# In the 70's could simultaneous incoming calls to a house "cancel each other out"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-70s-could-simultaneous-incoming-calls-to-a-house-cancel-each-other-out/360137>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 9, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-70s-could-simultaneous-incoming-calls-to-a-house-cancel-each-other-out/360137 "2006-06-09T23:39:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-70s-could-simultaneous-incoming-calls-to-a-house-cancel-each-other-out/360137/21 "2012-05-15T13:30:33Z")

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> [@Ferd\_Burfel](#):
>
> I don’t know how helpful this will be since it’s anecdotal and I was never successful at it, but there was some sort of anomaly in some circuits that would create a sort of primitive party line chat room of sorts.
> 
> In high school (in the 70’s) we called it the “buzz line”. How it was supposed to work was you would call a number that you knew to be busy or overloaded, typically a radio station’s contest line and instead of getting the typical busy signal, you would be dumped into some sort of phone company void with other callers and could chat among them.
> 
> As I said, I was never successful doing this, but I do remember myself and my friends trying, and I do recall at times dialing the “buzz line” and getting into the void, but never actually talking to someone else in that void.

I remember those! We called them party lines although that term was obviously incorrect. The numbers would spread virully among kids. You could talk on them for twenty seconds maybe before you’d get disconnected.

Another phone company test trick was you could dial 119911 and hang up and then a few seconds later the phone would ring.

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**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-70s-could-simultaneous-incoming-calls-to-a-house-cancel-each-other-out/360137/22 "2012-05-15T15:26:23Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> I know of cases where you would pick up the phone to make a call and someone was already there: they call had gone through, but you picked up the phone before the ringing mechanism started.

I had this happen with a freaky bonus being that the person who was already there was the person I was about to call. Scared the crap out of me.

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