We also had this gear in my high school, and I found it to be far more durable than the newer
Clear-com and
RTS intercom gear. Those metal beltpacks are nearly indestructible. The way I remember this
system working is that it carried two channels of intercom on a 6-pin
XLR cable (check the number of pins, several times I grabbed a 5-pin
DMX cable from the light booth when I wanted a 6-pin intercom cable.) I always found those connectors nearly impossible for me to solder, but I'm not a great solderer to begin with and with 6-pins it gets kind of tight.
As far as the headsets go, the
Telex PH-1 is identical to the standard single muff headsets supplied originally with these systems (I had to order a new
headset at one
point and it was absolutely identical to the originals, but in better condition.) The fact that they're the same is probably a bad thing, because the headsets were rediculously uncomfortable for anything more than a half hour or so (unlike my absolute favorite Beyerdynamic headsets which are like a pillow.) The actual
headset packs can probably be found used or sent back to
Telex for repair. They are also very easy to take apart, so if you feel comfortable with electronics, the
block diagrams came with the original componenets.
I would encourage you to stick with the
Telex system unless you are willing to convert all the wiring in the
theatre to three pin connectors. I believe that in theory this would mean picking up three of the six conductors and wiring them like a regular 3-pin
XLR. In practice, this would probably be highly unpleasant, as you would have to be realy careful picking the correct conductors out of the six in the wall on all the connectors. You would also be converting it into a single
channel system. I would just advise sticking with the
Telex, because it is good gear and perfect for an environment that's rough on its gear (like high schools and community theatres) because of its extreme durability. Also, remember that
Clear-Com is an unbalanced
system and the generation of
Telex intercom that you're talking about is a balanced intercom
system, so they won't
play together.
That's my two cents and advice.
All the best,
PAtech
