Classic Rotary Phones Forum

Telephone Talk => General Discussion => Topic started by: BDM on September 21, 2008, 04:19:03 PM

Poll
Question: So, how many are actually using their phones?
Option 1: I have no modern phones
Option 2: several at any given moment
Option 3: Maybe one hooked up, when I'm in the mood
Option 4: Hardly ever. Besides, they scare the kids
Option 5: Heck no! Are you kidding? Display only!!
Title: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on September 21, 2008, 04:19:03 PM
I have several in use, or ready for use should I suddenly feel a need 8) Right now, several early 302s, a 151AL W.E. CS, D1 mount with an E1 handset. The 302s drive my wife crazy at times. Those loud brass bells sure make plenty of noise when angry ;)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: benhutcherson on September 21, 2008, 05:22:10 PM
At the moment, I have the following hooked up

151AL
two 302s
5302
three 500s
two 554s
and an AE40

Only the 5302 and the subset for the 151AL ring.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Shovelhead on September 21, 2008, 07:20:31 PM
A 202 with the subset in the living room, and a 302 downstairs. I'll probably use the black Trimline that I've had since 1970 in the spare bedroom.
Can't find by dial Princess, misplaced it and packed it away during the move in '04. Probably in the garage's rafters (I hope it didn't get left behind)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on September 21, 2008, 08:19:47 PM
Have a 354 in the kitchen, it rings.

Two 500s in the office on the missus and my desks, only the 1954 model rings on her desk.

A Trimline in the den, no ring.

A 2500 in the guest office, they sometimes need touch tone, no ring.

A Princess in the master bedroom, it rings and the light works.  (Used a spare transformer I had laying around and wired it into the black and yellow wires of the jack, yeah I'm El Cheapo)

Planning on hooking up the Franken554 in the garage when I get to it, and it will ring.

There is one modern phone, a cordless with answering machine, in the kitchen, it does not ring and is rarely used by anyone in the family.  Keep it around mainly as a touch tone emergency phone. 

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: bingster on September 21, 2008, 08:56:13 PM
Three phones at the moment.  A 202/634A in the living room, and a '57 500 in the bedroom.  There's a cordless in the kitchen that I rarely use, and which has it's "ringer" turned off.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dan/Panther on September 22, 2008, 04:25:09 AM
At the monment, I have two hooked up, one is an Automatic Electric, the other is a WE500.
My goal is to have at least one more.
D/P
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: mienaichizu on September 22, 2008, 04:41:47 AM
I have 4 vintage hooked up in my house

2 in my room, a 2500 in my computer table and a AE Type 186 (3-line) in my office desk, 1 in my stairs landing that serves as the main phone line, it is the STC phone and one in the kitchen the ITT 554 model. All of these phones rings

I also have a 2500 model hooked up in my work office.

The modern phone that was supplied to me by the telephone service provider is disconnected and hidden in the cupboard, hahahaha....
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on September 22, 2008, 05:15:26 AM
Right now, I only have one working phone. I have a cordless in the living room. That's going to be transfered  to the kitchen. I will have my latest buy WE 59 model 500 in the living room. I want to get a dial wall phone for my shop, and, another phone for the dining room.
Bill Cahill    ;D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: JimH on September 26, 2008, 07:58:38 AM
What I have hooked up changes all the time.  Right now I've got an Ivory 354 in the kitchen (mint condition LONG original cloth ivory curly cord), an Imperial D1 in the guest room, a 5302 in the bedroom, and a 554 soft plastic from '56 in the basement.  Oh yeah, my 50AL stick is in the hallway, but it's bell box is so loud, I have it adjusted off.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Doug Houston on September 29, 2008, 12:00:53 AM
Because of the way this place is laid out, I have about a dozen phone instruments in place, and in operation. There are still places  on the lower level, where I can be standing, and never be able to get to a phone if it rings. None of them are modern phones, at least in the sense that they are all dial instruments. They don't all ring; just enough to be able to hear when a call comes in.

There have been several times when I can be standing on the lower driveway in the summer, and I can hear a phone ringing through the open doorwall in the kitchen. There are two phones in my lower level garage, but if the garage doors aren't open, I'm helpless.

I'm getting a kick out of this stuff here. One day, I should  soon know these instruments by model number. I now know that my 1940 phone is a 302. hat's lesson no, 1. On to the next.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on September 29, 2008, 01:01:12 AM
Well, if you want to get technical. The 302 is really an H1 mount. The first W.E. handset telephone was the A1(sometimes referred to as an AA1). It was nothing more than a candlestick base with a cut down stem, and a cradle attached to it. Then came the B1. Still a round base, but with a raised dial and no stem. The base is more "pointed" and the cradle is attached directly on top. Then came the D1. Oval base, recessed dial, one of my favorites. Here's my daily driver in my upstairs cave. The camera makes anything shiny black, look dusty, it's not. I need a new camera :-\
(http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/d/79834-1/P9290001.JPG)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on September 30, 2008, 04:12:21 PM
Although the volume at present is a little weak, I am using my WE 500 half the time. When I get my wall phone finnished, mounted, and, plugged in, I will be using that in the kitchen.
Bill Cahill  ;D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: phoneguy06 on October 05, 2008, 07:35:17 PM
I have two of my vintage phones connected right now, a Country Blue AT&T 500 and a Camelia Pink Automatic Electric 80. These phones are always connected,  as both of them have the Rotatone installed, so I can use them even if I encounter one of those annoying automated systems that says, "To reach Timbucktu, please press 2," and so on! The blue phone was reconditioned by AT&T in 1991, and the inner components (network, ringer, and base) are all 1964 W.E.; I won the phone on ebay. The pink AE I bought here at an antique market for $29; it was manufactured by AE Canada. I love the big older triangular feet and chrome number card holder and plungers.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: hilotech on October 05, 2008, 08:40:25 PM
Yes, we have a black 302 that we picked up at a yard sale several years ago for $3.  Brought it home, screwed the line cord wires into the jack and the thing had a dial tone.  We took it partly apart to clean it and replaced the worn cords with cloth reproductions and shined it up a bit with back to black and changed some of wiring around (It was a Brooley Air Force Base phone from Mobile, Alabama).  Anyway, it's a great old phone that still works but probably should be refurbished better that I can do.

Ron and Michele
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on October 05, 2008, 10:28:57 PM
Phoneguy06 those are sure good looking phones.  I had no idea that AT and T was still refurbing phones as late as 1991.  Does anyone know when this practice ended?


Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Mark Stevens on October 06, 2008, 06:29:50 AM
Quote from: hilotech on October 05, 2008, 08:40:25 PM
Yes, we have a black 302 that we picked up at a yard sale several years ago for $3.  Brought it home, screwed the line cord wires into the jack and the thing had a dial tone.  We took it partly apart to clean it and replaced the worn cords with cloth reproductions and shined it up a bit with back to black and changed some of wiring around (It was a Brooley Air Force Base phone from Mobile, Alabama).  Anyway, it's a great old phone that still works but probably should be refurbished better that I can do.

Ron and Michele

I say that if it works properly, then you've done all the work needed. Sounds like a great find! Unfortunately, the yard sales in our area aren't populated with 302's...   :'(
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: TIPandRING on October 06, 2008, 08:45:59 PM
Currently this is the only working land-line phone in my upstairs:

It's a Automatic Electric 90 wall phone in bright white (goes with the bright white wainscotting below the yellow painted walls).

I edited out the # for privacy.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: mienaichizu on October 06, 2008, 09:23:49 PM
Quote from: phoneguy06 on October 05, 2008, 07:35:17 PM
I have two of my vintage phones connected right now, a Country Blue AT&T 500 and a Camelia Pink Automatic Electric 80. These phones are always connected,  as both of them have the Rotatone installed, so I can use them even if I encounter one of those annoying automated systems that says, "To reach Timbucktu, please press 2," and so on! The blue phone was reconditioned by AT&T in 1991, and the inner components (network, ringer, and base) are all 1964 W.E.; I won the phone on ebay. The pink AE I bought here at an antique market for $29; it was manufactured by AE Canada. I love the big older triangular feet and chrome number card holder and plungers.

nice looking pink AE80, all my AE80's are black
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on October 06, 2008, 11:22:26 PM
Huh?? Looks white to me.....  :o ??? ::)

Bill Cahill
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: bingster on October 07, 2008, 12:10:29 AM
The pink desk phone from one page back. ;)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on October 07, 2008, 05:39:54 AM
Actually, I'm re discovering a new love for my old phones. I'm sick, and, tired of dead batteries, lost signals, digital cut outs, etc.....
Bill Cahill
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on October 07, 2008, 11:07:23 PM
QuoteActually, I'm re discovering a new love for my old phones. I'm sick, and, tired of dead batteries, lost signals, digital cut outs, etc.....
Bill Cahill

Totally agree.  How many times have you been talking to someone and their phone dies, or yours dies, for who knows what reason.  Did the battery die, did the signal from the tower drop, did the microwave or garage door opener interfere, did a truck drive by and block the signal, is there a storm outside, maybe a Klingon battle cruiser decloaked in the front yard.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: mienaichizu on October 07, 2008, 11:49:06 PM
Quote from: TIPandRING on October 06, 2008, 08:45:59 PM
Currently this is the only working land-line phone in my upstairs:

It's a Automatic Electric 90 wall phone in bright white (goes with the bright white wainscotting below the yellow painted walls).

I edited out the # for privacy.


How much did you get this AE90? someone is selling, a black one but its a bit pricey, I want to know how much that this phone costs
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Paul Dietenberger on October 09, 2008, 03:38:10 AM
Black AE90s should cost less than $20.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Paul Dietenberger on October 09, 2008, 03:46:29 AM
Quote from: McHeath on October 05, 2008, 10:28:57 PM
Phoneguy06 those are sure good looking phones.  I had no idea that AT and T was still refurbing phones as late as 1991.  Does anyone know when this practice ended?

Probably in '96 when they sold off the leasing business, now that company (QLT) presumably refurbishes the phones they own and lease out. You can still rent a phone, you know. Renting a 500 or 554 costs $4.45 per month, slightly more for a pushbutton phone. Why you would do this, I have no clue; but the option is there if you want it.  :)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: TIPandRING on October 09, 2008, 08:41:44 PM
Quote from: mienaichizu on October 07, 2008, 11:49:06 PM


How much did you get this AE90? someone is selling, a black one but its a bit pricey, I want to know how much that this phone costs

I got this for the extremely pricey sum of $13.00 ::)   No joke. Was in un-installed condition, a bit dirty, I polished it up. That was my bid at the estate sale of a retired phone man.

Careful with eBay, sometimes the black models can go for a lot. I would not pay more than $20 for a -black- AE 90.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on October 12, 2008, 09:18:16 PM
Here's another that is currently hooked up, a W.E. 151AL stick. It also has the 313 area code TUxedo exchange number card, which is straight out of the area of Detroit I grew up in. This is another one of my garage sale finds from the 80s. Though I can't remember the story on this one. It uses the 635 "Bulldog" transmitter with the 706A receiver. It also has a #4 dial, instead of the usual #5 dial found with these 151AL sets. Please excuse my work bench mess :P

(http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/d/80055-1/151AL.JPG)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on October 12, 2008, 10:11:32 PM
Gee, I might have to start looking into these old Candlesticks.  What is a reasonable price to pay for a phone like this?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: benhutcherson on October 12, 2008, 10:32:31 PM
I paid $140 for my 40AL(non-dial) from a reputable local seller.

My 151AL came some assembly required without a dial or receiver for $40 from the same seller. A reproduction H.O.T. receiver cost me another $20, and about the same for a #5 dial.

Candlesticks are pretty popular as decorator items, and tend to sell for pretty high prices in general because of that. In fact, the seller from whom I bought both, who has a shop selling furniture(in addition to Lionel trains, the major draw for me), and manages to sell candlesticks for that price pretty well. I think the longest I've ever seen one sit is about two months. He typically gets 8-10 a year. These are walk-in, off the street sales-although he does sell on Ebay, he says that they sell too well without the trouble. He also says that greater than 90% of his sales are to people who just want them to sit on a table, and don't care about whether or not they work.

In any case, from what I've seen, $100 seems to be about the typical going rate for a 20AL or 40AL non-dial on Ebay in decent shape. I've seen unrestored 51AL and 151AL sticks sell for up to $200, however you do really have to look out for repros.

The ones with a "bulldog" transmitter seem to sell for a little bit less, which is to your advantage if you want to actually use it(the sound quality is much better). Also, if you're looking for one to use, I would definitely suggest choosing a 151AL over a 51AL, since you get anti-sidetone.

There's one seller on Ebay who seems to consistently sell restored dial sticks with a subset for anywhere from $400-600.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on October 12, 2008, 10:35:44 PM
Really? Not sure any longer. I haven't been watching Ebag prices on these. $200, maybe $300 in nice condition with subset? These usually don't bring as much as a sticks with a solid back transmitter and proper 143/144 receiver. But, they're far more usable in my book since the F1 handset receiver & transmitter are used. Plus the anti-sidetone network is employed, usually with the 101A coil in the subset. Last stick I bought was a 51AL in excellent to near perfect shape back in 98, and I paid all of $150 with equal condition subset. BTW, that's the original line and receiver cords.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on October 12, 2008, 10:41:36 PM
Oh, I should add this. When I bought that, I had no idea what I was looking at. Back in the mid 80s I had no real education in vintage phones. I only knew candlesticks came with the obvious "spit cup". When I saw this one, it threw me. I remember looking it over thinking the transmitter looked original. I just didn't know. I had a feeling it was more "modern" from the look. When I took it apart at home, I realized the transmitter & receiver used F1 parts. Even my grandfather who remembered everything from the past. Couldn't ID this model.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: benhutcherson on October 12, 2008, 10:58:50 PM
BDM,

The prices I quoted are for ones with solid-back transmitters.

Like you observed, I've noticed that Bulldogs generally go for some less.  I also agree that I would much rather use them. The sound quality of my 151AL is on par with a 302, which I suppose makes since as it's electronically identical.

I should also mention, however, that many of the restored ones I see have a U1/T1 combination.

Restored ones do still bring really high prices-take a look at a few of these

http://cgi.ebay.com/WESTERN-ELECTRIC-CANDLESTICK-TELEPHONE-phone-and-SUBSET_W0QQitemZ280274446725QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item280274446725&_trkparms=39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A13|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/WESTERN-ELECTRIC-CANDLESTICK-TELEPHONE-phone-and-SUBSET_W0QQitemZ280272286420QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item280272286420&_trkparms=39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A13|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Western-Electric-Model-51-Candlestick-Telephone-Phone_W0QQitemZ270278590459QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item270278590459&_trkparms=39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A13|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

All of these, as you can see, are near $500.

I also saw several unrestored dial sticks in the $200-300 range while searching for these.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on October 12, 2008, 11:48:29 PM
Hmmmm, I haven't bothered to research sticks as of late. I have one that uses a T1 transmitter. I installed it originally in a basket case 51AL. Repainted it, installed a #4 dial. The receiver is a #144. Works nice, but needed cotton behind the transmitter capsule. Without it, it still had a somewhat hollow sound. The cotton mellowed it out.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Doug Houston on October 13, 2008, 09:52:32 PM
This may not be considered antique, and I'd totally forgotten I had it. I must have had this thing for 20 years.

It's a multiple line desk set, in a olive green plastic case. It has 9 push buttons for lines, and a hold button in a row along the top of the panel. There is a cradle and handset on the left side of the case. On the bottom plate, rubber stamped, is: 2830A1M (Model?), followed by 3-72, the date?

Connections to the thing are by a 90 degree blue ribbon connector.

It has a touch tone pad.

I had always wondered if it could be used with my Verizon line, but that big connector causes me to wonder.

Neat sort of a thing. Anybody have any ideas about it?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on October 13, 2008, 10:01:59 PM
Doug, not sure. Sounds like a business phone of some type. The ribbon cable has me scratching my head. Dennis may be able to shed light on that.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on October 14, 2008, 12:17:51 AM
Any chance of a picture of this green phone?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: rp2813 on January 05, 2009, 06:29:53 PM
I have always had a vintage phone of some type connected wherever I have lived.  For a while I lived in a 1936 home that had in the breakfast room a niche and screened-off section below it for a 202 with bell box.  I used my 202 there as my main phone and you could hear that thing ring upstairs no problem!  But I still had my 1938 302 ringing upstairs anyway.  That one was on a 25' black cord and could be taken into any upstairs room I wanted.  Most recently I had the 202 hooked up in the guest room with ringer disabled.  Over the years I've also had 302's deployed in bedrooms and/or offices.  I even brought one to work when we moved into a new building and didn't have enough phones.  Rigged up my 302 and had my own direct line on it.  That was back around 1985.

