Australia looses another icon.

[73 4V XB]

On October 1st the national time phone number will be switched off forever. I know a lot of younger people have never heard of it but a lot of us older gents used it in our younger years.

It’s the local time, and has been in service for the last 65 years. 1194 and can be called from any phone free of charge. It’s been used to keep track of time clocks at work among many other things. Now with everyone using a mobile phone and having the time set by your provider there’s no use for it anymore.

Have just tried to ring and it’s not answering the reason being is Telstra use the service and the time on my phone is not correct

[Peter B - CV8]

Fond memories indeed, "at the third stroke it will be seven O four and thirty seconds"

[hayseed]

I still use when ever I set a Clock.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Why does it actually need to be shut down? You would think the whole thing is computerised now? What would this service possibly actually cost the supplier?

[DJR-351]

Forgot about that altogether, just dialled and realised it must be at least 25+ years since i last heard Georges voice......

[Trevor 57]

I still use it when we have a power outage. Best way to set the time

[73 4V XB]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

Why does it actually need to be shut down? You would think the whole thing is computerised now? What would this service possibly actually cost the supplier?

From what I caught on the news. It’s in need of rings and bearings. Has been overhauled once before and has been deemed not worth repairing in its current state.
There is a partition going on to save the service that is reported to have ~2,000,000 calls per year, mostly around daylight savings time.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/cons...18-p51ff8.html

[Syndrome]

I always used 1194

[Yellow_Festiva]

2 Million calls a year and they don't want to keep it going?

How bloody intelligent of them.

Scammers call me all the time from a cave in Africa yet the number appears as Sydney or London. I get calls from automated services for polling, surveys, nice Chinese person from the ATO and all computer generated.

But getting a simple recorded msg to say the time after you call a number? Just too bloody hard...

[73 4V XB]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

2 Million calls a year and they don't want to keep it going?

How bloody intelligent of them.

Scammers call me all the time from a cave in Africa yet the number appears as Sydney or London. I get calls from automated services for polling, surveys, nice Chinese person from the ATO and all computer generated.

But getting a simple recorded msg to say the time after you call a number? Just too bloody hard...

One word says it all “Telstra”.

[DJR-351]

Quite a few speaking clocks still in service worldwide.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_clock

[cs123]

The weather is going too. 1196

There used to be a stack of these dial-it services, including Dial a Horoscope, Dial a Hit, Movie hotline. I need to go look at an old whitepages now and find them.

[Franco Cozzo]

I didn't even know this was a thing, there you go hey.

I just called it then, why does it have a British accent?

[FairmontGS]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

I didn't even know this was a thing, there you go hey.

I just called it then, why does it have a British accent?

Because these services come from a time when public speakers were trained in the "BBC" accent. Back when you could actually understand what people were saying

[Whitey-AMG]

Its part of the master plan to turn it into a phone APP with a paid subscription......

[Franco Cozzo]

Yeah, BBC means something entirely different these days

It's interesting looking back at video footage from the 1960s in the USA and Australia, the difference in accent between then and now in both countries.

Obviously 'BBC' accent was in, and the American accent was eloquent too.

Even WWII footage of US politicians there is a clear difference.

[Franco Cozzo]

What's the full phone number? +61 X XXXX 1194

What would it say if you called it from overseas?

[cs123]

Originally Posted by franco cozzo

what's the full phone number? +61 x xxxx 1194

what would it say if you called it from overseas?

在第三次中风

[mick taylor]

All one has to do now is look at the time on your mobile phone nowadays it's always correct, so if you go from QLD and drive over the to the NSW border in daylight saving, the phone will changes time directly.

The time displayed on you phone is always correct nowadays.

[Franco Cozzo]

You've only got just under 2 hours to get your 1194 and 1196 calls in! It goes tonight!!!!!

[Captain Stubing]

I called, and put George on speakerphone for everyone's benefit... as a high school kid I could use any payphone without having any coin, and find out the time. That was Commodore 64 days.

[aussiblue]

Most DAB radios automatically set the time from broadcasts (DAB transmission contains a local time of day and so a device may use this to automatically correct its internal clock when travelling between time zones and when changing to or from Daylight Savings) and for us old Short Wave listeners there are always the time signal stations like:
CHU Canada: 3330 kHz, 7850 kHz, 14670 kHz
BPM China: 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, and 15,000 kHz
HLA South Korea: 5,000 kHz
BSF Taiwan: 5,000 and 15,000 kHz
WWV (Ft. Collins)/WWVH (Hawaii) United States: 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 and 25,000 kHz

See https://swling.com/blog/tag/shortwav...time-stations/ including some recordings.

But George's 1194 was a useful number to call to see if your landline was working.

[arronm]

Just called. Time was10.12 but its 8.42 in perth. No wonder he got the sack

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by mick taylor

All one has to do now is look at the time on your mobile phone nowadays it's always correct, so if you go from QLD and drive over the to the NSW border in daylight saving, the phone will changes time directly.

The time displayed on you phone is always correct nowadays.

I've noticed when you get close to the SA border it changes a few KM before you cross, I'm assuming it's picking up signal from an SA tower rather than a VIC one.

[Fed]

When I was a kid calling the time on a pay phone for free was part of our daily entertainment but that was before they invented television.
Who could forget the pennies rolling down the little slope thing to make a paid call.

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by Fed

When I was a kid calling the time on a pay phone for free was part of our daily entertainment but that was before they invented television.
Who could forget the pennies rolling down the little slope thing to make a paid call.

Carefully folded cardboard up the shute and rapidly press A & B buttons got you enough coin for a medium coke and big bag of lollies back in the day!

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Richard Peach, who provided the voice of the speaking clock, used to be an ABC presenter down this way for quite some years. He passed away in 2008. They had a segment on him and the speaking clock last week on the local ABC station, where they interviewed some of his former colleagues. Was a pretty cool segment.

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by Fed

When I was a kid calling the time on a pay phone for free was part of our daily entertainment but that was before they invented television.
Who could forget the pennies rolling down the little slope thing to make a paid call.

I would dial 116611 to listen to 3MP hit song of the week free.

[73 4V XB]

Well it just so happened tonight. What’s the correct time?
After a power trip due to faulty appliance I’ve lost my clocks. The Sony “smart” TV tells me it’s 9:51, as my IPOS does. My Telstra foon tells me it’s 9:45. I put more trust in the TV than Telstra

[Franco Cozzo]

How are we all coping without our buddy George since his passing? :(