Crusty Old Joe's Place

The Norfolk & Carolina Telephone & Telegraph Companies

Hickory

2005

1986 topo map

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A few interesting spots in the Hickory Exchange area

Rte 168 and the railroad cross the Northwest River

This might be part of the navy communications facility.

NPA 757
NXX 421, 432
V&H Coordinates
 Vertical   05949
 Horizontal 01183  
Converted
 Latitude   36.6286
 Longitude -76.2081
Central Office HICKORY 
 2756 SOUTH BATTLEFIELD BLVD (Rte 168)
 CHESAPEAKE VA  23322  
CBSA 47260
 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC Metropolitan Statistical Area
Rate Center - NRFOLKZON6
Switch HCKRVAXARS0
Type Northern Telecom DMS Remote Switching Center  
CO Features
AA BA DA DD GC GD GE GG GJ GM GN GR HB HD II TG TU UA UG 

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1970-1980

Hickory is in the city of Chesapeake Virginia. (Before Chesapeake was formed the area was Norfolk County.) It is the first CO you get to when you cross into Virginia from Moyock North Carolina. I think a portion of Virginia Beach, west of the North Landing River was served by the Hickory CO.

The CO was built sometime before 1970. It was equipped with AE Strowger switches controlled by an AE 101 director. Hickory is part of the Norfolk metro calling area.

The Navy's Northwest communications facility is served by the Hickory exchange.

Hickory was host to N&CT&T's microwave repeater for the Elizabeth City to Norfolk intertoll route. The radios were Lenkurt 78 on the 6 GHz band. The antennas were on the roof of the building with passive reflectors on the tower.

Some circuits were still on the open wire until about 1978 using O carrier on the open-wire line which extended from the Hickory CO to the Camden end of the Pasquotank River bridge at Elizabeth City NC. At Hickory these circuits did not break down to VF but were group converted to N cable carrier which N&CT&T carried almost to the C&P South Norfolk office. There were two N carrier repeater huts about equally spaced between Hickory and Great Bridge and the other between Great Bridge and South Norfolk. All the metro EAS for Hickory and Great Bridge used this same N carrier route.

Hickory also had two channels of WeCo H carrier to Elizabeth City for repair service trunks. (Note: The H carrier terminals might have been in Great Bridge, but for certain were on the open-wire line to Elizabeth City.)

Eventually I was able to connect a Hickory number to a spare OW pair and provided a Norfolk metro number to our test board in Elizabeth City. This was not sanctioned but was enjoyed by many supervisors.

(I don't remember how the EAS circuits ran from Great Bridge to Hickory. This might have been because I worked on carrier and they could have been on cable pairs.)

The Battlefield CO was built late in my tenure, just before 1979.