Currently the 202's and 302's are packed away and I have two 500's going.  The one from 10/50 is my office phone and gets the most use.  The one from 4/53 is in the basement on my dad's old desk.  Mainly for answering without having to run upstairs, but it dials out fine.  I have both set to ring but have the gongs adjusted so I can silence them via the thumbwheel on the bottom if I want.  This allows me to set the ringer to knock me out of my chair or not strike at all, or anywhere in between.

The one "modern" phone I picked up years ago and have yet to use anywhere is a 70's alligator type with rotary dial.  I'm thinking I might hook it up in the den since we need a phone there, and something more up to date but still rotary might be just the ticket.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Konrad on January 06, 2009, 10:55:57 AM
Quote from: Bill Cahill on October 07, 2008, 05:39:54 AM
Actually, I'm re discovering a new love for my old phones. I'm sick, and, tired of dead batteries, lost signals, digital cut outs, etc.....
Bill Cahill

That's what drove me back to old phones.  Two "quality" Sony wall phones that puked and died and the second one needed four AA batteries that kept falling out. 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HobieSport on January 06, 2009, 12:50:46 PM
Quote
I have always had a vintage phone of some type connected...but still rotary might be just the ticket.

I admit that my main phone is a push button Sony.  I need it to talk on the modern phone lines.

But other than that none of my friends have the slightest idea why I love old telephones.  They however are idiots with no appreciation whatsoever.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: rp2813 on January 06, 2009, 01:18:24 PM
I've found that more and more call trees (or IVR's/VRU's) have been designed for voice response, which reduces the need for a touchpad.  Since I use my 10/50 phone at my desk, I do have a secondary handset from my Panasonic answering system nearby for those times when I need a touchpad.  If I hit a call tree that doesn't have voice response, I reach for the cordless handset, switch it on, use the touchpad, and switch it back off.  Short of installing a "rotatone" this is my solution to the touchtone issue.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HobieSport on January 06, 2009, 01:48:53 PM
I guess I just miss the telephone; when I could dial and talk to a real person.

Nowadays we just talk to recorded robot voices on the telephone and that just seems sad.  Pink or Beige doesn't make a big difference.  I prefer speaking to a real person, whatever the color.  What do you think?



Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Konrad on January 06, 2009, 05:30:51 PM
Nothing beats talking to a live human.  Modern push button phones are like light beer they are just not as satisfying.  For my push button needs I'd much rather have a 2500/2554/3554.  While I'm the same vintage as the 1500, ten keys is a # short of a happy meal.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dan on January 06, 2009, 08:47:22 PM
the wifey has to have a touchtone, so she has an orange trimline (cinnibar, they call the color).

I use my 500 WE and 354 WE almost all the time.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on January 18, 2009, 05:22:39 PM
Currently I have a black 554 from 1957 in the kitchen,  my black "birthday" model 500 from 1955 in the bedroom, An AE40 connected at my desk and in my work shop I currently have a green 202 and ringer box connected.  In my office here on shelves are 20 phones that I change around when the mood hits.

BDM that 151AL is a great looking phone.  I definitely have to get one of those.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Sargeguy on January 18, 2009, 05:51:31 PM
I use them every day.  We had three of those Motorola 2.4 MHz phones but they suck.  We now have one left, and it is constantly out of range or has a dead battery.  Using these is what made me dig Nana's old 500 out of the atic and start this process.  Now I have a 202 in the hallway niche, a 302 in the living room and a 500 in the baby's room.  The baby's room (formerly the office) is the test center, because it has the most easily accessible jack.  If I refurbish a phone it usually sits there for a few days until I am sure the bugs are worked out of it.  My wife complains that she can't figure our which phone is supposed to work at any given time. I am in the process of mounting my 354 on the kitchen wall, but am slacking off.  Here's a picture of the phone niche:

(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_26I3Nyjgm7Q/SSYUH1nZ14I/AAAAAAAAFLs/Ing_HPznIK8/s512/Phone-Niche.jpg)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on January 18, 2009, 11:12:41 PM
Nicely done phone niche.  I have a friend in an old house, built around WW1 time, and it has one of these niches in the hallway.  When he moved in back in 85" his grandma's old 202 was still there, but he threw it away and got a cordless.  What did we know back then, we were all throwing old phones away it seems, at least in my family and circle of friends. 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Perry on January 19, 2009, 05:32:05 PM
All my phones are dial phones now. My only concession to modern times is with my kitchen phone. It is a Western Electric 500, but I have added an answering machine and installed a touch tone dialer into the phone line.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on January 19, 2009, 10:03:38 PM
Perry, that is a very nice looking 500.  Is that turquoise (color suffix -64)?  What year is it from?  I think 1964 was the first year for turquoise 500's.  Yours doesn't look like it's yellowed at all.  Very nice.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on January 19, 2009, 10:19:52 PM
Got yourself a Kit Kat Clock it appears as well, and a nice chrome toaster too boot.

Yah that's a pretty 500, my favorite color of the series, Ivory being next up. 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Perry on January 19, 2009, 11:05:01 PM
Yes, it is turquoise, rather than aqua. It is dated 1971. I would have preferred an earlier phone, but this color seems to be particularly difficult to find. I think we had the turquoise 500 when I was a kid (the reason I wanted that color), but I'm not absolutely certain. It might have been a yellowed aqua phone. (My mother smoked a lot.) That phone would have been put in our house when we moved in (1966), but unfortunately it was returned to the phone company in the 1970s for a more modern phone. I don't even have any old photos with that phone in them.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on January 19, 2009, 11:37:47 PM
Well that is a very nice looking set.  It's difficult to find a nice one in turquoise.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Konrad on January 20, 2009, 01:20:57 AM
In my earlier replies I forgot to mention what I use.  All Western Electric 500's right now till I get some 302's and a 5302 up and running.  They are paired with 2500's and a 2554 so I can use IVR and my dear wife can use a push button phone as she has no patience for dialing.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: bingster on January 20, 2009, 11:10:04 AM
Can anybody who has an example of each of the two light blues post a picture of each?  It might help those of us who have neither differentiate between turquoise and aqua when we see them.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on January 20, 2009, 11:14:08 AM
Below are two of my phones in Turquoise & Aqua.  The Turquoise (-64) on the left is dated 1964---the first year of production for Turquoise.  It's not as nice as Perry's in that there is some slight yellowing.  I do like the matching 4 prong plug.  It's basically as I got it.  I haven't "detailed" it.  The Aqua Blue (-62) 500 is one of my favorites from my humble collection.  It is soft plastic from 1958  with dates that range from 11/1957 to 3/1958.    The handset cord is the fat, thick cord in excellent condition.  The feet are suede.  This flew under the eBay radar a few years ago as I got it at a reasonable price.

The second photo is a comparison of the Turquoise and Aqua Blue Princess phones.  Both of these are hardwired versions.  Both are 701B models (no internal ringer).  The Turquoise is from 1960 and the Aqua Blue from 1961.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Perry on January 20, 2009, 12:13:21 PM
Dennis,

That is a nice comparison photo. The difference in color is obvious when they are next to each other like that. It's sometime hard to tell the difference with a single photo (in eBay auctions), especially because a yellowed aqua looks somewhat turquoise. Many sellers call an aqua phone turquoise or vice versa. Here is a current auction of a turquoise (I think?) phone, but the cord doesn't match:
http://tinyurl.com/WE-500-turquoise (http://tinyurl.com/WE-500-turquoise)

I would buy it myself if I didn't already have one, although a real turquoise handset cord would probably be tough to find.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HobieSport on January 20, 2009, 12:29:27 PM
Oh My Gosh I think I'm in Love.  Sorry.  Nice Phones Dennis.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on January 20, 2009, 12:36:04 PM
Thanks Matt.  Perry, I believe you're right about that model 500.  Often sellers will go to the trouble to look behind the dial for the color code.  Of course there is no guarantee that the dial had not been swapped out at some time.  I am not sure when the color suffix was no longer put on the back of dials, but I have later, #8 dials that have the color suffix on them.

Color codes can be found here:

http://www.paul-f.com/we500typ.htm#Colors
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: bingster on January 20, 2009, 01:19:22 PM
Those are excellent comparison photos, Dennis.  Thanks for posting them.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on January 20, 2009, 01:40:45 PM
My pleasure.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on January 20, 2009, 09:13:23 PM
Dennis, WOW :o Nice phones. I was kind of wondering what the difference in color was. Now it's obvious!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on January 20, 2009, 10:54:00 PM
Nice pics of nice phones.  Turquoise is certainly a nice color in my opinion, with it's warm blue with a hint of green.  It would be interesting to see the inside shell of your turquoise phone to see how it has faded, if any.


Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on January 20, 2009, 11:06:53 PM
Heath, I'll take a photo or two tomorrow and post them.  After I took those photos I "found" another turquoise Princess in my stash.  It may have better color than the one I listed.  As I mentioned, the 500 does have some yellowing. 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on January 21, 2009, 03:09:14 PM
Rather continuing this thread---kind of drifting off topic, I have made a new posting to discuss the differences between Aqua Blue & Turquoise.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=530.0
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AET on April 03, 2009, 10:21:04 PM
I have 4 phones, as of now, 1 554, and 3 500's, two of the 500's are hooked up in my room, since my folks aren't big fans of my rotary phones, they are banished to the one room (dad doesn't even approve of me having two hooked up).  I use them daily, and don't use any other phones in the house unless I have to.  I promise you that my house will have rotary phones with the exception of maybe one for an answering machine if I don't buy a seperate one.  But I probably will buy a seperate one and have a 2500 just for if I need a touch-tone. 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: rp2813 on April 04, 2009, 11:57:38 AM
I just added another vintage phone to the crew of working 500's at my place.  Besides my 10/50 daily driver and the 4/53 in the basement, I needed a ringing phone out in the detached garage so I could hear an incoming call when I'm out in the back yard.  Enter the 1959 500 base with 1963 beige conversion.  It rang fine as soon as I plugged it in (it has a 10' beige line cord with 4-prong plug) and now that I have the correct clear fingerwheel on it, I have to admit that after thinking beige was boring and not caring much about this phone, it cleaned up really well and now I'm finding it a lot more attractive than I used to.  I may even move it into the house since beige isn't a very garage-y color for a phone.


Ralph
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HobieSport on April 04, 2009, 12:37:28 PM
Quote from: rp2813
...after thinking beige was boring and not caring much about this phone, it cleaned up really well and now I'm finding it a lot more attractive than I used to.  I may even move it into the house since beige isn't a very garage-y color for a phone.

Ralph

Ralph,

Is the color of W.E. beige at all attractive?  I ask in honesty as I've only seen the beige color on Ebay and as sort of a pale pink.

More importantly; what is a garage-y colored phone?  I've never heard of a garage-y colored telephone, but I like the idea.

I'm thinking of an old greasy black WE 354. 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on April 04, 2009, 12:49:28 PM
Quote from: HobieSport on April 04, 2009, 12:37:28 PM


I'm thinking of an old greasy black WE 354. 


Like the one I picked up today? A nice clean 354 with a #5 dial. Perfect for the garage ;) ;D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on April 04, 2009, 12:57:40 PM
Nice looking phone Brian.  Too nice for the garage!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on April 04, 2009, 01:17:55 PM
Until last June my 354 was in the garage!  It's been hanging in there probably since time began, I walked by it daily and thought nothing of it until one day last summer when it finally caught my eye.

And the rest is fone crazed history.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HobieSport on April 04, 2009, 01:29:03 PM
I'm glad that it was a 354.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: rp2813 on April 04, 2009, 01:53:13 PM
For the garage the perfect phone would be a model number I'm not sure of.  This would be the basic small box with (probably) 5H dial on top and a hanger for the handset.  Was that the Green Acres model up at the top of the pole?  I had one with no dial and let it go.  I don't think it was WE, it had a really thick mounting cord with lots of leads and had an F1  handset with extra buttons, like it was for a public address system of some kind.

I had a white 60's 554 out there but let that one go too--before I discovered this forum and that there were 554 fans out there.  Since there's an old wood desk where the beige phone is now, I'm going to probably stick with a desk set and switch out the beige phone with the 4/53 black one.  The black one has a couple of rather deep and noticeable scratches in the prominent area between the cradle ears and the top of the dial.  So it has a garage-y-ness about it already.

The beige phone had a very grimey garage-y look to it before I cleaned it up.  Now it's looking more like a bedroom phone.  Like I said, I never liked beige before, but it cleaned up so well that it looks kind of attractive and I think I'll hang onto it for a while.  There's a picture of it in a thread I started titled "Pix of a couple of my phones" in this same section.

Ralph
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AET on April 04, 2009, 02:51:57 PM
When I think garage phone, I immediately think a black 554.  That's just a classic for that kind of a thing.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HobieSport on April 04, 2009, 03:26:43 PM
Quote from: BDM
Like the one I picked up today? A nice clean 354 with a #5 dial. Perfect for the garage ;) ;D

Yes, exactly, very nice, Brian, but it just needs a few more greasy hand prints.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tonyrotary on April 04, 2009, 03:29:26 PM
I use my 554 in the kitchen. When I move after this deployment the wife and I plan on having a couple more hooked up an in use.

Brian that 354 is sweet!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HobieSport on April 04, 2009, 03:41:01 PM
Quote from: McHeath
Until last June my 354 was in the garage!  It's been hanging in there probably since time began, I walked by it daily and thought nothing of it until one day last summer when it finally caught my eye.

And the rest is fone crazed history.

Heath; I wanted to suggest that it ain't so, Joe.  But it's obviously a bit too late.

Tom; yes, a 554 is classic 1950s garage.  May I suggest yellow with lots of greasy hand prints?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AET on April 04, 2009, 03:58:26 PM
Hobie, the king of black telephones is suggesting a YELLOW phone to me? 

Call Walter Kronkite!!  Hell has just frozen over!!!!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: bingster on April 04, 2009, 04:00:36 PM
Quote from: rp2813 on April 04, 2009, 01:53:13 PM
For the garage the perfect phone would be a model number I'm not sure of.  This would be the basic small box with (probably) 5H dial on top and a hanger for the handset. 
That's the 201 or 211 hanging handset.  When I think of garage phones, I always think of the little steel wall phones from the 1920s.

Quote from: rp2813 on April 04, 2009, 01:53:13 PM
The beige phone had a very grimey garage-y look to it before I cleaned it up.  Now it's looking more like a bedroom phone.  Like I said, I never liked beige before, but it cleaned up so well that it looks kind of attractive and I think I'll hang onto it for a while. 
It's funny, Ralph... It often works out that way when collecting phones.  We think a particular color or model is homely until we get one and clean it up.  Then our opinion changes.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dan on April 04, 2009, 09:02:23 PM
I've learned to love theWE 500  beige and white ones. I can't find an old ivory to complete "bland" trio!

It is funny how your impression of a phone changes once you put a little sweat  into it.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on April 04, 2009, 10:25:26 PM
I love my ivory 500 that I bought new in 84', something about that color really appeals to me.  But I know that lots of folks think it's kinda dull, but hey I was not exactly Mr. Flaming Interesting at any point in my life.
;)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AET on April 05, 2009, 02:37:43 AM
I have a white 500 and a light gray 554 and like both phones very much, besides their notorious yellowing which I will address when I have more money!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: rp2813 on April 06, 2009, 01:11:08 PM
Thanks Bing, now at least I know the model number of phone I should look for to get a real garage type phone in the workshop.

Ralph
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Greg G. on July 08, 2009, 04:45:05 AM
I have 3 out of 12 hooked up currently.  The work horse is the one on my computer desk, a 2-56 black 500.  I had been using the Dutch PTT because I liked the sound of the dial, but a friend said the audio wasn't good on his end, sounded very "tinny", although he was coming through ok.  What looks like a nick in the handset is just a smudge.

In the second pic, the two on the right are hooked up via a Y adapter, although I don't use them much.

