Single line telephone communication system

Claim 2

A communication system for use with a single pair of wires, said single pair of wires having an externally connected segment and an in-house segment, said in-house segment having a plurality of subsets interconnected therewith; said system comprising: means for selectively providing connection between said externally connected segment and said in-house segment; means, interconnected between each said subset and said in-house segment, for establishing direct communication between said subsets, said subset communication means including a plurality of station adapter modules, each said station adapter module being connected between one of said subsets and said in-house segment; and means, associated with each said station adapter module, for identifying said subset associated therewith, each said station adapter module also including means for enabling a call announcer in response to a signal from said subset identifying means, and means for introducing a time-delay before said call announcer is enabled, said delay being at least as long as the time required for all identifiers to be received by said subset identifying means.

Claim 3

System as claimed in claim 1 wherein said subset identifying means includes a dial pulse counter and an externally settable counter output selector whereby a signal is conveyed across said selector only when the selected number of dial pulses are counted by said dial pulse counter.

Claim 4

A communication system for use with a single pair of wires, said single pair of wires having an externally connected segment and an in-house segment, said in-house segment having a plurality of subsets interconnected therewith; said system comprising: means for selectively providing connection between said externally connected segment and said in-house segment; means, interconnected between each said subset and said in-house segment, for establishing direct communication between said subsets, said subset communication means including a plurality of station adapter modules, each said station adapter module being connected between one of said subsets and said in-house segment; and means, associated with each said station adapter module, for identifying said subset associated therewith, each said station adapter module also including, means for enabling a call announcer in response to a signal from said subset identifying means, and means for introducing a time-delay before said call announcer is enabled, said time-delay being longer than the time-delay between consecutive pulses of a rotary dial subset, said time-delay being reset by each said pulse.

Claim 5

A communication system for use with a single pair of wires, said single pair of wires having an externally connected segment and an in-house segment, said in-house segment having a plurality of subsets interconnected therewith; said system comprising: means for selectively providing connection between said externally connected segment and said in-house segment; means, interconnected between each said subset and said in-house segment, for establishing direct communication between said subsets, said subset communication means including a plurality of station adapter modules, each said station adapter module being connected between one of said subsets and said in-house segment; and means, associated with each said station adapter module, for identifying said subset associated therewith, each said station adapter module also including, means for enabling a call announcer in response to a signal from said subset identifying means, and means for introducing a time-delay before said call announcer is enabled, said time-delay being longer than the time-delay between consecutive pulses of a rotary dial subset, said time-delay being reset by each said pulse.

Claim 6

A single-line communication system, comprising: a wiring network consisting of a single pair of wires, said single pair of wires having an externally connected segment and an in-house segment; a plurality of subsets; means, disposed between said externally connected segment and said in-house segment, for selectively providing connection between said externally connected segment and said in-house segment; and a plurality of subset communication means, each disposed between a respective one of said subsets and said in-house segment and connected ony to its respective subset and said in-house segment, for establishing direct communication between selected ones of said subsets through said in-house segment, said subsets being connected only to said subset communication means, each said subset communication means including means for assigning an identifier to its respective subset, means for selectively generating a subset identifier signal corresponding with an identifier assigned to another of said subsets, means for receiving a subset identifier signal, and means responsive to a received subset identifier signal for enabling a call announcer when said received subset identifier signal corresponds to the assigned identifier signal for its respective subset.

Claim 7

A single-line communication system, comprising: a wiring network consisting of a single pair of wires, said single pair of wires having an externally connected segment and an in-house segment; a plurality of subsets; means, disposed between said externally connected segment and said in-house segment, for selectively providing connection between said externally connected segment and said in-house segment; and a plurality of subset communication means, each disposed between a respective one of said subsets and said in-house segment and connected ony to its respective subset and said in-house segment, for establishing direct communication between selected ones of said subsets through said in-house segment, said subsets being connected only to said subset communication means, each said subset communication means including means for assigning an identifier to its respective subset, means for selectively generating a subset identifier signal corresponding with an identifier assigned to another of said subsets, means for receiving a subset identifier signal, and means responsive to a received subset identifier signal for enabling a call announcer when said received subset identifier signal corresponds to the assigned identifier signal for its respective subset.

Claim 8

A system as claimed in claim 4 further comprising: means, in the event of a power loss, for establishing connection between said in-house segment and said externally connected segment.

Claim 9

A system as claimed in claim 4 wherein said means for selectively providing connection between said externally connected segment and said in-house segment comprises means for retaining access to said externally connected segment and simultaneously disconnecting said in-house segment therefrom, whereby a connection to the externally connected segment may be put on hold, and said in-house segment may be used for intercommunications between said subsets.