my mood and my junk box.

I have a hundred or more TRS jacks and buy Chinese TRS plugs on eBay from a
U.S seller if I can find one. I buy ten or twenty at a time. I use
2-conductor shielded wire. I ground the boxes and ground the shields to the
Teletypes.

As for many machines on one loop - I am a firm believer in a 120 volt loop
with series resistors and a pot to set it to 60 mils.  You can find
multiple amp 120 VDC power supplies for about $52 on eBay. They must be
ordered from China. One of those would probably run a model 19 or certainly
all the loops you could want. I bought one I am going to hook up one of
these days.

While I have TUs on several loops to monitor my own streams for testing
Teletypes, I also have local DC loops for testing machines with their
keyboards.

By the way, when soldering plugs, never put them in a vice, it will distort
them. I clamp a long frame jack in the vice and put the plug into the jack.
Or plug them into a jack on your electrical box before you mount it. It
will be heavy enough to support the plug while you solder.

Jim Cooper,

While I like your idea of using fence posts. My underground wires run
roughly along a sidewalk with nary a fence post in sight except for the
electric fence running around my raised bed garden for only about a fourth
of the distance.
Kevin Schuchmann,
Good idea but at one end my wires run about 10 feet up to the ceiling,  20
feet across the radio building and back down and the other ends run about
50 feet across the cellar ceiling and up to my den. So it is not practical
to pull either end out. I will look for shorter wires though.


Tom   N3CRK
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