I have to say that now that I have been using a "real" phone, I like the feel of actually dialing a number, cradling the handset between my head and shoulder, and throwing it back on the cradle when I'm done.  
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: foots on July 08, 2009, 05:04:40 AM
I'm jealous of that yellow 500. As far as phones I have in use, I have a green Starlite, courtesy of Dan/Panther, my black mostly 1960 Signal Corps 500, my dark yellow ITT 500 (in a spare room of course), and my Stromberg Carlson 1243 which doesn't ring as I have not yet installed the straight line ringer yet. I'd like to use my green Starlite wall phone, but have not been able to find  the correct wall jack to mount it to.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Greg G. on July 08, 2009, 05:22:23 AM
Quote from: foots on July 08, 2009, 05:04:40 AM
I'm jealous of that yellow 500.

It's a 79 model, Stromberg-Carlson.  I was surprised to find a relatively late model still hard-wired, or was that still common in the late 70s?  The green one is also SC, 71, the black is a WE 62, not sure what year the PTT is.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: jsowers on July 08, 2009, 08:55:01 AM
Coincidentally, I just last week got Touch-Tone phone service. I'm not kidding! I've lived in the same house since 1985 and I had a choice of rotary or Touch-Tone then, and rotary was $1 a month less, so that was fine with me. I had a very modest phone collection then and they were all rotary models I got at garage sales. My local telco is a mom and pop kind of business, in business since the late 1800s, and they have always been slow to change. We had a party line at home until about 1983. Finally last month they got rid of rotary-only service and started charging about $7 more a month. Yipe! Also added was a wider radius local calling scheme, that makes no difference to me. Of course, the rotary phones still work, but now all my 2500s and 2702s can make calls too. I did change my modem to tone for my dialup internet.

I still have only rotary phones hooked up. Nothing newer than the early 1980s. An ivory soft plastic WE 554 in the kitchen, a white WE 702 in the master bedroom complete with transformer, a moss green modular WE 500 in the living room, a beige S-C 554 in the garage, a moss green ITT 554 and a 302 in the basement, and a brown ITT Slenderet in the spare bedroom. When the phone rings at my house, you can REALLY hear it. I did disconnect the ringer in the 302, but the rest ring fine. The sound of a 500 set ringing is music to my ears.

I also did my own phone wiring in the walls when I built my house. At one time I had an extension in the greenhouse out back, but the sunlight and moisture do awful things to phones and the buried wire, so I took that out. Maybe one day I'll change all my phones to more valuable models, but I have visions of knocking a 500U off the night table or the housing to a 554 getting sun fade in the garage, so I'm leaving it the way it is for now.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on July 08, 2009, 09:03:17 AM
Question, where is it you live??
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: jsowers on July 08, 2009, 09:46:18 AM
Quote from: BDM on July 08, 2009, 09:03:17 AM
Question, where is it you live??

Lexington, North Carolina. The telco is Lexcom, formerly Lexington Telephone Company. Their website is http://www.lexcominc.net (http://www.lexcominc.net). Our county actually has FIVE telcos. Lexcom, Piedmont (two communities to the west), Windstream (formerly Alltel, serves Denton, NC to the south), North State (Thomasville and High Point) and AT&T, formerly BellSouth and before that Southern Bell (serves the northernmost area next to Winston-Salem). Is it any wonder we use IP telephony in the school system I work for? Years ago it also was two different area codes, 919 and 704. In the days before redial, I remember well wearing my finger out using the WATS line dialing 868-919-764-0360 to reach one of our schools.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: foots on July 09, 2009, 01:36:22 PM
Brinybay, Stromberg Carlsons were hard wired into the '80s as I've got an '82 thats hard wired, but they did switch to thin flat handset cords.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on July 09, 2009, 05:12:33 PM
Right now, I'm using two of mine all the time. My yellow kitchen wall phone, and, my 1963 beige desk phone in the living room.
Bill Cahill
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Phonesrfun on July 09, 2009, 05:33:32 PM
Most all of mine work the way they should.  I have about 90 phones in total and I always try to make sure they all work.  I have an 11-digit strowger wall phone that does not work, and I have a handfull of junkers for robbing parts that are just for parts or for doing evil experimentation on their plastic covers.

I have a 1A2 key system with a phone in my den, and I have several old phones hooked up behind a Panasonic 616.  I have a pink Princess 1960 701B (In the bedroom, of course).  I do rotate phones around when I get tired of them, or when I want to test one , etc.

I must admit, I also have a modern cordless too, and I use Vonage as my provider.  I also have a cell phone that I love to hate.

-Bill
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Jester on July 09, 2009, 06:32:40 PM
Bill,

Do you have a E1A inline with your princess, or do you rely on hearing the rest of the house to let you know the phone needs answering?  I've thought about disconnecting the ringer in the subset of my Imperial and tying in a remote ringer.  The 684 has a B1A, and it sounds about like the B3A in the 354 in the dining room.  I really like the sound of the Bell Chime, so I'll probably stick one in the bedroom one of these days.  I know this is the wrong thread, but I think the Bell Chime would make a really cool WAV. file.  Kind of sounds like a doorbell on Valium.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Phonesrfun on July 09, 2009, 06:46:47 PM
I do have the E1A ringer on the 701B.  It is right under the headboard on my bed, so I have the ringer turned all the way down.  As a result, I hear the wall vibrating more than the more pleasant sound of the ringer itself.  As you know the E1A was one of those early single gong ringers, so it does not have the dual tone of a ding-dong type ringer anyway.  I had delayed hooking up the E1A just because it was going to be more work, but I cannot always hear the 202 in the living room, even though it is hooked up to a 684 subset.  That subset is just lying on the carpeted floor and the carpet dampens the sound of the 684.

In the apartment I had before moving into my present house, I had ringers and phones all over the place.  The Panasonic gave me extra ringing capacity and every time the phone rang, it was kind of like a fire drill.  I toned it down a bit when I moved.

-Bill
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: gpo706 on August 01, 2009, 10:15:09 PM
GPO:

living room:

746 ivory

Bedroom:

706 Grey
706 Ivory
706 Red
312 Black
8756 Ivory
706 ivory
746 topaz yellow

WE - bedroom

500 C/D black
500 C/D red
554 black

all on one line (!)

Thank god they dont ring all at once...
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: gpo706 on August 01, 2009, 10:18:30 PM
Sorry there's a 746 green under the table I keep knocking off-hook with my feet, need to get a space for it....
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: McHeath on August 02, 2009, 01:25:01 AM
Wow, if they all rang on full volume at once you'd wake the dead! 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: deedubya3800 on September 19, 2010, 05:00:49 AM
I just love dragging up these old topics! :D

Of course I use my phones. Just like everything old I buy with few exceptions (like my light brown quart-size George Dickel powderhorn bottle with all the labels and leather still in place), I intend to use it when I buy it. I have a 1970 Zenith fully automatic turntable, a 1964 Royal Aristocrat typewriter, and I use them! Carefully, of course. ;)

But back to phones: My 5302 has found its (mostly) permanent home on my desk in the office. That's my phone, my favorite. It found me. :)

I've been having a hard time deciding what phone to keep by the bed, but right now I have the NT Dawn there. The ringer isn't too harsh for the bedroom and the cord is long enough to reach across it.

I still haven't told my wife about the 302 I brought home a week ago, so I only use it while she's not here. ::)

And my first old phone, the SC 500, is my standby phone right now, that I use if I need one somewhere where I don't usually keep one, like the bathroom or outside.

As for the other phones in the house, we have a two-piece set of crappy GE cordless phones that haven't been charged or used in months. The base unit isn't even hooked up to the line anymore. There's also a cheap Durabrand unit hanging in the kitchen whose ringer I keep turned off as it clashes with all the real ringers in the house, and there's a GE wall set in the back room that's still in excellent condition because we moved to the front of the house years ago. It's just still back there.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on September 19, 2010, 08:26:26 AM
As many as possible,
1: Franken-phone at my sons room. (1953 with dtmf circular dial) (Elektrisk Bureau Norway    (EB) )
2: 1934 model EB wall telephone for wet areas in the garage
3: 1934 model Risktelefonen made by EB on my desk
4: A 1936 modell Siemens (look like W48) in my bedroom
5: A 1932 EB at the kitchen
6: A 1950 Standard telephone & kabel at the guest room
6: :-X A dtmf phone in the livingroom
7: :-X A dtmf phone beside the PC
8:  :D and now a 1967 EB rotary with dialgizmo at on my desk at job. (wondering about change it to an EB 1953 with reverse dial)

http://tinyurl.com/2v565tg

dsk



Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Adam on September 19, 2010, 10:25:07 AM
Quote from: Phonesrfun on July 09, 2009, 05:33:32 PM
I also have a cell phone that I love to hate.

I don't think that counts!   :)

All of the phones in my place are from the 60's and 70's, connected via ATAs to my Asterisk switch.  I frequently switch the phones around, and take different ones of out my stock and put them in service in my place.

Currently, I am using:

Office desk: Western Electric red 565HKM key set
Office desk: Western Electric green 2500DM ('cause you gotta have touch tone sometimes for like calling banks and things)
Bedroom: Western Electric yellow 702BM Princess
Kitchen Counter: Stromberg-Carlson red 2500D with numerals only dial
Living Room: Western Electric chocolate brown Touch Tone Trimline desk

I like having rotary phones in service, unfortunately, the ATA that serves my living room can't handle rotary, so I have to have a Touch-Tone set there.

-Dave Haber
Massapequa Telephone
C*NET 1-798-7619
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AdamAnt316 on September 21, 2010, 02:24:24 AM
Here's a list of what I have connected to the line at the moment:

Bedroom:

  • Yellow Western Electric "Princess" model 702B
  • Yellow Automatic Electric "Starlite" model 192/TEL-900N

Office:

  • Beige Western Electric "Card Dialer" model 660A1
  • Black Western Electric model 211/G1 space saver

Living room:

  • Black Western Electric model 500D

Kitchen:

  • Moss green Western Electric model 500DM

Bathroom: (yeah, really :D)

  • Ivory Western Electric "Princess" model CS2702BMG

Basement:

  • Turquoise Western Electric "Trimline" model 220A/AD1
  • Radio Shack "French Continental" model 43-320

Porch:

  • Western Electric "Country Junction" model 951A1-03

All of them, except for two or three, ring. I have at least seven ringing phones hooked to the line, and haven't notice any ringing issues. Either the modern FiOS interface boxes can support more ringers than a standard POTS line, or I'm causing havoc with something...  ???
-Adam
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: stub on September 21, 2010, 08:49:38 AM
BDM,
        I keep my AE phones rotated each week . I now have a AE 183 ( Red)in the grand kids toy room , a WE -554 BMP( 1977) in red in basement.
        When my oldest granddaughter (11) comes over, she like to use a AE Stairstep Base Automatic Desk Set , with subset.
        My wife likes to use the 1908 AE wooden wall set. 
        When I need to use  touch call, I have a touch pad wired in series with a mod . end to  hook up any phone I have . stub

Bill- When you get tired of looking at that 11 digit Strowger phone, that doesn't work , just pack it up and I'll take it off your hands!!!!!!!!   stub

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Jim Stettler on September 21, 2010, 02:18:54 PM
I typically have a Pink TT princess in the bedroom and a 3 slot in the basement. there is also a spare beige SC500 that is on the computer deskI also have a single slot hooked up to a boothette. I have another working single-slot in a Stainless steel superman booth. I haven't gotten around to hooking it up yet.

The rest of the current phones are a 6-handset cordless set-up w/ intercom, CID, ect and a 12 year old Home receptionist phone. The home receptionist downloads my services and and lets me access them thru soft buttons. It has been in daily use for the last 12 years.
Jim S.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Kenny C on September 21, 2010, 02:45:44 PM
i usualy keep a 302 hoked up but i am using the AE40 for now and rarely a 500
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tom B on September 30, 2010, 03:55:43 PM
I have a '56 500 in the hall and a '60 Aqua and beige 2500 touch tone in the main bedroom. All 11 of my phones work, that's most of the fun of restoring 'em. I can see little point in having a set that's there only for cosmetic reasons. I will rotate all the phones apart from the 2500 as you always will need the touch tone.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: cchaven on October 03, 2010, 02:08:38 PM
I have two in use at the moment...a clean thermoplastic 302 from the late 40's in the bedroom and a '35  202 with E1 handset and 684BA subset downstairs.  The downstairs phone occasionally gets swapped out for whatever other telephone I feel like using at any given time...sometimes it may be a 3-slot payphone...or just something I'm tinkering with.  Occasionally it'll even be a non-dial deskstand or a '54 500.

Jeff
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on October 03, 2010, 02:18:50 PM
Quote from: stub1953 on September 21, 2010, 08:49:38 AM
I now have a AE 183 ( Red)in the grand kids toy room
stub

Ken: Have you had the red 183 for a long time? I have 183's (My Avatar in case anyone was wondering what a 183 is) in every color but the red was by far the hardest one for me to get. Turquoise (again, my Avatar) was first and then it was many many years later when I decided to get them all.

It was when I was just considering maybe getting them all that I stumbled upan a red one in an antique store for $85 but couldn't see paying that much. They wouldn't deal at all so I decided to "think about it". A few months later I was back in the store and thought I'd look at it again but someone had looked at it before me.

Awhile later I started buying them in all colors on ebay and even snagged a great deal on a gray one before having to pay something like $170 plus shipping for a Garnet Red one to complete the collection.

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: ESalter on October 16, 2010, 11:33:22 AM
My girlfriend likes the old phones, so in our apartment right now are(all WE): a green 2554, a red 2500, a blue 2702, and a 302 on my computer desk.  The 302 rang so loud I had to disconnect the ringer, it even got on my nerves!  When I still lived at home I had a red round button Trimline in my room, I loved the lighted dial on that phone.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: deedubya3800 on October 16, 2010, 07:06:28 PM
Since I answered this question, my answer has changed.

I don't use my 1970 SC 500 anymore because I decided I don't like the feel of the fingerwheel. It feels like it's trying to twist my fingertip off when I dial on it.

I don't use my 1956 WE 500 because I bought it primarily to work on and use to illustrate the 5302 story.

I use the mess out of my 1954 WE 302. I'll even move it with me from room to room because it is just my favorite phone to use! I like that it still looks good, but it's nowhere near museum quality, so I don't feel bad about using it. :)

My 1946/60 WE 5302 still has its permanent home on my desk in my office, and I use it whenever I'm in there.

But my ivory 1942 WE 302 is not for use, except for testing it or showing it to someone. Other than that, its home is going to be in a display case once I get one. Until then, it's wrapped in cloth in a plastic shoebox in the closet. 8)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: elmwood on November 09, 2010, 05:00:46 PM
Yup, I use them, but also keep a cordless on hand.  I like antique and vintage items that I can actually use on a day-to-day basis, rather than just have sit there and look pretty. I like the contrast of a desk that has a 22" LCD monitor and a new PC or Mac, with a 40 or 50 year old telephone sitting beside it.  Then again, if I had hundreds of phones, yup, I'd build the shelves in the basement and geek out.  :D

I do wish there was an inexpensive way to silence a ringer, though, without physically disconnecting it.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Jim Stettler on November 09, 2010, 05:24:06 PM
Quote from: elmwood on November 09, 2010, 05:00:46 PM
Then again, if I had hundreds of phones, yup, I'd build the shelves in the basement and geek out.  :D

I do wish there was an inexpensive way to silence a ringer, though, without physically disconnecting it.


I wonder if a "polarity guard" (bridge rectifier) placed across the line of the phones that you want non ringing would work., it would block the AC ring signal .

Just a thought,
Jim

I
Title: Great Dial for Your1942 Ivory 302
Post by: Doug Rose on November 09, 2010, 05:56:14 PM

"But my ivory 1942 WE 302 is not for use, except for testing it or showing it to someone. Other than that, its home is going to be in a display case once I get one. Until then, it's wrapped in cloth in a plastic shoebox in the closet."

Speaking of your beautiful 42 Ivory 302, there is a Great Early Ivory 5J on eBay dated II 41 that would look fantastic on your phone. It would really be perfect for it......Doug

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270658453852&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: bingster on November 09, 2010, 06:20:00 PM
Quote from: elmwood on November 09, 2010, 05:00:46 PMI do wish there was an inexpensive way to silence a ringer, though, without physically disconnecting it.

