AE Teletrainer

[DavePEI]

Hi Pholks!

I have seen several WE teletrainers, but never an GTE/AE teletrainer.

Well, as of this morning, I am the owner of an GTE/AE WX111A Teletrainer, purchased on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230962406590

It is the control unit only, and I will have to provide my own phones. Does anyone have any Docs, drawings or other information on these?

Dave

[Owain]

There's a - possibly earlier model - here
http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=2649&Itemid=2
slightly strange to think that in 1974 electron tubes and motor-driven cams were used

[AE_Collector]

No, never seen an AE Teletrainer. It is deffinitely AE though, built on an AE 186 or 187 Telephone base. Looks like it is Espresso Brown color, on my computer at least. It seems new enough that modular phone jacks would have existed when it was made yet it has 1/4" phone plug connections for the two telephone sets. I wonder if the telephone sets need to be other than off the shelf models, hopefully not.

Terry

[DavePEI]

No, never seen an AE Teletrainer. It is deffinitely AE though, built on an AE 186 or 187 Telephone base. Looks like it is Espresso Brown color, on my computer at least. It seems new enough that modular phone jacks would have existed when it was made yet it has 1/4" phone plug connections for the two telephone sets. I wonder if the telephone sets need to be other than off the shelf models, hopefully not.

Terry

Hi Terry:

Hopefully not. I will know when I get it here!

Dave

[JohnInWI]

Dave,

I was looking at the Trainer on Ebay as well.  Congratulations on your purchase!  The interesting thing about the unit is that the tag on the back of the unit says made by Automatic Electric  Waukesha, WI!  I never knew the AE had a plant in Waukesha!

-John

[DavePEI]

Dave,

I was looking at the Trainer on Ebay as well.  Congratulations on your purchase!  The interesting thing about the unit is that the tag on the back of the unit says made by Automatic Electric  Waukesha, WI!  I never knew the AE had a plant in Waukesha!

-John

Hi John:

Neither did I. Terry likely would have been aware of it. Now, here's hoping it used standard phones. As Terry said, it is odd that they didn't use modular jacks on it! However, it is nice to have a GTE item which appears to be comparatively rare.

Hopefully someone will have drawings or information on it!

Dave

[AE_Collector]

Neither did I. Terry likely would have been aware of it.

I hadn't noticed that. I am unaware of any AE/GTE plants in Waukesha as well. I wonder if they had an independant electronics manufacturer build them for them using at least some AE parts.

Terry

[DavePEI]

Here is another style of AE teletrainer found on eBay also made in WI:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151021173158

By the way, it might be of interest for some to watch this seller - he appears to have a lot of items from the Heath plant closure! He is in Michigan.

http://tinyurl.com/cx54kqc

Dave

[AE_Collector]

Okay, that's a clue. "Electronic Secretary" was likely a company that AE bought out as that name is associated with quite a few recording devices from AE. I have no idea where they were located but now I could make a guess. This is the sort of stuff that Jeremy is likely to know more about.

Terry

[DavePEI]

From The Rotarian Jun 1962 -- Looky where Electronic Secretary Industries div of GTE was!
This is copyrighted material so I thought it better to provide only a link to the page -
See the advertisement Courtesy Google Books: http://tinyurl.com/bsqfdjv

Corporate History: http://www.etcia.com/history.html

Dave

[AE_Collector]

NEXT. (Mystery needing to be solved)!

Good research Dave!

Terry

[oldphon]

Okay, that's a clue. "Electronic Secretary" was likely a company that AE bought out as that name is associated with quite a few recording devices from AE. I have no idea where they were located but now I could make a guess. This is the sort of stuff that Jeremy is likely to know more about.

Terry

You bet!  Electronic Secretary Industries was located in Waukesha, and purchased at some point by AE / GTE.  They were since bought out by ETC.  The entire history is summarized here:

http://www.etcia.com/history.html

Somewhere I have contact for someone at ETC that I will look for.  They were very helpful in providing scans of old manuals in the past.

[DavePEI]

Ok folks:

My AE Teletrainer arrived today, and bless their little hearts, it came with a schematic inside as it common with AEs.By the way, Terry, the case is black.

It looks as though it uses standard telephones with one exception .  the bell is removed and replaced with a WW-8469-44 = whatever its specs are, I don't know yet, but I can probably tell by measuring the ring voltage. (As measured, ring voltage seems to be 24 VDC on a DVM)

The phone inputs are 1/4" phone jacks, so of course, I will have to terminate the cords of the two connected phones using phone jacks.

A jack is provided for a phone on the left, and one on the right, plus a small jack for the trainer on the front panel. There is an overall gain control, a Ring Left and Ring Right button, which does as expected, and  a  Dial Tone/Busy Tone button under the control of the trainer. An interesting and quite unique device.

So, for posterity, here is a schematic for the AE Teletrainer model WX111:

Dave

[DavePEI]

Hi All:

I have contacted Electronic Tele-Communications, Inc. which spun off from the "Electronic Secretary" branch of GTE when Electronic Secretary's founder George Danner formed his new company. If any information comes from then, I will certainly pass anything interesting on.

This is an interesting instrument, and so far, I haven't found anyone else who has one. If you do have one, please contact me so we can share information!

Dave

[DavePEI]

One ringer option would be to remove the ringer source lead from the rectifier, then take 12 volts off the 7812 and run it through the two ring switches to a 12 volt Black Magic ring generator on each line.This would effectively convert both lines to normal ring voltage, and any phone wired for party line operation would work with it. But, the disadvantage would be cost. I do have one spare 12 volt Black Magic module, but I would need to get a second.

So, if I cannot find a correct DC ringer for it, I will likely go with two dedicated phones, each with a buzzer in it.

Wish the original phones and ringers hadn't gotten separated from it over time!

Dave