Telecommunication bantam jack module

Claim 1

A telecommunication bantam jack module for mounting in a standard length horizontal shelf of a multi-shelf telecommunication terminal rack and receiving (1) standard single conductor patch cords having single mini-bantam plugs on opposite ends thereof, (2) standard dual conductor patch cords having combined parallel mini-bantam plugs on opposite ends thereof, and (3) standard bantam looping plugs having combined parallel mini-bantam plugs; in which each of the mini-bantam plugs has a standard preset diameter and a standard preset center-to-center distance between combined parallel bantam plugs, wherein the bantam jack module comprises: a housing having a vertically elongated front panel with a plurality of side-by-side columns of vertical spaced apertures; a plurality of vertically oriented bantam jacks mounted side-by-side in the housing; each of said bantam jacks having: (1) a jack frame with an elongated jack face plate extending between upper and lower mounting ends that securely mount the bantam jacks to the front panel and a switch support beam extending rearward of the sleeve section; (2) an input jack sleeve formed integrally with the face plate and extending through one of the front panel apertures and having an internal diameter complementary with the preset diameter of the bantam plugs for receiving a bantam plug therein; (3) an output jack sleeve formed integrally with the face plate and parallel with the input jack sleeve and extending through one of the front panel apertures and having an internal diameter complementary with the preset diameter of the bantam plugs for receiving a bantam plug therein; (4) wherein the center-to-center vertical distance between the input sleeve and the output sleeve is complementary to the preset center-to-center distance between the combined parallel plugs; (5) a plurality of jack switch assemblies mounted on the support beam in which at least one jack switch assembly is aligned with the input sleeve to electrically connect with a bantam plug receive in the input sleeve and in which at least another jack switch assembly is aligned with the output sleeve to electrically connect with a bantam plug receive in the output sleeve; wherein the width of the jack frames and the horizontal center-to-center distance between laterally adjacent input and output sleeves is less than the preset vertical center-to-center distance between the input and output sleeves of the same jack so that the bantam plugs may be inserted in the vertical orientation into the input sleeve and the output sleeve of the same jack, but is prevented from being inserted in the horizontal orientation into input sleeves or output sleeves of adjacent bantam jacks of the module because the horizontal center-to-center distance between the adjacent input sleeves and output sleeves is less than the standard preset center-to-center distance between the bantam plugs.