If you're talking about a 500 set, there is:
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Sargeguy on November 09, 2010, 08:17:38 PM
Currently I have a 151Al candlestick in the hallway, a B-1 in the living room, a matching date 1938 302 w celluloid dial plate in the bedroom, a 1956 500 with 1963 pink color change set including the soft-centered dial in the baby's room, and an 80s era  trim-line that I use for touch-tone calls in the basement.  The 1956 554 in the kitchen (aka FIOS-slayer) is unplugged.  All of the phones are fully functional although I have the ringer detached on some to keep the REN low (and not wake the baby).  I use each one of them on a daily basis. 
Title: Re: Great Dial for Your1942 Ivory 302
Post by: deedubya3800 on November 09, 2010, 08:29:37 PM
Quote from: Kidphone on November 09, 2010, 05:56:14 PM

Quote from: deedubya3800 on October 16, 2010, 07:06:28 PM
But my ivory 1942 WE 302 is not for use, except for testing it or showing it to someone. Other than that, its home is going to be in a display case once I get one. Until then, it's wrapped in cloth in a plastic shoebox in the closet. 8)

Speaking of your beautiful 42 Ivory 302, there is a Great Early Ivory 5J on eBay dated II 41 that would look fantastic on your phone. It would really be perfect for it......Doug

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270658453852&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Yes, I saw that this morning. Somehow, I just like the brushed metal fingerwheel on mine. It is a 5J, but the fingerwheel just looks unique. I'm sure there are others like it out there, but pre-war colors are so rare to begin with they're probably not easy to find. I'll eventually have a post-war ivory set, and perhaps a post-war red as well (my grandparents had one once, long before I was around), and I'm sure that'll have a clear finger wheel. :)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Doug Rose on November 10, 2010, 03:03:13 PM
Ivory 5J dial dated II/41 for $25? It was a deal. Not too long ago a 5J was getting close to $100......Doug
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on November 10, 2010, 07:44:24 PM
You're right Doug.  A couple of years ago I bought a pair of 5J dials from eBay.  The selling price was just over $100, plus shipping.  So this was half that price.  I'd have to pull them out to see how the dates compare to this recent sale.  I haven't used either one of them.  I grabbed them at that price for future use.  I guess I should have waited.
Title: Re: 5J Dial Digression
Post by: deedubya3800 on November 11, 2010, 03:19:14 AM
Is there a meaningful difference between the pre-war and post-war 5J dials, other than the date itself? I don't know the date, but I still know where there's a perfectly serviceable 5J mounted to a metal 302 shell that's just screaming, "Strip me down and fill in this hole in my head!"

If it weren't for the fact that my ivory is a pre-war (technically, early-war) original, I'd be so tempted to buy it, strip the metal shell down, and swap the fingerwheels so that I'd have an all-bare-metal 302, which I think would be so pretty!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: elmwood on November 11, 2010, 11:11:51 PM
Quote from: bingster link=topic=102.msg49926#msg49926
If you're talking about a 500 set, there is:
/quote]

Awesome.  Thanks!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Greg G. on November 14, 2010, 04:27:18 PM
I change my in-use phones now and then.  Looking at this thread again, I realized the 4 in use were all black, so changed at least one.  I have one by my recliner I just swapped out for the beige 59-500, I have my 1930 Hotel phone on the wall in the hallway.

In my "man cave"/bedroom/workshop, I have my 56-500 black that I acquired my land line number from, and by the head of my bed I have the 5302 I just got done messing with.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Doug Rose on November 14, 2010, 04:52:12 PM
My current working phone in my phone room is a mahogany North Galion.  I can't believe how heavy the handset it, it feels twice the weight of an F1. As well as a WE 305 with the ringer off.  I have a WE 306 our bedroom as it does not ring....Doug
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: deedubya3800 on November 14, 2010, 04:52:30 PM
Quote from: Brinybay on November 14, 2010, 04:27:18 PM
...and by the head of my bed I have the 5302 I just got done messing with.

Just got done? So did you get the problems solved on it? Or is this a different 5302?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Greg G. on November 14, 2010, 05:02:10 PM
Quote from: deedubya3800 on November 14, 2010, 04:52:30 PM
Quote from: Brinybay on November 14, 2010, 04:27:18 PM
...and by the head of my bed I have the 5302 I just got done messing with.

Just got done? So did you get the problems solved on it? Or is this a different 5302?

I'm referring to this one:  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3039.0 (http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3039.0)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: elmwood on November 16, 2010, 01:12:29 AM
A story from a few years ago:

My then-girlfriend woke up, and asked to use the phone on the bedside table next to her.  I said "sure!"  It was a beige Trimline.  She picks it up, probably expecting to see a "normal" Touchtone phone.  Instead, she encounters a dial, shakes her head, looks at me holding out the handset, and half-jokingly says "What the f**k is this?"  I responded "A phone, duh!", trying to hold back my laughter.

We're both Generation Xers, so we grew up with rotaries; it wasn't as if she had never seen one before.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Jim Stettler on November 16, 2010, 10:57:30 AM
Quote from: elmwood on November 16, 2010, 01:12:29 AM
A story from a few years ago:

My then-girlfriend woke up, and asked to use the phone on the bedside table next to her.  I said "sure!"  It was a beige Trimline.  She picks it up, probably expecting to see a "normal" Touchtone phone.  Instead, she encounters a dial, shakes her head, looks at me holding out the handset, and half-jokingly says "What the f**k is this?"  I responded "A phone, duh!", trying to hold back my laughter.

We're both Generation Xers, so we grew up with rotaries; it wasn't as if she had never seen one before.


That is the cool thing abot rotary trimlines. They are stealth-at-rest, (a discerning eye can tell that the rotary handset is slightly wider than the TT).

Rotary trimlines are a good prank to pull on you kids friends.

JMO,
Jim

BTW  WE trimlines are a sleeper and well worth collecting. I still come across 1-2 a month at the thrift stores. I will only buy them if they are nice and rotary or round button at the $6.00 leval.  I buy them all at the $4.00 leval. I limit myself because I already have lots of trimlines.

Another sleeper is early designline stuff. The early stuff was well made and some models had several variations.  There were 8 variations on the early celebraty. 2 housing styles, 2 colors and 2 trim packages.
JMO,
Jim
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tom B on November 21, 2010, 02:32:58 PM
Here's some pics of my daily driver 56 500 phone, which is in my downstairs hall. I have an avocado 61 in our bedroom at the moment as I like to rotate my modest collection.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on November 21, 2010, 02:50:28 PM
An early CORDLESS model 500, that IS rare.

Just teasing, I think I see a cord slinking in behind the (is that a) radiator cover in the first picture?

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tom B on November 21, 2010, 03:06:25 PM
It should have more than the handset cord? No wonder it's never rung!!

But seriously yes - the wall cord is tucked behind the radiator cover  :D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on November 21, 2010, 03:43:02 PM
My first trip from Canada to England was when I was 14 in 1971. I recall seeing several North American cars on the roads over there and they were North American cars like Mustang Boss 302's, Shelby KR500's & Corvette's. I still think how cool that would have been (except when stopped at the Petrol station) to have one of them amoungst all the other cars on the roads such as Ford Fiesta's etc. Little did I know that there were North American phones hidding over there as well!

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tom B on November 21, 2010, 04:01:29 PM
Terry
There are online stores in the UK where 500's can be bought that were used in the US air bases during the Cold War, and which are now largely closed down and empty.
For my part I've bought mine off ebay from US sellers, and imported them. I've always liked the 500 series, ever since I was a kid watching US TV shows like The Invaders and others.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tom B on November 24, 2010, 04:53:49 PM
I just took this phone offline to check out whether its guts needed a dusting and general tickling. I decided to look at the code on the rear of the dial, and was gobsmacked (somewhat surprised) to read 7C 54 and then 6 56. Dates for network and ringer are also 6 56. Shell date is 69 - this then appears that the phone was once a Mahogany Brown - D'oooh!!!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on November 24, 2010, 04:57:20 PM
Tom, are all of the footpads still suede covered?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tom B on November 24, 2010, 04:58:26 PM
Dennis
They are indeed
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on November 24, 2010, 05:27:29 PM
I'll bet you're right on that phone.  It began it's life as a Mahogany set.  If only it could talk.......
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tom B on November 24, 2010, 05:36:29 PM
Dennis - just my luck -  :D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dave Zemens on November 24, 2010, 05:45:01 PM
I have several old rotary phones, but this is the only one that's in service at the moment.  I believe this is a Dennis Markham Vintage Rotary Phone.  But my memory fails me sometimes.  I bet Dennis remembers.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dennis Markham on November 24, 2010, 09:37:34 PM
First of all, Welcome to the Forum Dave.  I don't think you got a welcome aboard with your initial post.

Of course I remember this red phone.  I gave the phone to Dave for his birthday four years ago.  He had asked me to keep my eyes open for a red phone that was near to his birthday of 11-12-55.  I went into my dungeon to look around as I knew I had a few red phones lurking in the shadows there.  The first one I picked up read 11/55 on the bottom.  Wow!  I opened it up.  The housing is dated 11 11 55 3.  The -53 dial is dated from one month earlier, 10/55.  The handset is marked 11/55 but both elements are dated 11 14 55.  So the dates were the day before and the day after his date of birth.  Pretty close.  I was able to get it "refurbished" in time for his birthday.  It was a real "find" and ended up in the hands of the right person.
Title: A Dennis Markham Restoration
Post by: Dave Zemens on November 24, 2010, 10:43:48 PM
I knew you'd remember both the details of how the phone came to be and have photos, too!  It's a beautiful phone and it's been serving proudly for the last four years. It was a great birthday present!

Gosh, it doesn't seem like it was four years ago already.  Hey, that was two weeks after I retired!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: stub on November 24, 2010, 11:55:12 PM
Dave ,
          That's a sweet phone there!!!!!!!!!!!!  stub
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dave Zemens on November 24, 2010, 11:59:18 PM
It's a beautiful phone stub, just like all the phones Dennis restores.  My picture is lacking, but the phone is a beauty.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Kenny C on July 26, 2011, 09:36:12 PM
This topic needs revived!!!


Here is my phone that has been on the night stand for months.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: deedubya3800 on July 26, 2011, 10:33:32 PM
Beautiful! I also have and use a 302 on my night stand. The 354 is still in the hallway, a 2001 Cortelco 500 is in the living room because it has the softest adjustable ringer, a 2005 Cortelco 2500 is in the kitchen because it's my only Touch Tone phone in working condition, and my daily-user D1/E1 202 is on my desk in the office, and a 5302 is hooked up on a shelf in there so I can hear it ring as the 202 has no ringer.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: GusHerb on July 26, 2011, 11:34:31 PM
I've had my 1937 302 hooked up in the dining room for 5 years. It's the only ringer I really like and don't get sick of (500's ringer is irritating to listen to all the time). The 302's ringer is pleasing to the ear and is loud enough that it does the trick for the whole (quite large) house.
Last year my mom found this neat old phone table from the 40's or 50's so now it sits on that.  

Have also got a white S-C 500 hooked up in my bedroom with the ringer disconnected. All of my other phones are on display in my bedroom.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Aaron W. Gonya on July 27, 2011, 02:41:05 AM
At the moment I have a white 70's ITT 500 clone on my nightstand, and a black Northern Electric 500 clone on my desk.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: old_phone_man on July 27, 2011, 07:22:16 PM
Right now I just have 4 hooked up (down from 6).

I keep a Candlestick in the Dining Room, easily visible when you walk in the front door.  I have a restored Imperial (my Wife's favorite) in the Living Room, an old Kellogg in the Den (Love that Ringer) and a D1 in the Bedroom.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: hemi71x on August 01, 2011, 11:22:34 PM
With the help of a well known member on this forum, i have phones of the 30's and 50's working, all over the house.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: bigdaddylove on August 08, 2011, 01:49:30 PM
Currently I have two vintage phones hooked up for regular use.

The first is a WE 302 which sits on my side of the couch in the living room.

The second is a WE 211 which sits up in the loft; that's my man cave/hidey-hole/hobby shop.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: LM Ericsson on August 08, 2011, 05:01:32 PM
I use a 1963 Western Electric 565HD+ multiline at my computer desk
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: MAin 0-2368 on August 09, 2011, 03:00:24 PM
I've got a four line telephone line simulator with two 500s, a 5302 and a 302 around the house as an intercom system. My own private phone company! Does that count?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: old_stuff_hound on August 09, 2011, 05:49:46 PM
Newly-acquired 302 on my desk, 554 hanging in the garage, Galion and repro candlestick (ca. 1979 -- does that count? ;-) in the living room....
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: TelePlay on August 09, 2011, 11:00:14 PM
Using a yellow '73 Princess on my night stand next to my bed, a refurbished WE 202 with subset in the living room and a refurbished WE 51AL with subset on my desk (side tone and all). Plus all the phones I install on stage sets for live theater plays. I do have a cell phone for work (driving). If it doesn't have a dial, it's not . . .
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Nilsog on August 09, 2011, 11:14:22 PM
I have 3 hooked up in my 'man cave', a 302, a 554, and the big emergency phone I bolted to the wall. I have my red 500 from the fire dept in the living room and the black 500 chuck sent me on my night stand. We have some crappy Chinese thing in the kitchen until I get a wall phone that's not 'puke green', as my fiancee calls it. She wants a blue 554, specifically.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: troydog on August 10, 2011, 04:33:47 AM
I only use the good old buys for my phone calls at home. I got a trimline rotary some odd green blue color lol it has faded. I like it for the dial light but not a fan of wall warts.

I got a mickey mouse phone 1976 rotary ugly thing but works. I use it in the living room

I got a late 1990's itt rotary 500 I used it but that baby is going to the land filed or might use it for a bathroom phone.

Bedroom I got a 302 black metal phone I love it just got it today and man this thing is built to last.

I might look to replace all my phones with a 302.

If I need touch tone I just use the mobile phone.

I could still kick myself I had at 1 time 3 princes phones  2 white 1 red rotary with wall wart new in box. But my wonderful father throw them out in the trash. ugh.

The only touch tone phone I ever owned was crap walmart thing that had a cord about 3 feet long. No way to replace the cord since the thing was glued together. That was my last new phone I only use old phones and love them for what they are.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on August 10, 2011, 08:06:20 AM
For the moment this Norwegian telephone serves as kitchen telephone.

This is a Norwegian (Elekrisk bureau) from approx 1925. This is claimed to be a copy of an American telephone, but I don't know.

My newest telephone in service is a 2500 from the seventies.

dsk
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: rdelius on August 10, 2011, 09:58:34 AM
Western Electric did produce some export sets with that style handset and cradle ,most likely during WW1 when Belgium was occupied
Robby
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: George Knighton on November 21, 2012, 09:48:28 PM
I have two Model 302 in everyday use, one wartime plastic and one metal pre-war.  Just regular everyday black 302's, but I like them.  :-)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Phonesrfun on November 21, 2012, 09:58:35 PM
I routinely rotate mine.  I probably have two or three connected at any one point in time.

It's fun.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on November 22, 2012, 12:06:50 AM
Welcome to the Rotary Forum George. I predict more than two 302's for you soon!

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: George Knighton on November 22, 2012, 10:36:31 AM
Quote from: AE_collector on November 22, 2012, 12:06:50 AM
Welcome to the Rotary Forum George. I predict more than two 302's for you soon!

Terry

Thank you...hat's a distinct possibility.  I'm already poking around even on Thanksgiving morning.  :-)

Attached is one of my phones.  Just plain old black 302's.  But...you're right.  I am looking around.  Beware an old man with an obsession!

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: George Knighton on December 15, 2012, 08:22:07 AM
The hobby has grown a bit, over just a couple of weeks.  Maybe it's not an obsession, but even if it is...it's just about the cheapest obsession I've ever had.  :-)

I've already installed two extra phone jacks so that we can use these things.

And now I'm seriously toying with installing two more jacks upstairs.  That'll be more annoying because I'll have to fish through the walls via the attic or something.

Two projects being worked into the temporal budget:  (1) an ivory 306 that I'm taking it easy with, 'cause it'll be in view and I want it right; (2) a metal 302 that'll be an amalgamation of parts from some junky phones.  It'll never be worth anything, but it'll be nice.


Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dialvintage on December 20, 2012, 09:05:30 PM
Newbie here. I have one rotary phone- I'm a Brit and it is a GPO British phone from roughly 1967. I got it 2 days ago and don't use my boring modern phone now unless i have to ring a call centre where you have to press numbers to get through. I love dialling my rotary phone and its ring ring bell sound is sweet!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on December 20, 2012, 09:22:22 PM
Welcome to the CRPF Dialvintage. Your fellow countrymen here on the forum will help you determine which GPO phone should be next on your wanted list!

