POTD – Polycom 3xx – Londonderry, NH Fire Department – Central Station

I grew up in this town in part of my young life. I don’t really miss the town that much, but as a kid, I had toured the legendary Central Station of the Londonderry, NH Fire Department. In recent years, the South Fire station built a new base and relocated, and the North Fire station was demolished and became a parking lot for the Senior Center, and was relocated closer to MHT, the large airport north of Boston.

I say legendary for Central because it looked much bigger as a preschooler. As an adult it looks really small. Just look below.

Earlier in the year, I guess they did a 40 minute reel of selling the idea of renovating their department. They even have their own web site, so I guess it passed some town election.

But hey you came here for the phones. In a bathroom!

Guess I’m not the only one right?

And yet I see another (with a Motorola radio, which is understandable.)

On a side note, you may wanted to know how the Town of Londonderry went to VOIP? It goes back all the way to the year 2000, when the town’s board, the Town Council, out of plain silliness approved for a 10 year, $1 million dollar contract with Verizon, the RBOC for New Hampshire for the time… for what?  Centrex contract! Ironically the Town used NEC’s Onyx Key based phone systems, so why the need for Centrex?

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POTD: Tick Tock Diner, Midtown Manhattan, NY

If you ever visit the West Side of Manhattan, and you like an awesome breakfast, go to the Tick Tock Diner, underneath the New Yorker on Eighth Ave between West 34th and 35th streets. Or should I say the iconic Art-Deco, classic mid 20th Century style of the Wyndham owned hotel? Anyways, I had a Smore French Toast.  Something along those lines…

Enough with food porn on The Museum, but you wanted to see their phones right?

Left looks like the one for the diner, a NEC set for their Electra line, and a Mitel 5330E VOIP set with a backlit display and perhaps a Gigabit Ethernet connection! This is probably used for the hotel communications, and for the use of room service. I can say Mitel is used at these clusters of hotels, because I stayed in TRYP, and I saw my phones on the front desk…

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POTD: New Hobby Lobby

img9912 This newer version of the NEC Electra Key Telephone was found at a local Hobby Lobby that had recently opened. Hobby Lobby is basically the K-Mart of arts and crafts stores. Their footprint is probably quadrupled compared to an AC Moore or Michaels. Coincidentally the stores that Hobby Lobby filled in my area were former KMart stores. Other stores in the area use this system.