[VoIP] Introduction

[Richard Lane]

Hello

I've been on the list for about a week and thought I should introduce 
myself.

My name is Richard, I'm an Aussie and I am a self confessed nerd who has 
a interest in old stuff. I work in the IT industry on a normal day and 
have been playing with phones since I was 5. My father was a PMG/Telecom 
Australia tech for 30 years. Some of my fondest memories growing up were 
going to the local telephone exchange on a recall to check it out. I 
still remember the operators on the first floor, the battery room, the 
tone generators, and the racks and racks of gear. When I was about 8 I 
made a set of Christmas lights out of old uniselectors. I still have a 
lot of the old gear in boxes.

Anyway I think all the old step by step and ARK/ARM/ARF exchange gear is 
gone (I was told it was sold to countries like India) and replaced by 
the Ericsson AXE. I would really love to get my hands on a complete 
exchange to setup in the spare room and the shed when I build it but I 
would reckon my chances are low.

So I started to collect old telephones. So far I have a near complete 
set of AWA / STC 802 series telephones (the original colours & unique to 
Aus), one wallphone of the same vintage, and I have just bought a 
bellbox that the PMG converted to a dial phone.

I am keen to get my Asterisk hooked up to the system and bought myself a 
TDM400 card and have a suitable broadband connection. What flavours of 
Linux are people running. I am having all sorts of issues with Debian. I 
am a Linux hack, and my dayjob is normally looking after windoze 
machines, etc.

So G'day from me and I hope to speak to you on the network one day.

Cheers

Rich