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: poplar1 on December 20, 2012, 09:33:49 PM
>And now I'm seriously toying with installing two more jacks upstairs.  That'll be more annoying because I'll have to >fish through the walls via the attic or something.




George,

As long as you are adding more jacks, it would be a good idea to "home run" individual wires from each jack to a centralized location. That way, when you decide to get a Panasonic hybrid key system, it will be possible to have each jack go to a different extension number on the Panasonic.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dialvintage on December 20, 2012, 10:02:10 PM
Quote from: AE_Collector on December 20, 2012, 09:22:22 PM
Welcome to the CRPF Dialvintage. Your fellow countrymen here on the forum will help you determine which GPO phone should be next on your wanted list!

Terry


Thanks Terry!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HowardPgh on December 21, 2012, 09:56:31 AM
I use my dial phones.  I use one for a while then change it for another.
Currently I am using a D1 type that is coupled to a 685 subset.
Howard

If a black 2500 is considered an antique- I use that one also since it has an amplified handset. 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WesternElectricBen on January 04, 2013, 05:51:17 PM
I hate modern phones, though my parents keep them around because they like the (trouble some) cordless functions.
Ben
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on January 07, 2013, 07:33:13 PM
I have no idea if the vast majority of my phones work or not. I have an AE 40 & an AE 50 both with full chrome and in service in our house but that is probably it. Oh wait, an AE 43A and an AE 83A hooked up and wall mounted in a now unused room. One of each because at the time we had two phone lines.

I am a hoarder as well with good intentions of woking on them one day but as long as they look half decent I am okay with them as is.

Terry 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: LarryInMichigan on January 07, 2013, 07:57:30 PM
Quote from: AE_Collector on January 07, 2013, 07:33:13 PM
I have no idea if the vast majority of my phones work or not. I have an AE 40 & an AE 50 both with full chrome and in service in our house but that is probably it. Oh wait, an AE 43A and an AE 83A hooked up and wall mounted in a now unused room. One of each because at the time we had two phone lines.

I am a hoarder as well with good intentions of woking on them one day but as long as they look half decent I am okay with them as is.

Terry 

Being an engineer, I cannot ignore things that do not work.  Therefore, nearly all of my phones, electric clocks, radios, and fans are at least minimally functional.  Some of my clocks are a bit noisy, and many of my phones (mostly the European ones) have static problems in their transmitters, but they nearly all otherwise work.  I get a bit of perverse satisfaction knowing that I can grab almost anything off of any shelf and use it, give it as a gift, or sell it whenever I wish. 

Larry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: southernphoneman on March 03, 2013, 04:59:38 PM
in my house i have 3 phones hooked up(all vintage of course) black 554-kitchen,black 500-bedroom,and black 500-in bedroom number 2  ;)(now refered to as the telephone room) i have one modern uniden which i WILL NOT use unless i have to. two of them are pictured below.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: DNO on March 07, 2013, 08:05:34 PM
I'm new to this but I couldn't wait to hook up my recent finds.  I have some modern wireless phones for convenience, when wandering around outside, for example.  But I love the D1 with a 685 subset that I've set up in the front room.  I also use a 1941 302 in the back room.  My wife insists on keeping her always reliable Northern Electric 'Finese' (same as a Trimline) in the bedroom.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: ItalianAce on April 01, 2013, 02:46:38 AM
I do. One reason is they last lol. I got tired of the Big Lots or Target phones that fall apart after awhile. I did a full restoration a 553A (picture below), and use it as the main phone (has pulse to tone conversion). I never have to worry about batteries going dead, plastic parts faling apart, and cheap circut boards going out. These phones are just simple wires.

If you see these I'd say grab them. The 553A (side tone) or 653A (antisidetone) or 533 (No Dial). They make great usable phones, have everything built into the phone (no subsets needed as its a phone/subset in one) and nice show pieces. They seem to be the "forgotten" phones that go by on ebay or other places unnoticed.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Doug Rose on April 01, 2013, 08:07:02 AM
Quote from: ItalianAce on April 01, 2013, 02:46:38 AM
I do. One reason is they last lol. I got tired of the Big Lots or Target phones that fall apart after awhile. I did a full restoration a 553A (picture below), and use it as the main phone (has pulse to tone conversion). I never have to worry about batteries going dead, plastic parts faling apart, and cheap circut boards going out. These phones are just simple wires.

If you see these I'd say grab them. The 553A (side tone) or 653A (antisidetone) or 533 (No Dial). They make great usable phones, have everything built into the phone (no subsets needed as its a phone/subset in one) and nice show pieces. They seem to be the "forgotten" phones that go by on ebay or other places unnoticed.
Outstanding!!! Great refurb....such a beautiful phone....Doug
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: ItalianAce on April 01, 2013, 02:52:52 PM
Hehe. Thanks. Took me three months because it was one of those "garbage peel" finds. Strangly the paper diagram and #2 dial was extermally mint (but internally off tune) inside but everything else was blah. Every wire had to be respaded (or missing), paint was gone to almost the copper coating, the 144 receiver had more dirt on it than a playpen etc. Im fanatical about original or nothing. Anyhow...I see these come up restored or not restored on ebay for cheap. I guess people pass them by or dont know about them or just dont like them. I see them as the wall candlestick lol. 553A/653A. But their like iron horses of phones with it all built into one unit. They'll last you decades easily. Take out the original trans component, and hotwire in a F1/T1 into the 323(BW) (or just put in a bulldog) and you have perfection even in sound. Far better than most of the crap out there today sold in Walmart Hehe.

Ace K.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: poplar1 on April 01, 2013, 04:05:21 PM
This style wall phone was made until at least 1944, so it was not only the companion for the candlseticks but also for the 202 and the early 302. The latest ones had the same B1A ringer, 101A induction coil, 5H dial, F-1 transmitter and HA-1 receiver as the 302.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: ItalianAce on April 01, 2013, 05:09:13 PM
Quote from: poplar1 on April 01, 2013, 04:05:21 PM
This style wall phone was made until at least 1944, so it was not only the companion for the candlseticks but also for the 202 and the early 302. The latest ones had the same B1A ringer, 101A induction coil, 5H dial, F-1 transmitter and HA-1 receiver as the 302.

Right right. The 653A (or a 553A converted too a 653A) is the antisidetone model with the 101A, 4H/5H, and Bulldog receiver. I know with the 553A there was the one with "Western Electric" and "Made In USA" stamped into the metal, and than other with the same decal what looked to be painted into the front top face of the phone. Most dont come with the added "Apartment Wood Board". These make good steady phones especially with a clean working dial. That is if you can stand up long enough and feel fine talking into a spitcup transmitter hehe. The 533A is the same as the 553A but the no dial (no dial plate) version. I recall about two years back someone listing one on ebay listed it simply as "Wall Version Of Candlestick Telephone" lol.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: southernphoneman on April 01, 2013, 05:12:46 PM
Quote from: ItalianAce on April 01, 2013, 02:46:38 AM
I do. One reason is they last lol. I got tired of the Big Lots or Target phones that fall apart after awhile. I did a full restoration a 553A (picture below), and use it as the main phone (has pulse to tone conversion). I never have to worry about batteries going dead, plastic parts faling apart, and cheap circut boards going out. These phones are just simple wires.

If you see these I'd say grab them. The 553A (side tone) or 653A (antisidetone) or 533 (No Dial). They make great usable phones, have everything built into the phone (no subsets needed as its a phone/subset in one) and nice show pieces. They seem to be the "forgotten" phones that go by on ebay or other places unnoticed.
now that is one cool phone!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Doug Rose on April 01, 2013, 05:30:46 PM
Quote from: ItalianAce on April 01, 2013, 02:52:52 PM
Hehe. Thanks. Took me three months because it was one of those "garbage peel" finds. Strangly the paper diagram and #2 dial was extermally mint (but internally off tune)
Ace K.


Ace.....what did you do with the #2 dial that was "but internally off tune"? Steve Hilsz is great at fixing them for $6 plus postage. Still a beautiful phone...great job...Doug
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: ItalianAce on April 02, 2013, 11:59:39 AM
It wouldn't dial out as it should; I had it pulsed 10 by an AT&T employee (that I know). I cleaned out all the dirt and dead bugs (yeah dead bugs lol) but had him set the pulse. Bell System put some pretty good protective coating and paints on their equipment because even after 70 years of life its still holding up paint wise. I was just thinking the other day how many phones, dials, etc went in the trash by people not knowing or caring about their late value. Espcially after the Bell break up or back in the early 1990s or so.

True story...not made up. On one of my yardsale 302 finds last year when I called the operator (0) and told her I was checking my rotary dial she said "Whats a rotary dial?" Young girl though that I guess was the one that sends out techs when phone lines aren't working right. Funny but sad at the same time lol.

Ace K.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Western Electric on April 03, 2013, 09:18:15 AM
I have 5 phones 4 work
2 500s
1 ae 80
1 ae 192
1 ae 40
we don't have a landline we just have cells  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
so I am making my own exchange
I am only 12
but my own house will have rotary phones
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: GusHerb on April 09, 2013, 03:09:02 AM
I know I must've posted in this thread some time ago, and I don't feel like skimming the whole thread to find what I've posted hahahaha.

As of current I've got 8 of my less-then-perfect-cosmetic-condition phones spread around the house for actual use. All ringers are disabled except the one in the 1937 302, which sets on a phone bench in the dining room, it has the most pleasant ring IMO.

The kitchen has a red 1980 Northern Telecom 500, with a modern Panasonic cordless phone beside on the counter for caller ID purposes.

In the family room are two black WE 500's on either end of the room on end tables, and sitting beside one of them is the home base/answering machine along with another Panasonic cordless handset. Neither are all matching-dates phones, both have metal dials.

In the basement is a 1972 or 4 Ivory colored WE 500.  Up in my bedroom I have a beige 1954 WE 500 (has been refurbished, plastic dial and much newer housing) Sitting beside it is another Panasonic cordless phone.

and last but not least in my office are a white 1974 round button Trimline, and a white square button 1979 Trimline. The former is connected to the second (VOIP) line, the latter the main (AT&T) line.

The two office phones are mostly used when I'm on the phone wringing good deals out of the phone/cable company or trying to get things fixed, so I need touchtone functionality for that.
I'll also admit, I probably use the cordless phones alot more then some on here but I am quite mobile when I'm on the phone alot of the time. That's why I picked out Panasonic, they seem to make the best cordless phone (no scratchy or buzzy background noises, just clear sound)

The rest of my phones are either on display or safely tucked away! I'm afraid to count how many I've got, but I know it's upwards of 80. It's absolutely amazing I managed to stop hoarding them.  :D Instead of collecting more I decided over the past two years to give them better wiring to operate on so I instead rewired all the phone wiring in the house and have been tinkering with that stuff.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: southernphoneman on April 09, 2013, 04:35:42 AM
Quote from: Nilsog on August 09, 2011, 11:14:22 PM
I have 3 hooked up in my 'man cave', a 302, a 554, and the big emergency phone I bolted to the wall. I have my red 500 from the fire dept in the living room and the black 500 chuck sent me on my night stand. We have some crappy Chinese thing in the kitchen until I get a wall phone that's not 'puke green', as my fiancee calls it. She wants a blue 554, specifically.
thank god for the man cave.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Greg G. on April 09, 2013, 02:29:06 PM
Three in the living room, and although they fully function and technically useable, they're not work-horses:

Living room:

1930 WE Hotel phone

AE 40

WE D1 1937

Two in the bedroom, matching green 500s.  1 is WE, the other S/C.  Plugged in and function, but not work-horses.  Ringers were disabled per Anita's request.

The only vintage work-horse, my daily driver, right now is a 302.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Greg G. on April 09, 2013, 02:46:24 PM
Quote from: ItalianAce on April 01, 2013, 02:46:38 AM
I do. One reason is they last lol. I got tired of the Big Lots or Target phones that fall apart after awhile. I did a full restoration a 553A (picture below), and use it as the main phone (has pulse to tone conversion). I never have to worry about batteries going dead, plastic parts faling apart, and cheap circut boards going out. These phones are just simple wires.

If you see these I'd say grab them. The 553A (side tone) or 653A (antisidetone) or 533 (No Dial). They make great usable phones, have everything built into the phone (no subsets needed as its a phone/subset in one) and nice show pieces. They seem to be the "forgotten" phones that go by on ebay or other places unnoticed.

I have two, one with and one w/o dial.  This really inspires me to clean them up and get them functioning.  Here's a PDF and a JPG scan of the real deal.  Somewhere on here is a re-make of the instructions that went on the front that Phonesrfun made.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tell302man on April 16, 2013, 05:45:08 PM
My nightstand but only one is hooked up.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: southernphoneman on April 16, 2013, 06:10:01 PM
Quote from: tell302man on April 16, 2013, 05:45:08 PM
My nightstand but only one is hooked up.
those are some cool candlesticks. :) :)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tell302man on April 16, 2013, 09:00:32 PM
Thanks! At this point in my life I have no idea how many phones I actually have. I am 35 and started getting them when I was 5 years old!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Mr. Bones on April 16, 2013, 10:38:04 PM
Quote from: tell302man on April 16, 2013, 05:45:08 PM
My nightstand but only one is hooked up.

     What a gorgeous selection of phones to wake up to each day!

     I've just got to wonder: "Which one is hooked up?" Also wondering how in the world you hit 'snooze', without jostling the phones / knocking them over... guess you're just used to where the alarm is at, like most of us.

Thanks for the great pics, and my best regards!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tell302man on April 17, 2013, 05:40:58 PM
It is the 102 in the front! No ringer box so no terrifying wake ups!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HarrySmith on April 17, 2013, 06:00:37 PM
The wood one laying in the back corner does not look right. You need to get rid of it. Send it to me ;D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: poplar1 on April 17, 2013, 06:15:11 PM
Quote from: tell302man on April 17, 2013, 05:40:58 PM
It is the 102 in the front! No ringer box so no terrifying wake ups!

That's why they made 684-BC subsets with no ringer.

The 701B Princess sets don't have ringers. They were usually installed with an E-1 ringer mounted on the baseboard. Some say that the original Princess sets used in field trials were called "Bedroom phones" and no ringer was provided, for the same reason you stated.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tell302man on April 18, 2013, 08:45:20 PM
I think I will keep that wooden one! It is in good shape and I do have the potbelly stick version as well!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on April 20, 2013, 07:31:03 PM
Get out...you have a Strowger 11 digit stick as well?

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tell302man on April 20, 2013, 09:56:15 PM
Yes I am telling you I am a phone hoarder and have been for years and years. I bought all of them I could for many years. I will take a pic and post if for ya! Here is a pic of me with it and two of my other favs.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on April 20, 2013, 10:04:07 PM
Nice Hoarding! A Strowger and an A1. I had a lead on a Strowger stick but it didn't seem to be coming together so I sort of gave up. I keep thinking I should give it one more attempt.

I consider myself a hoarder as well since I rarely do much restoring but I have slowed down on the accumulating lately and hopefully I will work more on restoration of some and new homes for others in the near future.

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Mr. Bones on April 20, 2013, 10:04:13 PM
Great shot, thanks for sharing!

Best regards!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Doug Rose on April 20, 2013, 10:07:06 PM
Beautiful phones...the Strowger is amazing. I hope you will share the story.....Doug
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tell302man on April 20, 2013, 10:10:57 PM
I have slowed as well Terry. I also have found that good ones are getting hard to find and ebay is over priced. I have hundreds of 302s and 202s. I have 20 dial Western Electric sticks alone. I love them and can't even think about selling them.I would like to post a pic of my entire collection but it would take me two days just to get them all out  :o Don't give up on the Strowger! Thanks for the nice comments about the pic.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tell302man on April 20, 2013, 10:21:40 PM
Well I paid out the nose for it lol. It was in Roanoke Va in a collectors estate. I begged and I mean begged the people to sell it to me. I am not sure how long that gentleman had it. I am guessing more than 60 years. I ended up paying a little less than what they bring on ebay but when I saw it I knew I had to have it. I also bought this payphone for 200 bucks which I thought was a steal. Sorry about the pic but it is in its spot and never moves. I ended up getting the Strowger, Payphone, selecto phone, and several Western Electric dial sticks for about 3000.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on April 21, 2013, 01:18:52 AM
I'm using my Black 1957 500 phone in living room, a 1964 Light blue 500i in my music room, and, my 1965? yellow wall phone in kitchen, but, at the moment, I have that one disconnected.
Bill Cahill
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: liteamorn on May 10, 2013, 09:13:28 PM
Quote from: tell302man on April 16, 2013, 05:45:08 PM
My nightstand but only one is hooked up.
And a Marpac sleep machine :)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tell302man on May 16, 2013, 08:15:36 PM
haha I have to have that thing to sleep!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Shovelhead on June 16, 2013, 10:13:14 PM
As a addition to the collection posted earloer I now have a 1D2 with a dumb board that is the daily driver in the basement.
I am now collecting the parts to restore my 233G. Once that is complete, the next task will to construct a controller as I REALLY want it to fully function.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Rexophone on June 18, 2013, 04:12:46 PM
When I became one of the first Dallas users of Verizon's new fiber telephone service a few years ago, I thought it would be amusing to hook up my 1920s Western Electric candlestick phone.  Certainly the new and the old!

