AT&T Merlin Phones

Video Description

Taking a look at the AT&T Merlin telephone system. Released in 1983 for small and medium businesses, the Merlin line had a very long life well into the 2000s. We'll take a look at the control units, several Merlin phones, and wire them all up for inter-office calls. Finally we'll fire up a Cisco 2911 to act as a homelab telecom provider and dial out over analog lines. Check me out on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/clabretro Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio #netro #retrotech #retrocomputer #computers #networking #telephony #telephone Serial to USB converter: https://amzn.to/4mAXDlJ Rack stuff StarTech Universal Rack Rails: https://amzn.to/404JV1Q StarTech 42U Rack: https://amzn.to/482c3oh StarTech 25U Rack: https://amzn.to/3mEB7hS Tripp Lite SMART1500LCD UPS: https://amzn.to/3KZW3Jw 1U 24 Port Patch Panel: https://amzn.to/3Nm0bFa 1U Brush Panel: https://amzn.to/3mExAA3 1U Rack Shelf: https://amzn.to/3oaDclT Video gear Camera: https://amzn.to/4al3xjA Main mics: https://amzn.to/4dCUuO2 Desk mic: https://amzn.to/3ye8BsV Note: The above are Amazon affiliate links. It doesn't cost you extra, but I'll receive a commission which will help keep the content coming. I only link to things I've personally ordered. 00:00 Intro 00:39 AT&T Merlin Overview 05:28 Merlin Phones 09:56 Control Units 12:08 Expansion Cartridges 14:42 Powering on the 206 18:02 Hooking up Phones 23:31 Setting up a Cisco 2911 for Outside Lines 28:17 Making Real Calls 32:20 Trying some Expansion Cartridges 35:21 Closing Thoughts