T
Tom Mc
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
When I was growing up in Des Moines IA in the early '80s, the local
Dictograph franchise had an almost total lock on the market. I swear
every third house on my paper route had a local-only G990 setup. Not
sure if this was because they were substantially cheaper than the
competition (who was installing much more advanced equipment) or
because everyone just got what their neighbors had.
Most of the houses in my neighborhood were built in the '60s and had
lots of large casement windows, which were dutifully wired up with
leaf contacts on every single one, but no type of glassbreak
protection whatsoever. Even back then it seemed obvious to me that no
one would take the time to try and pry one of those things open and
would probably just smash it if it was the best point of entry. Their
answer to this was to fashion a makeshift interior loop by wiring N.O.
plungers to the panic circuit to numerous interior doors and adding a
small toggle switch to one of the indoor keyplates to control it. (If
they were indeed a price leader, I suppose it *was* a way to add
another layer of protection with minimal equipment costs.) But
between the interior circuit, non-failsafe arming with a loop LED that
was invisible in direct sunlight, and elderly customers, we had plenty
of false alarms in our neighborhood. And since they all sounded
alike, you never knew whose it was.
Every time I'm back in Des Moines I love seeing how many of those
exterior siren boxes are still hanging on for dear life. (You know
the ones -- the pointy red non-strobe light, or, if the customer was
budget-minded, a red metal plate with the Dictograph logo.) The ones
that weren't painted over at some point in the past 20-some years have
pretty much rusted into oblivion. Amazingly, the loop or armed light
on one house's system is still always lit whenever I drive by. The
loop wiring would probably rot out long before those old relay panels
would ever quit!
Anywho, my question: one house on my paper route had a much more
complicated Dictograph system which even incorporated smoke and heat
detectors. Whenever they'd arm the system at the outdoor keyplate,
the speaker in the exterior box would emit a very faint, very brief
high-pitched tone, and after a second or two, do it again. The system
falsed once while they were out of town for a week, and until they
returned, the speaker emitted that same tone continuously. I thought
maybe the tone during arming was some sort of central station
acknowledgement, but the continuous one? An alarm memory indication?
Anyone know?
Dictograph franchise had an almost total lock on the market. I swear
every third house on my paper route had a local-only G990 setup. Not
sure if this was because they were substantially cheaper than the
competition (who was installing much more advanced equipment) or
because everyone just got what their neighbors had.
Most of the houses in my neighborhood were built in the '60s and had
lots of large casement windows, which were dutifully wired up with
leaf contacts on every single one, but no type of glassbreak
protection whatsoever. Even back then it seemed obvious to me that no
one would take the time to try and pry one of those things open and
would probably just smash it if it was the best point of entry. Their
answer to this was to fashion a makeshift interior loop by wiring N.O.
plungers to the panic circuit to numerous interior doors and adding a
small toggle switch to one of the indoor keyplates to control it. (If
they were indeed a price leader, I suppose it *was* a way to add
another layer of protection with minimal equipment costs.) But
between the interior circuit, non-failsafe arming with a loop LED that
was invisible in direct sunlight, and elderly customers, we had plenty
of false alarms in our neighborhood. And since they all sounded
alike, you never knew whose it was.
Every time I'm back in Des Moines I love seeing how many of those
exterior siren boxes are still hanging on for dear life. (You know
the ones -- the pointy red non-strobe light, or, if the customer was
budget-minded, a red metal plate with the Dictograph logo.) The ones
that weren't painted over at some point in the past 20-some years have
pretty much rusted into oblivion. Amazingly, the loop or armed light
on one house's system is still always lit whenever I drive by. The
loop wiring would probably rot out long before those old relay panels
would ever quit!
Anywho, my question: one house on my paper route had a much more
complicated Dictograph system which even incorporated smoke and heat
detectors. Whenever they'd arm the system at the outdoor keyplate,
the speaker in the exterior box would emit a very faint, very brief
high-pitched tone, and after a second or two, do it again. The system
falsed once while they were out of town for a week, and until they
returned, the speaker emitted that same tone continuously. I thought
maybe the tone during arming was some sort of central station
acknowledgement, but the continuous one? An alarm memory indication?
Anyone know?