Steve
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Dixon Hall on July 07, 2013, 11:54:18 AM
Currently have a 202 and a 302 on my desk, along with a red 500.  Have a 302 in the living room and another in the master bedroom. Candlestick in the foyer a la Andy Hardy. Brass 202-style phone in the powder room. All see use. I also have some cordless phones, which have their place.  I use a rotary a few times a week.  There are a few miscellaneous other rotaries around the place that I haven't gotten around to finding a spot for, but they work.  Dix
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Birdman115 on July 11, 2013, 12:34:44 AM
I have over 70 phones, AE, WE, S-C, Kellogg and Leich.  They all work.  Some use subsets, others are self-contained.  I rotate the phones at least once a week because I want to use them.  I have DialGizmos attached to all the outlets and this permits me to do * and # and have last number redial as well as have 6 speed numbers.  I get a kick out of using these old phones with these new functions.  With the DialGizmo, my 90 year old candlestick is almost state of the art!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Argee on July 11, 2013, 07:31:42 PM
All the phones that are hooked up and working:

AE34 on my desk
North Electric Galion on my wife's desk
WE 202 in the hallway phone nook
50AL candlestick in the Dining room
WE 102 in my nightstand
AE183 Spacemaker in the Sewing Room
WE 701 Princess in the Guest Bedroom
AE50 in the Kitchen
AE83 Spacemaker in the workshop

and a 2500 that I retrofitted with a 500 Shell in the Living room.  We had to have one touch tone phone in the house.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: decked002 on October 21, 2013, 11:49:20 AM
Been using my 102 /w 534 ringer box since about 5 minutes after it arrived in the mail.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Contempra on October 21, 2013, 04:42:13 PM
I actually use 2 old phones for the moment. in my kitchen its a Contempra.on my desk its a push button desk phone and in my living room is a modern touch tone with name and number display.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: c64man on October 28, 2013, 10:06:17 PM
I use all of mine

In order by rooms

Master Bedroom
Touchtone Princess
Touchtone Blue trimline- ringer disabled

Bathroom
Wall mount brown rotary trimline

Kitchen
Wall Mount Black WE500

Living room
Brown WE500
Orange Stromberg Carlson Slenderette

Kids room
Red Western Electric 500

Computer room
Black WE 500
Black WE 2500

I need to go about disabling some ringers because at this point when someone calls the landline every phone rings and its a headache
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: LM Ericsson on October 28, 2013, 10:57:43 PM
Probably by the end of next month I will no longer have any of my antique phones for daily use anymore.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WesternElectricBen on October 28, 2013, 11:11:21 PM
Quote from: LM Ericsson on October 28, 2013, 10:57:43 PM
Probably by the end of next month I will no longer have any of my antique phones for daily use anymore.

Dropping the phone company, hu?

I plan to buy this x-link thing, so I can use my cell on an old phone.

Ben
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: LM Ericsson on October 28, 2013, 11:23:31 PM
We have VOIP, specifically Vonage and My antique phones work on the system, I am just going to be using a modern phone in my bedroom.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WesternElectricBen on October 28, 2013, 11:25:37 PM
Quote from: LM Ericsson on October 28, 2013, 11:23:31 PM
We have VOIP, specifically Vonage and My antique phones work on the system, I am just going to be using a modern phone in my bedroom.

Huh... Why?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WesternElectricBen on October 28, 2013, 11:29:24 PM
Well, I have been on this server for over a year, and about 1,100 post later I still have not posted about what I have been using every day.

In my room I have two phone hooked up

1963 564 Multiline phone (on my desk next to the computer)

1963 500 (next to my bed... and yes.. We do get calls at midnight)

in the kitchen a 1978 White 500

and in the shop (not shown) a 1984 or so 554 that MagicMo gave me! :)

Ben
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WEBellSystemChristian on October 29, 2013, 12:31:44 AM
Quote from: LM Ericsson on October 28, 2013, 11:23:31 PM
We have VOIP, specifically Vonage and My antique phones work on the system, I am just going to be using a modern phone in my bedroom.

Why not use a 2500 or other touch tone phone from the '70s? I have VOIP too, but I have two 2500s (One is a 1984 WE in green, the other an originally WE but refurbed by AT&T in black from '79) in my bedroom, and we have a SC Trimline in Beige in the kitchen.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: twocvbloke on October 29, 2013, 05:43:11 AM
Currently, the oldest phone hooked up to the phoneline is the Lilac-blue BT Relate 200 I picked up in August (doesn't seem that long ago!!), it was built some time in the 90's, so it's not too new!! I have been tempted to plug in the AE80 though, but I haven't bothered to deal with the extension wiring, so there's no spare sockets to put it in anywhere... :D

The issue with using the older phones is that people on the other end complain of being on a "bad line", I guess they expect same-room quality calls rather than something going through a carbon granule transmitter before reaching them or something... :-\
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: decked002 on October 29, 2013, 06:20:13 AM
The only problem i ever had with my W.E. 102 was a staticky,ringing sound in my ear piece.
Since i have DSL internet, i needed a filter connected to my phone jack which resolved the problem.
Never had a complaint about a bad line or any other problems on the 'other end.'
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: poplar1 on October 29, 2013, 09:31:56 AM
Quote from: twocvbloke on October 29, 2013, 05:43:11 AM
Currently, the oldest phone hooked up to the phoneline is the Lilac-blue BT Relate 200 I picked up in August (doesn't seem that long ago!!), it was built some time in the 90's, so it's not too new!! I have been tempted to plug in the AE80 though, but I haven't bothered to deal with the extension wiring, so there's no spare sockets to put it in anywhere... :D

The issue with using the older phones is that people on the other end complain of being on a "bad line", I guess they expect same-room quality calls rather than something going through a carbon granule transmitter before reaching them or something... :-\

If they complain, this is a case of "the pot calling the kettle black" or "the pot talking to the kettle." I find it amusing when calls from a cell phone or from a MagicJack or other VOIP suddenly disappear into thin air. Usually, the person will call me back and ask "what happened?" as if there were some problem on my 5ESS "real" phone line!

And as for what they should expect? It's unbelievable how poor the quality is on many cell phone calls. Not to mention the total lack of sidetone so cell phone users talk as loudly as near-deaf people.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: brshaffer on October 30, 2013, 02:30:45 PM
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on October 28, 2013, 11:11:21 PM
I plan to buy this x-link thing, so I can use my cell on an old phone.

Ben,

I have an x-link gateway, and I've been using it for about 6 months now.  It's a wonderful, amazing device, and my experience with it has been flawless and seamless.  The x-link picks up pulses from every phone I have, even ones with sluggish dials, and you can even set different ring cadences (long US ring vs. two short UK rings for example).

A word of caution though: the x-link only has enough REN (ringing voltage) to ring newer phones i.e. those that were originally modular--so a 1977 WE500 will ring, but a 1955 will not.  And you won't get a peep out of a WE302.  Everything else works, just not the ringer.

I purchased a Viking RG-10A ring voltage booster to solve that problem. You wire the Viking in line between the phones and the x-link.  After installing, there isn't a phone you can't ring.

I currently have three 302s hooked up to it regularly and they all ring perfectly.  To stress test it, I plugged in everything I could: 3 302s, 2 princesses, 3 500s, and a trimline--9 phones in total and they all rang without effort.  What a sound!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WesternElectricBen on October 30, 2013, 06:47:38 PM
Quote from: brshaffer on October 30, 2013, 02:30:45 PM
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on October 28, 2013, 11:11:21 PM
I plan to buy this x-link thing, so I can use my cell on an old phone.

Ben,

I have an x-link gateway, and I've been using it for about 6 months now.  It's a wonderful, amazing device, and my experience with it has been flawless and seamless.  The x-link picks up pulses from every phone I have, even ones with sluggish dials, and you can even set different ring cadences (long US ring vs. two short UK rings for example).

A word of caution though: the x-link only has enough REN (ringing voltage) to ring newer phones i.e. those that were originally modular--so a 1977 WE500 will ring, but a 1955 will not.  And you won't get a peep out of a WE302.  Everything else works, just not the ringer.

I purchased a Viking RG-10A ring voltage booster to solve that problem. You wire the Viking in line between the phones and the x-link.  After installing, there isn't a phone you can't ring.

I currently have three 302s hooked up to it regularly and they all ring perfectly.  To stress test it, I plugged in everything I could: 3 302s, 2 princesses, 3 500s, and a trimline--9 phones in total and they all rang without effort.  What a sound!

Thanks for the information,

so what your saying, is, I can use a 196... multiline phone on it? With the ringer ringing?

Thank you,
Ben
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on October 31, 2013, 08:01:36 AM
What is a 196, or do you mean a 1960's multi-line key phone? A 196 is the wall version of an AE 186 5 line 1A2 type key phone though few people know that! The more often are referred to as a 186 wall phone.

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: poplar1 on October 31, 2013, 02:35:46 PM
Brian, what model X-link are you using? I have a BTTN (has the extra port for connecting a landline input). I just tried connecting it to 5 phones:

2 each 302
1 each 500 with 1959 ringer
1 each 2500 with 1981 ringer
1 each 2702 Princess

All ring simultaneously without any problems. I did have to change the Princess from a newer Signature Princess because the Sig. PRN ringer sounded weak when connected with 4 other ringers.





Quote from: brshaffer on October 30, 2013, 02:30:45 PM
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on October 28, 2013, 11:11:21 PM
I plan to buy this x-link thing, so I can use my cell on an old phone.

Ben,

I have an x-link gateway, and I've been using it for about 6 months now.  It's a wonderful, amazing device, and my experience with it has been flawless and seamless.  The x-link picks up pulses from every phone I have, even ones with sluggish dials, and you can even set different ring cadences (long US ring vs. two short UK rings for example).

A word of caution though: the x-link only has enough REN (ringing voltage) to ring newer phones i.e. those that were originally modular--so a 1977 WE500 will ring, but a 1955 will not.  And you won't get a peep out of a WE302.  Everything else works, just not the ringer.

I purchased a Viking RG-10A ring voltage booster to solve that problem. You wire the Viking in line between the phones and the x-link.  After installing, there isn't a phone you can't ring.

I currently have three 302s hooked up to it regularly and they all ring perfectly.  To stress test it, I plugged in everything I could: 3 302s, 2 princesses, 3 500s, and a trimline--9 phones in total and they all rang without effort.  What a sound!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Contempra on October 31, 2013, 03:09:46 PM
for myself poplar. on my phone line I have my Princess and 4 other phones ringing in the same time when I receive a call and all ring properly without problem.. I can tell you that my neighbor hear my phones. hahahahaha !
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Babybearjs on January 03, 2014, 02:22:49 AM
the only thing I use in my home..... all W.E. 400 series keysets  except for the 2564 I have to have to retrieve my voicemail....darned touchtone!   John
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Contempra on January 03, 2014, 09:17:26 AM
Quote from: Babybearjs on January 03, 2014, 02:22:49 AM
the only thing I use in my home..... all W.E. 400 series keysets  except for the 2564 I have to have to retrieve my voicemail....darned touchtone!   John


I use a touch-tone for an auto-responder and recording calls when I'm not at home. no choice, I have codes typing on keyboard before I can take my messages in my Inbox. ( Voicemail ).
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: old_stuff_hound on January 03, 2014, 08:47:10 PM
Quote from: poplar1 on October 29, 2013, 09:31:56 AM
It's unbelievable how poor the quality is on many cell phone calls. Not to mention the total lack of sidetone so cell phone users talk as loudly as near-deaf people.

+1000!

As for discussions about ringers, we have a 302, a Galion, a Trimline, and a modern electronic warbler that all go when a call comes in. The cats dive for cover! ;-)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: George Knighton on January 06, 2014, 04:29:09 PM
I finally broke down and bought one of those wireless devices that broadcasts to extensions, and bought a few extra extensions so that I can have phones scattered around the house.

302's, 500's, and 701's in use at the moment, and it's nice being able to scatter then around several to a room or in rooms where there is no jack.

Of course, I've had to switch the Airport/Time Machine to 5 GHz, but that's not a big deal.  :-)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: George Knighton on January 06, 2014, 04:32:11 PM
Quote from: old_stuff_hound on January 03, 2014, 08:47:10 PM
As for discussions about ringers, we have a 302, a Galion, a Trimline, and a modern electronic warbler that all go when a call comes in. The cats dive for cover! ;-)

Unfortunately, with my wireless setup only the hard wired devices get enough power to ring.

So four 302's and one 500 ring...the others are mute.

Another strange thing:  If I'm having a conversation in my office on a 302, every couple of minutes a phone somewhere in the house will give a short ½ ring.  This goes on as long as I'm on the call.

0_o

Haven't had the opportunity to figure out yet where it's coming from.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: mrbugsir on January 06, 2014, 05:53:27 PM
I acquired a PBX so all the phones I keep in my collection can actually fully function, and to limit my collection to 8. I did find my wife a French reproduction (1961) that will live upstairs and not be a part of the 8. I do dial out with a rotary phone for "real" phone calls, mostly when I order dinner from a takeout place and know that I will speak to a human. I was thinking about getting a tone generator in case I am ever confronted with a dreaded Auto Attendant  :o
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Greg G. on January 07, 2014, 11:23:49 PM
Quote from: mrbugsir on January 06, 2014, 05:53:27 PM
I acquired a PBX so all the phones I keep in my collection can actually fully function, and to limit my collection to 8. I did find my wife a French reproduction (1961) that will live upstairs and not be a part of the 8. I do dial out with a rotary phone for "real" phone calls, mostly when I order dinner from a takeout place and know that I will speak to a human. I was thinking about getting a tone generator in case I am ever confronted with a dreaded Auto Attendant  :o

Limit to 8?  hahaha!!!  That'll change, take our word for it!  Sounds like you have a 308 PBX like I do.  I only have one working phone plugged into it.  I mostly use it for testing other phones for basic functionality.  I can navigate the vast majority of phone trees as long as they don't insist on a # or * because the PBX acts as a tone generator.  Oh, and as I understand it, the 308 will technically support more than 8 phones, 4 per port I think.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: mrbugsir on January 08, 2014, 01:02:58 AM
Quote from: Brinybay on January 07, 2014, 11:23:49 PM
Limit to 8?  hahaha!!!  That'll change, take our word for it!

I figured I'd get some guff for that remark. As I discover more and more cool phones that are out there, I am certain I will want to expand my collection.

My PBX is an 816, and with its expansion module it has 16 total ports. I haven't looked into how many phone on each port, something to do with REN I am guessing? I want to have a collection in my basement office on a shelf, all fully functional and on their own lines so I can ring their bells when I show them off, but will also hook up the house's existing lines so I can intersperse other phones throughout. But my punchdown tool didn't even come with a 66 blade. Oh the humanity!

I have seen the collections other people have. I said, "Holy (bleep)! What have I gotten myself into?!!" But at this point I have lost more auctions than I can count, so 8 seems like a lofty goal at this point  >:(
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: twocvbloke on January 08, 2014, 10:23:26 AM
You could probably get away with 4 phones per port, so, 16x4=64 phones... ;D

It'd be safer with 2 per port though, just so you don't overload it... :)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on January 28, 2014, 09:48:35 AM
Almost every phone I use in the house is antique. I have one modern phone that I hate. I have a vintage push button phone, but, it's dead. DOA Haven't been able to fix it.
Still looking for parts to finnish my antique phones, and, hook them up. Oh, well.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HarrySmith on January 28, 2014, 12:06:33 PM
What parts are you looking for Bill?

