What am I looking for?

December 16, 2008 4:56 PM

When I used to go visit my aunt who lived in a large house, she had a little console that sat on her kitchen counter with a speaker and a big button. When you'd press the button, it would buzz a similar console in the garage where my uncle worked, and then my aunt could talk to him. He could then hit his button and talk back. I guess it's like those things you see in movies where the executive "buzzes" his secretary. Anyways, what are those things called, because I need one.

I've searched for "two way monitors," but that's not what I'm looking for. It doesn't need to be super fancy like a high-end pair of walkie-talkies (I don't need to alter the broadcasting channels, etc.), but it does need to be able to plug in. What term should I be searching for?

posted by bjork24 to grab bag (21 comments total)

intercom?
posted by libraryhead at 5:00 PM on December 16, 2008

intercom.
posted by peachfuzz at 5:00 PM on December 16, 2008

Intercoms.
posted by ROTFL at 5:01 PM on December 16, 2008

Damn. I feel like an idiot.
posted by bjork24 at 5:09 PM on December 16, 2008 [3 favorites]

Megaphone.
posted by box at 5:23 PM on December 16, 2008 [6 favorites]

Not quite.
posted by bjork24 at 5:25 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

yes it is an intercom. we had one in early sixty's so our mom could monitor the kids room when she was on the other side of the house. vacuum tubes & all. the TV guy set it up
posted by patnok at 5:33 PM on December 16, 2008

Note that, if you have a fairly modern cordless phone (2.4, 5.8ghz, etc), it most likely has intercom functionality.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:05 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

FRS walkie talkies will do the trick, too.
posted by onshi at 6:24 PM on December 16, 2008

My grandparents had these. You can get similar ones from Radio Shack.
posted by jessamyn at 6:49 PM on December 16, 2008

INTERCOM!
oh crap.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:52 PM on December 16, 2008

Just 'cuz I'm old, and late to this party, I need to say "intercom"....

High-tech when I was a kid!
posted by HuronBob at 7:50 PM on December 16, 2008

Im going to second a walkie talkie option, just so you would not have to hard-wire (permamently install) anything. That would be overkill, IMO.
posted by captainsohler at 7:57 PM on December 16, 2008

intercom! is fun to say.
I designed and built one with my dad when I was in high school 35 years ago. Relays as big as vitamin bottles clicking and clacking in an aluminum box in the basement. One base station, four remotes; drew out the logic circuits on extra big graph paper. Intercom!
posted by pointilist at 8:14 PM on December 16, 2008

Howstuffworks has a cool do-it-yourself intercom article here.
posted by media_itoku at 8:48 PM on December 16, 2008

Sheesh, what, is it a bunchakids in here? It's an INTERCOM.
posted by desuetude at 8:55 PM on December 16, 2008

The ones we had when I was a kid required no special wiring at all, they transmitted over the local power circuit. Sounded like an AM radio in a thunderstorm, but they worked over several hundred feet with no special wiring, just plug them in.

I would guess that they have improved the technology in the last 30 years.
posted by Ookseer at 9:36 PM on December 16, 2008

I'm really really old.
posted by thinkpiece at 2:44 AM on December 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

You can always upgrade your phones to a DCT 6 phone set. For $100 or so dollars you can get a set of 3 or 4.

The dct 6 phones have built in intercoms so you can page and talk to each set from one another without using the phone line. A benifit is only the main base sation has to be plugged into a phone line. the others just need power.
posted by majortom1981 at 5:35 AM on December 17, 2008

From the rocking chair, he hits a button. "Get off my lawn, you filthy kids!" and chuckles as the kids look in amazement at the INTERCOM ox hanging by his front door.
posted by cameradv at 6:12 AM on December 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

We had an intercom system that went to just about every room in the house I grew up in. It was great when mom wanted me downstairs for lunch and I was up on the third floor.
posted by hworth at 8:27 AM on December 17, 2008