Australian Public Telephone

units

AN OLD PHONE IN HOBART

Most of these phones were originally green although the few remaining phones are often a silver/grey colour.

These phones were manufactured by Anritsu of Japan.

The green phone was found in almost every suburb in Australia. Introduced in the early 1970's. It is a solid metal phone which has been the target of many a coin thief. In the mid 1980's these phones were having their coin boxes stolen at a terrible rate. Telstra has made several modifications to the phones to reduce the incidence of vandalism and theft.

A device called the Kirk Safe has been fitted to many phones to stop people with ramset guns, drills etc from removing the coin box. The Kirk safe is a dramatic improvement in the "armour" of the coin box. The Kirk safe was named after Alan Kirk a Telecom worker who invented them. The Kirk safe was introduced in 1986. Prior to the introduction of the Kirk safe phone coin tins were being stolen regularly. An article in the "Sydney Morning Herald"17/10/1987 page 1 by Jenny Chater describes a particular phone box in Fairfield East, NSW.

The box mentioned had its coin safe stolen twice between Dec 1984 and Jul 1st 1986 (Prior to the fitting of the Kirk safe). In some months in 1986 there were up to 1,200 robbery attempts on phones claims the Sydney Morning Herald.

The coin head (where the coins are inserted) has been modified from the original sloping head to an upright metal plate. This has been done to stop people pouring soft drink into the phone as the drink corrodes the circuit boards and it is very costly to repair the phone.

Sparkers or Clickers (the peizo electric spark guns from ovens, heaters etc) were often use on green phones to trick a free call. This no longer works on many phones as Telstra has modified the phones.

The green phone like the CT3(c) has two keyholes the top one opens the door which has the dial and bell mounted on it. When the door is opened the coin mechanism is located directly in front of you. This swings out on its hinges to expose the main circuit board. The phone line enters the phone from the top and is connected at a small terminal block on the top of the PCB. The bottom key hole is used to open the coin box. Inside the coin box is the coin tin.

The original lime green plastic dials were replaced on most phones with a very nice stainless steel dial. This reduced dial vandalism. Recently a modification has been made by Telstra to give the phones a push button keypad and tone dialling. A black painted metal plate with a keypad is fitted where the old dial used to be. The keypad doesn't have any special keys only 0-9,* and #.

                        ABOVE PHONE HAS KIRK SAFE FITTED

ABOVE PHONE HAS KIRK SAFE AND A KEYPAD

To reduce the number of handsets that were being damaged a reinforced cord was installed on most CT3. This cord is now seen on most outdoor payphones. The reinforced handset cord has been very successful in preventing the handset from being stolen or the cord damaged.

At one time criminals stuffed paper etc into the coin return chutes to catch returned coins. This was largely eliminated by modifying the coin return chute to prevent access.

As at the time of writing it is rare to see any of the green phones. Most have been replaced by card compatible phones.

The CT3 can be immediately recognised by the red coin warning lamp on the left hand front of the phone. Below and to the right of it is a silver button with the instructions "IMPORTANT Do not press button unless intstructed by operator".

Below is a picture of a very unusual varuiant of the CT3.  It is designed to use a loudpeaker!  Note the early use of pushbuttons.  The coiled cord for the handset is also unusual compared to the armoured cords used today.  The coin refund compartment also has the unusual cup modification which "catches" the coins.

CARD\COIN PHONES (CT3c)

The CT3c is readily identified by the grey/silver color (although blue phones are found at railway stations in NSW),keypad and orange backlit LCD. It has evolved from the green phones and incorporates high-tech electronics.

The metal case of the CT3c is from recycled greenphones. The case is simply cleaned re-painted and has a new door (with added bulge) fitted. The phones can be either pulse or tone dialling this can be changed at any time by moving a jumper connector on the pcb inside the door.

The CT3c like the greenphone is held on its mounting bracket or booth by six bolts. Four pass through the back wall of the upper part of the phone and two through the back wall of the coin box.

The main board on the back wall of the phone is the Network board. It has an EPROM type chip on it which contains the software used to run the phone. The CT3c appears to "lock up" when piezoelectric sparkers are used to try and gain free calls, when this happens the phone will display the message "replace handset" even when the handset is on hook. The phone will not report itself out of order when it is "locked up". A technician is required to reset the phone when this occurs.

The modem board is in the door along with the card reader and the LCD. Faults can be diagnosed in the phone by checking its error codes for specific areas in the phone which are believed to be faulty. If no faults/errors are present the phone will display a string of 0's for the particular item being checked.

Power is delivered to the CT3c at 21V AC. The power supplies often used for CT3c phones can deliver 21V at 2A. In many of the phone booths such as the "Heritage" design the power is delivered by a transformer which is also used for powering the fluro light.

These phones will accept a maximum of five coins at any one time and will only refund unused coins. The phones will accept 10,20,50 cent and $1 coins.

CARD ONLY PHONES (CP9)

This phone closely resembles the Anritsu FX7003 IC Card Payphone.

The CP9 is another sophisticated phone. It has many useful features such as the volume control button, redial, memory, and the follow on button. The CP9 accepts only Telstra phonecards. When the phone is opened you will see a series of vertically mounted boards plugged into sockets on the back of the phone. The card reader is encased in the same black plastic housing as the reader in the CT3c. A small container holds the punched holes from the phonecards. When this container is removed the phone will report via DPMS that it's missing. The CP9 is also designed for use with DPMS. The CP9 also uses a 21V AC power supply.

A variation of the CP9 has a keyboard fitted for TTY use by deaf callers. The TTY compatible phones can often be found in major cities. A small stainless draw beneath the phone contains the keyboard.

-text by Henry Titchen. Reproduced with generous permission of author.

Left Fig.33 Right Fig.34

COIN TELEPHONE N0.2: These two basic types are known as Central Office and Melbourne Workshop models, and are very similar in concept. Less than one thousand were build in the early 1970's and used around Melbourne. Two were installed in Sydney experim­entally but were found unsatisfactory. The CT2 was a local call instrument only and was therefore probably obsolete when conceived, even as a complement to the CT1. The CT1 apart from design difficulties and problems associated with vandalism was only suitable for lacal calls or manually assisted trunk calls. The development of the

CT3 by Telecom Australia takes advantage of new technology and innovations is' designed for direct subscriber trunk dialling which automatic networks in Australia now provide.

Fig. 35