MrBugSir, how is that 8 phone collection working out?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Scotophor on February 26, 2014, 02:12:18 AM
Where I come from, "antique" has the specific definition of 100 years old or older... so, being new to the hobby, I don't technically have any antique phones yet.

My oldest phone is a refurbed 302 with most parts from late '46 thru early '47, but handset parts ranging from 10-41 through 7-56, and it isn't ready for return to service yet. The only other phone I have that I consider "old" is an NE-500 with base, network, ringer and dial from '71 but refurb parts up to the handset and shell's dates of '84. The 500 is in service and 100% working including ringing and dialing out on my Verizon FiOS FTTH line.

If and when I get an antique phone, it will be with the intent of using it. Right now I have a cluttered room that could use a phone with a small footprint. I'm currently thinking either a wall phone like a 354 or a smaller one of similar vintage, or perhaps an Ericofon "cobra" phone. Maybe something else would go in that spot temporarily, like a clear trimline-style phone with neon like the one I was recently outbid for on eBay, or a small character/novelty phone that's currently in my watch list. A candlestick would be great, but I doubt I can find a genuine one within my budget and restoration abilities.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: mrbugsir on March 01, 2014, 01:29:28 AM
Quote from: HarrySmith on January 28, 2014, 12:06:33 PM
MrBugSir, how is that 8 phone collection working out?

I am over half way there already!

I have been spending most of my time preparing the electronic infrastructure to display my collection; learning about PBXes and punching down to 66 blocks, etc. Inspired with what others have done with their backboards, I realized mine was terrible, and that I had no place to put my PBX and my 66 blocks, so I have been rebuilding my "telco demarc" under the stairs. This included installing a wall-mounted 6-RU network cabinet for all my Ethernet switch equipment and a patch panel to terminate all the ports I ran throughout the house over the years. Just this week I tore out all the cables on one end and this weekend I'll punch them down to the panel. Once that is done, I'll disconnect all my existing phone lines, attach another sheet of plywood, and start building the telephone side.

I want all the phones in my collection to ring, I love the sound of the old bells, which was more of a challenge than expected because of the harmonic ringer surprise, but working on a solution for that, too. So my collection is staying pretty small so far. I found that although I like the classic phones, the more unusual phones spin my dial. I am guessing that I may have to adjust my collection size to 15.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HarrySmith on March 01, 2014, 06:10:42 AM
Sounds very nice! Also sounds like a ton of work! So, from 8 to 15 in 2 months, the disease is progressing ;D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on April 21, 2014, 02:03:13 AM
I need the blue receiver for a hard wired 500.
I also need a replacement dial mechanism for an early 500.
Need both sets of wires for an earlier model Bell.
Thanks.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Greg G. on April 22, 2014, 01:30:31 PM
Quote from: Scotophor on February 26, 2014, 02:12:18 AM
Where I come from, "antique" has the specific definition of 100 years old or older... so, being new to the hobby, I don't technically have any antique phones yet.

That's the rule US Customs goes by, also many dealers use it, and it's generally used by most people.  Apparently it's the only real law (in the US) defining an antique, but it's used by US Customs the purposes of imports, so it's not really a hard-and-fast, absolute rule in all cases.  A lot depends on the item in question, and it varies from one thing to the next.  Also depends on who you talk to.  Just like the saying "ask 10 people and you'll get at least 10 different answers", same goes for designating something as "antique", or even "vintage".  I personally would consider many of the phones in my collection "antique", even though they have at least another 10-20 years to go to reach 100, e.g. candlesticks, B1s and D1s I consider antique, maybe even some 302s. 

Here's a couple articles I found regarding the subject:

http://antiques.about.com/od/resourcesforbeginners/qt/aa040608a.htm (http://antiques.about.com/od/resourcesforbeginners/qt/aa040608a.htm)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antique)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Babybearjs on April 28, 2014, 02:16:02 AM
all the phones in my house are vintage... I'm using all WE 400 series keysets... have a 1A1 KTU in the closet and only 1 TT for calling my voicemail and other services... I was raised on rotary, and I'll die with it too! they outlast any TT phone even those made by W.E.!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tim Mc on July 26, 2014, 11:04:55 AM
I just installed this WE 653 after getting the parts back from the powdercoater.  It's an "upgrade" to the previous aqua 554 and 211.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Jimster on August 04, 2014, 12:29:00 AM
That is beautiful.  Another one for my WTB list.   ;D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Under Dog on October 23, 2014, 07:13:31 PM
Hi all.  New guy here.  My wife and kids prefer the cheap cordless phone in the house, but not me.  I still use my Grandfather's black 302 that he had for as long as I (or my mother) can remember!!!  NOTHING beats the ring of the old bells!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WEBellSystemChristian on October 23, 2014, 07:23:18 PM
Quote from: Under Dog on October 23, 2014, 07:13:31 PM
Hi all.  New guy here.  My wife and kids prefer the cheap cordless phone in the house, but not me.  I still use my Grandfather's black 302 that he had for as long as I (or my mother) can remember!!!  NOTHING beats the ring of the old bells!
Welcome to the forum!

Do you have any pictures of the phone?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: NorthernElectric on March 08, 2015, 07:21:54 PM
Just spotted this thread.  I selected 'I have no modern phones' in the poll.  I do have a couple that are a little more modern (probably only 20-30 years old), but they are in a box in the closet.  I also have a prepaid cell that mostly lives in the car and seldom gets used.  Sometimes I will bring it in to dial my home line to test the ringer on a vintage phone that I am working on or testing.  So what I meant by that is, I have no modern phones connected to my line.  At the moment, I am using a D1 and a 302.  And I have another D1 and a 352 that  am working on, a no dial 302 I just got today for parts to complete the 352, and will hopefully have a metal bodied 302 coming in the mail soon.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: podor on March 08, 2015, 09:18:22 PM
I have a fully functional WE 551b in my office that I use almost daily. I use an XLINK for all cell calls. The ones I use the most are a WE 2565 and a matching 4a setup (dates and all) from '82, which is pretty new compared to many others on this forum. Along with the other 8 or so on my KSU, I also have several classic phones throughout the house on my intercom system. I'm not a big fan of having phones I'm afraid to use. That keeps me from having some rare pieces, but for me, functionality is the fun part.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on April 24, 2015, 06:42:04 PM
I always have one connected.  Either the AE 40 or one of my Trimline phones.  They are on line with my DECT 6.0 cordless system that I use when keypad manipulation is a necessity.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on April 25, 2015, 03:03:03 AM
My PA(B)X does not understand anything else then rotary.
(B) because of modification to use one line as trunk line.
I guess it has been permanent with a 302 on my bedroom, and a AE 40 on my desk. A glowing wall mounted Starlite at the livingroom, and others will change form time to time.  I have a push button payphone in the basement, and of-course it is working with coins. (The Norwegian 10 kr has pretty equal size to the quarter so it is adjusted to accept the 10 kr. 1 coin and you may call all the world, and talk for as long as you want :-)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WEBellSystemChristian on May 10, 2015, 07:09:24 PM
I guess I never gave a complete up-to-date list on what we have in use in the house!

-2 WE 302s on my nightstand. I can get away with that because I have a spare bed next to mine, sharing a wooden chest as a nightstand. ;D

-WE 202 with 684-A subset in the loft.

-WE 151AL with 295-A subset in the dining room.

-1984 ITT 2500 in the master bedroom.

-Late-model single slot payphone in the basement.

I also hope to install a Yellow AE Spacemaker in the kitchen, but I'm not sure how. There are no wall phone mounts in the kitchen (one modular outlet), and the Spacemaker is far different from any 2554 or 554.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: WesternElectricBen on May 10, 2015, 07:45:28 PM
Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on May 10, 2015, 07:09:24 PM
I also hope to install a Yellow AE Spacemaker in the kitchen, but I'm not sure how. There are no wall phone mounts in the kitchen (one modular outlet), and the Spacemaker is far different from any 2554 or 554.

Actually, that should not be too hard as there are various routes to take. Assuming the jack is at hanging height, you could hang the subset next to the jack and run a short modular cord from the jack to the subset. Also, you could build a stand off, so the subset sits slightly proud of the wall. This works well as you do not see the jack nor the wire. Finally, another method is that you could remove the original jack plate and hardwire it directly in the phone.

Ben 
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on July 22, 2015, 02:57:46 PM
It is always a job to find a location for every phone I hope this one resists the sun. 30 years in a moist/wet tunnel was tough enough.
But no it is at our balcony:

dsk

http://tinyurl.com/ovb49hy (http://tinyurl.com/ovb49hy) 

PS
I was forced to do some minor modifications, the Ringer had the 2 x 500 ohms coils in parallel , I re-soldered it to series, and added a 1 microfarad capacitor in series, but left the 2 microfarad in position as in the schematic's. The 4 wire rubber cord was bad so I use one common for transmitter and receiver.  the dial return spring was rusted away, so I replaced the dial with one looking equal. The transmitter capsule was not good, even after drying and shaking, so it is replaced with another.
I turned the bell upside down to make it work as a buzzer to not wake up the neighbours.
DS
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: unbeldi on July 22, 2015, 03:03:53 PM
Quote from: dsk on July 22, 2015, 02:57:46 PM
It is always a job to find a location for every phone I hope this one resists the sun. 30 years in a moist/wet tunnel was tough enough.
But no it is at our balcony:

dsk

http://tinyurl.com/ovb49hy

Do you now experience the illusion of being on a ship?

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on July 22, 2015, 03:08:55 PM
It may be pretty windy, and I may see the creek. The telephone served in a tunnel used for ammunition storage during the cold war. I served there in 83, when we got automatizing.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: unbeldi on July 22, 2015, 03:49:48 PM
Quote from: dsk on July 22, 2015, 03:08:55 PM
It may be pretty windy, and I may see the creek. The telephone served in a tunnel used for ammunition storage during cold war. I served there in 83, when we got automatizing.

I think they were originally ship phones.  Perhaps sold as surplus to fit the purpose?
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on July 22, 2015, 04:35:01 PM
It belonged to the Coast artillery, a part of the navy. So, yes probably a ship telephone. 
dsk
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on July 22, 2015, 06:30:16 PM
Thanks for the look.  I like the simple, utilitarian phones.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: unbeldi on July 22, 2015, 07:15:37 PM
Quote from: dsk on July 22, 2015, 04:35:01 PM
It belonged to the Coast artillery, a part of the navy. So, yes probably a ship telephone. 
dsk

Hagenuk was well known for its marine communication systems, as well as other radio transmission systems.
Can these phones be found easily? The phone is actually quite modern looking.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Mr. Bones on July 22, 2015, 11:27:26 PM
Beautiful job, and view, Dag!

Thanks for sharing!

Best regards!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on July 23, 2015, 03:19:54 AM
Quote from: unbeldi on July 22, 2015, 07:15:37 PM
Quote from: dsk on July 22, 2015, 04:35:01 PM
It belonged to the Coast artillery, a part of the navy. So, yes probably a ship telephone. 
dsk

Hagenuk was well known for its marine communication systems, as well as other radio transmission systems.
Can these phones be found easily? The phone is actually quite modern looking.

Never seen one for sale, on the other hand, these were installed at the fortress in 1983, (probably designed 197x?) They did put them everywhere a wall telephone could be used!

dsk
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Jack Aman on July 23, 2015, 11:13:29 PM
I have two D1's and two 302's all house-wired to an Xlink blue tooth device.  Cell number is the only number I have. Works perfectly, dials out flawlessly, the Xlink rings all four with no problem, and I use them every day.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Tonyrotary on August 04, 2015, 08:18:02 PM
I answered this along time ago. Back then had a few. None currently hooked up. I really need to get a landline again. :(
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Russ62 on August 28, 2015, 01:55:11 AM
Hi,             I only have traditional phones hooked up as I don't like cordless.  Living room; AE80,  phone I first leased then bought from my first house I lived in as an adult,  also an AE21 desk stand at the bill paying desk and a Comdial/Stromberg 2500 to access menus,  kitchen, Gray 150G, hallway Western 197H, bedroom,  D1 works well  as bedside phone as ringer box is across the room under something, and not too loud and jarring in my ear.   Garage;  Western 500 nondial on long cord to also use as back yard phone. Some of these have the ringer disconnected so as not to exceed REN 5.                   Russell
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Welsh on October 08, 2015, 05:36:51 AM
I didn't intend to collect phones but having grown up in the house my grandparents and perents lived in from 1911 or so on to the 90s, we had some really pretty cool phones. Unfortunately we didnt keep all of them when the house was sold😔but I aslo have very fond memories of them and find myself gravitating more and more as I get older to surrounding myself with those items I come across for sale when they are affordable. My grandmother was a very innovative spirit and would get old phones that were cool and turn them into house phones. Practical woman that she was she hated shouting  around the house for people and had a phone in every room of the house. As well as outside lines in kitchen livingroom basement library diningroom and two bedrooms. I guess you could say she had a phone fetish of sorts lol. Many of them were deco style wall phones with metal subset boxes that had  been painted to camoflage the boxes to match the walls.

These are the ones I have hooked up right now but have several others waiting to be connected as soon as i have the rooms ready for them.  SC/Kitchen, brass and bakelite with ringer base / livingroom , kellogg900 /bedroom. All are VOIP.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: EdTel on November 08, 2015, 10:39:18 PM
I currently use this old Monophone that belonged to my Dad, which makes it very special to me.  I kind of like the fact that I can use a phone that is over 70 years old and it still continues to operate well.  Not to mention that I love the look of it.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on November 09, 2015, 04:46:44 AM
Hi, and welcome to the forum.
I have one too, at my desk at home. Impressingly good quality of sound for such old device. I made a "poll" at home, and this was the most popular design without any discussion.

dsk
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AL_as_needed on April 11, 2016, 03:14:18 PM
Two serve the main bulk of calls, a '63 500 C/D and a 554 of mixed years. When the mood strikes, I have a red nondial 500 for those calls from my Russian handlers back east, as well as a 1014 butt set hooked to an external ringer.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: bobbyk on September 20, 2016, 11:12:40 AM
My daily driver is a 30's era WE 202. Getting through automated operators like the bank is tricky but I wouldn't trade my 202 for hundreds of modern phones. They have no soul.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: CDK on January 18, 2017, 01:05:31 PM
I own a WE 302 H1 telephone it's from 1946 judging by the date codes on the inside of the phone are S-8-46 the only date codes that don't match are microphone RF-1 4-57 and the speaker S-7-25-46 and the line cord 5-6 D3AK II 55. The dial is a 150B I 46 which I think is a 5H dial. It's a great phone I love it very much, it works good for 70 years old and I use it daily it's more reliable than a cellphone.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Phonesrfun on January 18, 2017, 11:23:28 PM
Welcome to the forum.  In telephone talk, the microphone is, indeed a microphone, but it is historically called the transmitter.  The speaker is called a receiver.  In your phone's case, it sounds like the phone was made in 1946, judging by the dates on the receiver and the dial plate.  Transmitters and line cords were often replaced in the field by the phone company when a part failed.  Transmitters and line cords were also very prone to failure as were handset cords.


The 5H dial is appropriate for a 1946 phone.  The 150B is the designation for the number plate attached to the dial.


Hope you enjoy using the phone.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: shadow67 on January 20, 2017, 02:10:24 PM
I have these 3 hooked up. The 500 is on my house landline and the other 2 are on my asterisk system.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Lee David Day on January 24, 2017, 04:02:39 PM
I have two hooked up. The only draw back is they can't
communicate like a touch tone, "Press 1 for English, etc."
DDay
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Phonesrfun on January 24, 2017, 10:47:50 PM
Quote from: Lee David Day on January 24, 2017, 04:02:39 PM
I have two hooked up. The only draw back is they can't
communicate like a touch tone, "Press 1 for English, etc."
DDay

Naturally, there are times when you just can't use a rotary phone, but there are alternatives:

       
  • You can use a Panasonic 308 or 616 PBX which will at least do the 1 through 0 (but no * or #)
  • You can get a pulse to tone converter
  • You can hook a touch-tone pad via an adjunct tone pad connected to the line
  • You can use a modern phone for times when you need to call somewhere that needs the tones
  • You can use a 1500 or 2500 or equivalent as your old phone
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Jim Stettler on January 25, 2017, 12:14:16 AM
I remember in the early days of phone menus you could dial * (010) and  #(011){If I remember correctly}.

