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So, how many W.E. 307's are there???

Started by Babybearjs, October 10, 2013, 04:25:45 PM

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Babybearjs

well, it happend again... I won another W.E. 307A deskset on Ebay last week. phone phone was in great dondition when I got it, all I had to do is clean it up and convert it over to CB service. after putting it all back together, I tested it and got a dial tone nice and strong... took it to church last sinday to show to a friend who didnt show, hopefully she will be there this sunday. She used to be a CO tech for mountain Bell back in the day.... now retired... so, who know just how many 307's are out there? I keep finding them and putting them back together and now I think I have about 7 of them.... they must have been pretty popular because I keep seeing them on Ebay.... Oh well, I have to go.... I have a WE 444E to restore....   John
John

poplar1

Maybe they were more common in Idaho?  Sonny got one from a picker in Nashville two weeks ago, but that's only about the third one I've had access to. 

I'm sure there's someone here who would like to trade you an H-1 (302) for your H-7 (307). There aren't many 307s still around.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

Doug Rose

I have a few manual 307s around if someone is looking to adopt one!
Kidphone

WesternElectricBen

Quote from: Doug Rose on October 10, 2013, 05:30:42 PM
I have a few manual 307s around if someone is looking to adopt one!

What would be the price to adopt? Would I have to pay the state too? haha

Ben

HarrySmith

Quote from: Doug Rose on October 10, 2013, 05:30:42 PM
I have a few manual 307s around if someone is looking to adopt one!
A few Doug ???
A few hundred or a few thousand??
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

unbeldi

#5
Quote from: Babybearjs on October 10, 2013, 04:25:45 PM
well, it happend again... I won another W.E. 307A deskset on Ebay last week. phone phone was in great dondition when I got it, all I had to do is clean it up and convert it over to CB service. after putting it all back together, I tested it and got a dial tone nice and strong... took it to church last sinday to show to a friend who didnt show, hopefully she will be there this sunday. She used to be a CO tech for mountain Bell back in the day.... now retired... so, who know just how many 307's are out there? I keep finding them and putting them back together and now I think I have about 7 of them.... they must have been pretty popular because I keep seeing them on Ebay.... Oh well, I have to go.... I have a WE 444E to restore....   John

I don't understand why one would want to convert a 307 into a 302, it's not a 307 anymore.  The 307 is a local battery talking CB-signaling set for use on very long local loop where the line impedance was too high for sufficient talk battery. Why not display it as intended and add the battery?
There are plenty of 302's around if you want to show off or use a 302.

Frankly, I am looking for 307A or B,  and  E or F.  A and E are manual, B and F are dial versions. But C,D,G,H would be fine too if available.  But it has to be original with the 5 conductor mounting cord. I have asked several sellers about their sets, and they were bastardized already.  Also, it turns out some old-time collectors don't even seem to know the difference, as someone was trying to sell a base with an AA1 housing and four conductor cord as an original 307, just because it had the right base.

Babybearjs

its not so much converting into a 302, but switching it over from local battery to common battery. there is a unused jumper on the "C" terminal and you take that jumper and connect it from C to BL on the induction coil and then take the black receiver wire and attach it to the RBK terminal. then you should get a strong dialtone... you keep all the original wiring and parts.... its just conveting the wiring to make it work.... it can be undone if you want to convert it back....
John

unbeldi

Quote from: Babybearjs on October 10, 2013, 11:51:14 PM
its not so much converting into a 302, but switching it over from local battery to common battery. there is a unused jumper on the "C" terminal and you take that jumper and connect it from C to BL on the induction coil and then take the black receiver wire and attach it to the RBK terminal. then you should get a strong dialtone... you keep all the original wiring and parts.... its just conveting the wiring to make it work.... it can be undone if you want to convert it back....

That would only work on the A,B,C, and D versions of course. E-H still need the return connected in the Tx circuit to turn them into A-D. When you say "strong" dialtone it tells me that the circuit probably doesn't work ideally. The modification takes the 2uF condenser out of the transmitter path.
Many telephone circuits can be made to "work" and sometimes that is useful. But the characteristics of this circuit is that it can be used to run multiple telephones off a central local battery, which is the E,F,G, and H version, separating the transmitter circuit metallically completely from the line.  I think that is way more interesting to display today than using it as an all CB set just as any 302.


Doug Rose

Karl...is this what you mean by a manual 307 E-H? Still connected to the ringer box with a 5 conductor cloth cord? Dated 5/47 through out and II47 on the ringer box
Kidphone

Doug Rose

more pics
Kidphone

unbeldi

#10
Quote from: Doug Rose on October 11, 2013, 02:35:59 PM
Karl...is this what you mean by a manual 307 E-H? Still connected to the ringer box with a 5 conductor cloth cord? Dated 5/47 through out and II47 on the ringer box

That's an interesting combo. Must have been one of the last 299F generator boxes produced. They made that at least by 1920 or so. I like the generator, if it still had its crank.
So, if original combo, this phone was installed on a loop that was too far removed even to allow common battery signaling, and had to use AC signaling. Or the exchange was strictly a magneto-signaling exchange, but why would they install a 307 in this situation?

Your phone has a 3-wire handset cord, so it's an F1A handset, and since it doesn't have a dial it is a 307A.  The 307E, 307F, 307G, and 307H use an F2 handset with a 4-conductor handset cord, and the manual version would be the F. The 4-conductor cord was required to separate the talk circuit, therefor they couldn't use the common red lead for the receiver and transmitter.

I can't see that the mounting cord to the generator box has actually 5 leads, it's seems to be missing the yellow wire. Is it cut or just routed hidden in the picture?  Don't all WE cords have a yellow lead always?

Where in the generator box are the terminals for the battery? Should be blue and black. But the 299 had no posts for that, because it was not a subset. But I see some electrical tape wrappings, perhaps that's it.  Seems they should have used a 315H or something without a coil for this installation.

unbeldi

#11
Here are my circuit diagrams for the 307.  This should explain the workings of the sets. They are drawn to clearly separate the signaling circuit (ringing, hookswitch, dialing), the receiver circuit, and the transmitter circuit from left to right.

The only difference between the A,B,C,D versions and the E,F,G,H versions is the connection between the terminals E and R (by way of the handset cord leads). The non-dial versions (A and F) of course don't have the dial switches (DS/DP).

I believe there is another circuit variation that had an exclusion feature via a hook switch knob, not shown here.


unbeldi

Quote from: Babybearjs on October 10, 2013, 11:51:14 PM
there is a unused jumper on the "C" terminal and you take that jumper and connect it from C to BL on the induction coil 

The circuit diagram shows what that jumper wire on the C terminal is for.  It is used for shunting the 300-ohm resistor between terminal C and A to provide some tuning in the field to match the impedance of the local loop.

unbeldi

#13
Ralph Meyer reports in his book that the combination of the 307 with a 299F generator box was a common configuration for remote LB stations and had the advantage over the 302 in that the transmitter signal was much stronger than on the 302. And this appears evident from the diagram and the properties of the 104A coil, as the turns ratio is over 3!   So this combo makes a lot of sense.

Babybearjs

maybe that explains why I love this model so much.... it has better sound then the 302....
John