PTI / PALCO Telecom 500 clone

[gpo706]

Done it with Pledge, can't really say its made it lusterous, maybe I didnt use enough elbow grease?

Anyway I've kinda fallen for it and mother is getting used to her push-buttom junk, so its staying on my desk.

Does anyone have alink to a circa 1960's NE dial card I could put in it?

I tried the site with dial cards but it has about 5 NE's and none look quite young enough?

[bingster]

Check out the Western Electric dial cards on that site.  The same cards were used on all Bell System phones, whether they were in the US or Canada.  Any of the all-white cards should be appropriate for the 1960s.

[gpo706]

Thanks for clarifying Bingster.

Scot

[gpo706]

This one is done and dusted (and polished).

New fingerdial arrived from Phoneco earlier in the week, so my red 500 has it original back, the scratched up one from this set is a cosmetically speaking a "write off" but will go in the spares (junk) box, just in case.

I could maybe try another polish with Greygates or similar, but its a working phone on the desk, and other folk have used it without problems, and she looks real nice, this is one of my better buys, basically sound, original dial lables, no circuit problems, just some TLC and a new dial and line cord, well pleased for change from £9 purchase price.

I have the Yellow Pages card in it at the moment, bit balnd but suits the colour.

And PhoneCo posted stuff quicker here than many UK sellers I've bought from.

Expect an avalanche of pics when I get the camera talking to the computer.

[gpo706]

Done and dusted, plugged in an old existing line extension that runs down to the living room, this was disconnect years ago from the POTS as the cable from the POTS terminal to living room developed a fault.

So the end in my room was plugged to the Pana 616 - et viola, this bit of the extension worked - so off it went to the living room as an internal extension on the PBX.

Job done, NICE.

[Tribune]

Interesting phone GPO.

Always like to see something Canadian here, especially if its obscure. Also like the British stuff too though, guess that follows being a Cornishman exiled to Her Majesty's Dominions in North America for the last 7 years!

Anyway, lot of the western and prairie provinces kicked out, excluded or bought out Bell and other independents in the early to mid 20th century and had government-owned telecoms. Here in Alberta we had the province-wide Alberta Government Telephones as well as city-owned operations such as EdTel in Edmonton. In 1990 AGT was sold off and became Telus, Telus buying EdTel from the City of Edmonton in 1995. I'd imagine that Saskatchewan and Manitoba had similar histories of government ownership and privatization. Northern Electric morphed into the electronics and communications giant Nortel and was a real Canadian success story until a couple of years ago when bad financial decisions, poor management, and too-rapid expansion resulted in the company going bankrupt and being split up, the choicest parts being sold off to mostly US firms. Rather sad to see such an iconic company go under.

By the way, I'd be interested in seeing some images of those dial centres from your 500 clone, especially the "TOP- Northern Electric Dial Card"

[gpo706]

Tribune, I revisited this thread after Larry in Michigan sent me an '85 TX as I was getting crackle (very slight) on this.

This ousted the 3-82 TX, I assume as its a clone-set its not really up to the same spec as Larry's replacement. - the inscription reads "75535-1 3-82"

Popped his '85 in and now it's clear as a bell.

I'll dig out some paperclips and my old scanner and post a pic of the card for you over the weekend.