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declared that they " are and have since their
inception been unreasonable, unlawful, and
unreasonably discriminatory..... The " Carterfone"
decision, then, declares that phone
patches are (and have always been) legal, if
they do not harm the telephone equipment.
This -tecision, and tariffs effective January
I, 1969, ( more on this later) have caused the
ARRL to change its mind and allow phone
patches as "legal" traffic. But , as might be
expected, the telephone company does not
appreciate the FCC decision. " Mot her Bell"
will lose a lot of money if customers go elsewhere
for Teletype interface, facsimile, and
data transmission equipment. The telephone
company has appealed the decision- or at
least a part o f it -in a New York a ppeals
court. This action is mostly intended to prevent
suits by Cart er and others, and doesn't
appear to be intended to overturn the entire
FCC decision.
It seems that AT&T intends to get the
most mileage from the part of the FCC decision
which says " We are not holding that
the telephone companies may not prevent
the use of devices which actually cause harm
or...set up reasonable standards to be met..;"
Und er this part of the decision, AT&T cou ld
file a tariff requiring inspection and approval
of any connected devi ce (including phone
patches) by the local telephone compa ny.
This procedure has been in effect for some
time to allow customer use of the customer's
own telephone instrument as an extension.
Inspection of the extra or " decorator"
phones o ften costs $ 10 or more. Checking
a phone patch would probably cost so much,
or take so much paperwork, that the average
ham wouldn't bot her.
The move which prompted ARRL's acceptance
of phone patches was the AT&T tariff
(FCC) Number 263, which was effective January
I , 1969. This tariff has, in turn, been
"reproduced" by the tel ephone operating
companies and filed with state regulating agencies.
The provisions quoted below are
from Mountain States Telephone a nd Telegraph
Co. General Exchange Tariff for New
Mexico, Section 17, Part 12, effective January
6, 1969. The FCC tariff, and other local
tariffs, are alm ost identical.
Connec tion with customer-provided Equipment
and Facilities....Certain customer-provided
voice transmitting and/or receiving
terminal equipment may be connected to the
Excha nge and Long Distan ce Message Telecom
munica tions networks at the regulations,
rates. and charges specified herein.
...May be connected through a Telephone
Company network control signaling unit at
the following rat es and charges: Connecting
arrangeme nt. for co nnection of customerprovided
voice transmitting and/or receiving
equipment (i ncluding switchhook control
key). each (QKT) 5 .50 monthly. Mainte n­
ance service ca ll resulting from custome r­
provided equipme nt, each 5 10.
This "QKT" connecting arrangement is
rather simple. The " network control signaling
unit" is a slightly-modified telephone instrument.
A special switchhook key is provided
. One of the buttons in the telephone
cradle may be lifted and locked into place,
which will cut out the telephone transmitter
element and switch in a special set of coils
hooked to the " QKT" jack.
The Electronic Industries Association has
called the "network co ntrol signaling unit"
provision of the tariff " common carrier
featherbedding." The prov ision means that
the customer cannot provide his own means
of dialing, impedance matching, or answering
o f calls. Wh ile this provision will not bother
most hams, some of us like to provide our
o wn dialing arrangements. In addition, no
matter how good your patch is technically,
even if it is better than telephone contpo-iv
equipment (and many are), the company
won't trust it.
The 50 cent monthly charge seems reasonable,
although it does add up to $6 a year.
Of course, a one-time instaUation charge is
added (about $6.50), as well as the monthly
cost for the extension phone if the one in the
shack isn't the only one in the house.
The " maintenance service call" provision
of the tariff means that any trouble caused
by your phone patch will cost you $10. If
you complain about your telephone service,
and the cause is really your patch , it's your
$10. If it's the fault of the telephone company,
there is no charge. And , of co urse, if
your patch causes problems which bring an
unasked-for knock at the door, this will also
cost you.
The " QKT" jack provides access to a 900­
ohm matching co il wit hin the telephone. For
phone-patch purposes, you can treat this just
like a telephone line, except that you cannot
use it for dialing, and you cannot " answer"
or "hang up" using this line. The 900-ohm
figure probably comes as a surprise to you,
as it did to me. For years, we have been
thinking that line impedance was 600 ohms.
and carefully designing our patches to work
into that fi gure. The old, open-wire telephone
lines were 600 ohms. It came as a great
shock to me to learn that alm ost every sub-
MAY 1969
57