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Letter Re: My Experience with TA-1042 Field Telephones

I noticed that one of your advertisers is currently selling surplus AN/TA-1042 Digital Non-secure Voice Terminal (DNVT) field telephones. Earlier this year I bought two pair of them and even though I don't have the hard-to-find circuit switch, (AN/TTC-39D) for terminal to terminal dialing, when a pair is interconnected these phones offer super communications. The full duplex audio is clear and crisp over several hundred feet of wire (easily), has a ringer and audio volume control and a ring indicator LED ( flashing for ringing, steady on signifies in-use) for silent mode operation.
I run mine in a local battery configuration: one 12 volt, 17 or 26 amp hour battery per phone with a solar panel and charger controller on the one in my barn. The phones will operate reliably with the battery voltage level around 5.5 VDC although they are designed to function with a voltage range of 5.5 to 28 VDC with a current draw of 50 milliamp. These phones are severely damp proof and quite rugged. They even have a strap for fastening the phone to a pole or tree.
My original plan was to have a net of phones set up at various secured locations around the farm. Without the tactical circuit switch the keypad will not function phone to phone. If one can find a TCS these phones will be transformed from great to incredible. (.They have direct dialing capability addressing up to 240 terminals with four levels of priority over-ride and can even key a radio transmitter for
phone to radio communications). - Joe from Tennessee
JWR Replies: I also think that the TA-1024 is a great design. As someone that was first trained with the older generation TA-1 and TA-312 simplex-only mode field phones, the DNVT generation phones seem very Buck Rogers. As I pointed out in my novel "Patriots", having reliable field telephones is essential to coordinate retreat security in a post-TEOTWAWKI world. For semi-permanent installation, it is best to buy cable that is rated for underground burial ("UB") , to conceal and protect all of your lines. For TA-1042s you will need four conductor cable. (Or two parallel runs of two conductor cable.) Burying your lines will prevent both intentional and unintentional line cuts or breaks. Don't overlook getting a few extra field phones, so that you can run commo wire to your neighbors and coordinate with them as well. The circuit switch that you mentioned (AN/TTC-39D) is sometimes available from Fair Radio Sales. Otherwise, just watch eBay.com for one to come up at auction. The TA-1042 DNVT field telephones themselves are currently available from Ready Made Resources. They sell these field phones in pairs, with a free civilian photovoltaic panel included.

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