JMO,
Jim S.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Lee David Day on January 25, 2017, 12:42:11 PM
Quote from: Lee David Day on January 25, 2017, 12:31:19 PM
  I replied yesterday that I have 2 vintage phones hooked up and working
  in my home. The WE 211 over my work bench, and a yellow 500 in the
  basement laundry/man cave area.

EDIT:  Images rotated
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: andre_janew on January 25, 2017, 12:53:33 PM
Try again.  They're still sideways!

EDIT:  Rotated images
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on January 25, 2017, 01:15:05 PM
Sometimes the embedded data keeps doing that despite physically rotating the image.  I have been able to correct it using the edit feature accessed by left clicking the thumbnail image.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on January 25, 2017, 09:19:38 PM
Has anyone figured out why they call them "Smart Phones"??

John will fix it, he fixes everything.

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: TelePlay on January 25, 2017, 10:12:23 PM
The problem with smart phones is the m meta data includes a line that records how the camera was being held when the photo is taken. The image you see in the topic are thumbnails of the full sized image. SMF does not read the meta data and thus the image is sideways.

If you click on the sideways image, the SMF software as it enlarges the image to full size reads the meta data and rotates the image as needed.

To fix this, the image has to be opened in image editing software, rotated and saved. The software has to recognize the rotation and clear the meta data rotation and if not, the enlarged thumbnail will be over rotated.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: TelePlay on January 26, 2017, 12:11:05 AM
Downloaded the full sized images, rotated them in my really old software that also gets rid of the meta data and post them above:

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=102.msg181188#msg181188

Below is a image of part of the meta data for the yellow phone on the table next to the chair, the part that shows the software expanding the thumbnail how to rotate the image (in this case CW 90 degrees - red box).

Also attached below is a pdf file, a print out of everything in the meta data that was attached to these images taken with an iPhone 5.

Also attached is a pdf file of the rotated image saved with my old software that strips out meta data, it was written before such data came to be. It is about 40kBytes smaller than the full meta data pdf file.

As a test, I ran the original file through BatchPurifier which took out all the meta data. I uploaded that image. The thumbnail was sideways but when I clicked on it to enlarge the image, the meta data did not exist so the expanding software had no instruction on how to present the image and as such, the enlarged image was still sideways. So, the proper steps would be to rotate the image and then strip the meta data allowing both the thumbnail and the enlarged image to show correctly.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Lee David Day on January 26, 2017, 01:43:23 PM
 :)  Thank you for turning my photos upright. I'm still not sure how you
did it, but thank you again.
DDay
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Lee David Day on January 26, 2017, 02:08:48 PM

  TelePlay
Could you please e-mail the PDF File on how to turn the photos;

  aileenlucyday@yahoo.com

I'm totally out-to-lunch with this stuff. I have many old phones that don't
work, and if I ever hope to get them working I'm going to have to learn
how to use my computer. Thanks for all your help so far.
DDay
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: andy1702 on January 26, 2017, 02:57:34 PM
Back on topic, I use old phones all the time. And the older they are the more likely I am to choose that one to pick up. At the moment I'm trying to figure out a way to connect to C*net using a candlestick without a dial. I saw a video on youtube of somebody doing it with some sort of speech recognition, but unfortunately it didn't explain how he set it up.  :(

Andy.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on January 26, 2017, 03:38:35 PM
I would recommend irfanview free and easy to use I have version 4.37

dsk
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on January 26, 2017, 03:53:39 PM
Here is a pre cleanup pic of the 9/56 phone i'm currently using.  I did a resize and rotate to see if the windows editing software would do the trick...

It worked just fine.  I left clicked the thumbnail pic, hit edit, hit resize and reduced it and hit rotate, then the direction, then save.

----------------------

EDIT:  the image was taken using a Panasonic DMC-LS75 on November 15, 2016  5:37 pm (not a smart phone adding rotation data). The meta data does not include a rotation element so the image displays as take. There is not rotation correction information in the meta data. Any imaging program could be used to rotate this image. It is too small to expand so what you see is what you get.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: AE_Collector on January 26, 2017, 03:55:45 PM
So my guess is that the answer is NO.

Terry
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on January 26, 2017, 03:58:44 PM
The original image was upright, I rotated it right to test it.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on January 26, 2017, 04:01:39 PM
Then I opened the image in irfanview pressed the letter L on the keyboard, saved and uploaded.

dsk
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on January 26, 2017, 05:33:50 PM
I knew someone would have to do it. :)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: KaiserFrazer67 on February 28, 2017, 02:35:13 AM
Newbie here, responding to the topic with my 2 cents:

I use all of my vintage phones on a regular basis and prefer them to my modern cordless/electronic phones.  What I have working right now are two beige AE 80s, a white AE 90, a black WE 302 with aftermarket chrome handset bands, fingerwheel and dial card ring, a Leich 901 from OldPhoneWorks with an AE dial, and a black WE 554 in the basement.  Current project phone is a black AE 50 which does work, but needs some mild cosmetic attention and diagnosis of a crackling/hissing noise (possible receiver/transmitter element issues?) not present in any of my other phones.  The AE 50 I plan to deck out with brass handset caps, fingerwheel, dial card ring, and finger stop.  I also plan to fit it with a Rotatone unit.  This one is going in my foyer when it's finished and will be my showpiece (my house is an older Victorian-style house with a LOT of oak woodwork, including the entire staircase, so it will look great where I intend to put it).

On the way from OldPhoneWorks is a black metal-body Kellogg Redbar which will have a Rotatone unit.  I have also invested in a Dialgizmo which is still on the way from Australia, for phones which don't have the Rotatone.

I've actually turned off all the ringers on the electronic phones--the bells are SO much nicer.   8)  Brings back a lot of childhood memories.  The electronic phones are basically for screening calls, taking messages and checking caller ID/call waiting when I get a call; I almost never talk on them unless I have to go somewhere in the house (or yard) where there isn't a phone.  The sound quality on some of the older phones is better anyway, and some people claim that they can hear me better on the older ones!  I'm in the process of finding some caller ID/call waiting units online to which I can hook up my rotary phones so I can just look right here on my desk to see who's calling rather than get up and run to another room!  ::)  It's hard to find some of the old caller ID/call waiting boxes, and even harder to find one that actually works--I've had to return one, and had another order cancelled because the lady selling them didn't realize she was out of stock...  :P

I do have a Crosley retro wood wall phone in the garage, with the cheesy fake bells, crank, and touch-tone "rotary" dial.  The only reason it's out there is because the garage is uninsulated and unheated, and the phone has shown to be relatively unaffected by our Wisconsin climate.  I'm not sure how well a regular household rotary dial phone would withstand the winter cold and humid summers we have here.  :-\  Might have to invest in an old pay phone for the garage; those were made for outdoor use, so I know those'll hold up! :D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: jsowers on February 28, 2017, 12:35:14 PM
Quote from: KaiserFrazer67 on February 28, 2017, 02:35:13 AM
I do have a Crosley retro wood wall phone in the garage, with the cheesy fake bells, crank, and touch-tone "rotary" dial.  The only reason it's out there is because the garage is uninsulated and unheated, and the phone has shown to be relatively unaffected by our Wisconsin climate.  I'm not sure how well a regular household rotary dial phone would withstand the winter cold and humid summers we have here.  :-\  Might have to invest in an old pay phone for the garage; those were made for outdoor use, so I know those'll hold up! :D

I've had an S-C 554 from around 1980 in my garage on the wall for 32 years with no problems yet. It's next to my back door. It wasn't "vintage" when I installed it there, but it is now. It's a phone that was once leased by my local telco, an independent. The sticker is still on it. I got the phone at a yard sale. I hope the original owners bought the phone, but I can't be sure. All I ever did to it was replace the noisy handset cord, and that was done at installation. As long as your garage phone is in a protected place, so rain doesn't hit it, a 554 should be fine.

In NC we have very humid summers, but our winters are not as cold and I don't think it gets much below freezing in my garage over the winter.

Your AE50 reminds me of my grandmother, who had one from about 1955 to 1988. It had to be replaced when they did away with party lines since it had a frequency ringer. I have one in my collection and it reminded the man who fixed my dishwasher of his grandmother too. They're a very unique design and to everyone in my family that is "granny's phone." I even found a spitcup assembly to put on the handset, like hers had.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on February 28, 2017, 12:49:18 PM
Where I work, there are hundreds of t/t phones in service in quite exposed and spartan areas.  The oldest started service in the early to mid '70s.  I am always surprised that they actually work.  They are ITT labeled phones.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: KaiserFrazer67 on February 28, 2017, 02:30:04 PM
Quote from: jsowers on February 28, 2017, 12:35:14 PM
I've had an S-C 554 from around 1980 in my garage on the wall for 32 years with no problems yet. It's next to my back door. It wasn't "vintage" when I installed it there, but it is now. It's a phone that was once leased by my local telco, an independent. The sticker is still on it. I got the phone at a yard sale. I hope the original owners bought the phone, but I can't be sure. All I ever did to it was replace the noisy handset cord, and that was done at installation. As long as your garage phone is in a protected place, so rain doesn't hit it, a 554 should be fine.

In NC we have very humid summers, but our winters are not as cold and I don't think it gets much below freezing in my garage over the winter.

Your AE50 reminds me of my grandmother, who had one from about 1955 to 1988. It had to be replaced when they did away with party lines since it had a frequency ringer. I have one in my collection and it reminded the man who fixed my dishwasher of his grandmother too. They're a very unique design and to everyone in my family that is "granny's phone." I even found a spitcup assembly to put on the handset, like hers had.

It can easily get down to -15 to -20 ℉ here in Wisconsin (NOT including wind chill!) and has once this winter already.  Usually it stays below freezing from late December until about now, when it alternates between the 20's and mid-30's ℉.  I have a large old 12" Telechron industrial wall clock with the "art deco" numbers on it hanging in the garage...  it usually loses some time over the winter due to the cold.  I've actually heard it squeal a bit on really cold nights (it doesn't seem to like anything below about +10 ℉, so yeah... not sure what really cold temps would do to a 554 dial's performance, let alone the receiver/transmitter units).  I do have a couple extra WE 554s and had been toying with putting one up in the garage.  Thankfully, the garage is a newer construction (1997) and it is very nice and dry in there.  I may try a 554 in the garage.  Thanks!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: DARK FATHER on August 11, 2017, 05:42:23 PM
I use almost ALL of mine.  NE Galion, 1934 WE 202, and 1957 WE 500.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HarrySmith on August 11, 2017, 06:22:51 PM
Quote from: DARK FATHER on August 11, 2017, 05:42:23 PM
I use almost ALL of mine.  NE Galion, 1934 WE 202, and 1957 WE 500.

No picture?? Please no external links! Add pictures directly to your post.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: ThePillenwerfer on August 11, 2017, 06:46:51 PM
I use mine as I simply don't like modern 'phones: light-weight things with handsets that are hard to jam against your shoulder, buttons and ringers that make a hideous noise.  In fact I contracted phonitis by fixing up ones to use. 

The newest telephone I've got is from 1992 so I don't think any qualify as "Modern."  That was only connected for use with automatic switchboards where you need to use DTMF to select options or to use on my VOIP line.  As I've now fitted tone converters in a couple of my old ones that no longer applies.

Currently plugged in are two 232s (though neither of them started life as such and also have tone converters), a 332, two 746s (one with tone converter), an early '80s Ericofon and an ATE N1882 — which is basically a 706 without the regulator.  In addition there's a 1936 Bell 1A that rings on the VOIP line.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Contempra on August 12, 2017, 10:19:52 AM
I always use my old phones ..I've never loved the new phones at all, i have no modern phone and i just have a landline that i use with my orange Contempra 1976 .( I have 7 Contempra now ) i like my old 302 NE too . So, if i don't use my old phones, I don't use them at all ;) Have a great day guys ;) I don't write often but I often look at the forum to see what new and new members are doing with their old phones . :)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: MMikeJBenN27 on August 24, 2017, 11:55:55 PM
We use a 354 in the kitchen, a 5302 in the bedroom, and the 202 Imperial in the back room all the time, as they are our everyday phones.  We don't have any Japanese phones in our house.  They work perfectly.  We also have a 2500 Touch Tone in the living room for those times when they hang up if you don't press this and press that and press here and press there.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bill Cahill on August 26, 2017, 09:03:41 PM
 :)  I have one working modern phone for computers, 2 500's on line, one I'd like to get on line, and, two antiques I'd like to get connected, but, they have rotted wires, and,   I need adapters to modular, so I can use them. And, I also prefer the real bells.
Bill Cahill
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dlvh on December 16, 2017, 07:39:28 PM
Out of the 10 or so WE 500 model phones that I have, 3 are hooked up and working throughout the house. We have 2 in our bedroom, and one in my office. It is so nice to hear those Real bells ring when a call comes in.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: kb3pxr on January 16, 2018, 03:55:44 PM
After having all of my vintage phones disconnected since 2013, I finally was able to find my best 2500 set and hook it up to my Vonage service replacing a rather high end Panasonic corded phone. This however, is just the beginning.

I am currently installing a FreePBX (Asterisk) system with HT502 ATAs, however I can just as easily install the latest Video phones.

As most VoIP using members realize, the HT502 is known for its' compatibility with US rotary dials and bells by default. However, the only reason I selected the HT502 model was the ability to purchase refurbished units inexpensively. Later models will support the same phones with a firmware update.

Once installation is finalized with the bedroom extension, I will be able to place, answer, park, or transfer calls from either my WE 2500 desk phone or from a Rotary Trimline in my bedroom. In addition I will be able to use my fax machine with a dedicated number without tying up my voice line. In the end, with my limited usage, I will actually be paying less than what I'm paying on a promotional rate with Vonage.

Also remember using a rotary phone on VoIP regardless of method (pulse to tone converter, or native pulse decoding) you have the equal of a 1500 type (10 key touch tone) set. A rotary phone will work with any automated service you call as long as you don't need the # or * keys.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: RotarDad on January 20, 2018, 12:32:55 PM
HT 502 question:  Will a used one from Ebay (with power supply) be plug and play to connect a rotary phone to my Comcast cable gateway?   Or will I need to do some configuring using a PC?

I haven't been using my old rotarys on the outside line, but this looks like a cheap, easy solution.  I do have a Panasonic 616 that I use for internal phone use, but I thought the HT 502 would be an easy connect to the outside line.....  Thanks for any "tech support"!!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: compubit on January 20, 2018, 03:31:31 PM
Paul -

As long as the HT-502 isn't locked to a carrier and has the generic firmware, it should work.

If you are connecting it to one of the outgoing lines on the 616, then any ATA should work, as I believe the 616 converts all pulse to tone on the outgoing lines.

I've received a new HT-802 (unlocked), but haven't gotten it hooked up, as my internet at home is down, and I'm stuck with checking things on the guest network at work...

Jim
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: kb3pxr on January 20, 2018, 06:54:36 PM
Quote from: RotarDad on January 20, 2018, 12:32:55 PM
HT 502 question:  Will a used one from Ebay (with power supply) be plug and play to connect a rotary phone to my Comcast cable gateway?   Or will I need to do some configuring using a PC?

I haven't been using my old rotarys on the outside line, but this looks like a cheap, easy solution.  I do have a Panasonic 616 that I use for internal phone use, but I thought the HT 502 would be an easy connect to the outside line.....  Thanks for any "tech support"!!

You will need to configure the HT502 for your BYOD provider or IP PBX via the PC, you also will likely want to turn off the inbuilt router. You will have to connect your PC to the LAN side long enough to login (via http://192.168.2.1), go to basic settings (default password for user mode is 123), turn off the NAT router, update, and reboot. After that you can re-connect your PC as normal and can do the rest of the setup (via the IP assigned to it, either find under "connected devices" on your Xfinity router or via touch tone (I suggest a phone with a polarity guard) phone by dialing *** followed by 02 to get the address from the IVR.

As far as the 616 is concerned, as long as the output is 10PPS or DTMF it will work with the HT502, just be careful as the HT502 does have a tip/ring reversal.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: RotarDad on January 23, 2018, 01:17:02 AM
Thank you for the input.  My plan was to simply put the HT 502 between the Comcast gateway and a 500 rotary phone, not using the 616 in this case.  Sounds like it should work off the shelf if unlocked, but worst case would work with some configuration.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: MMikeJBenN27 on January 26, 2018, 01:36:04 AM
Quote from: Shovelhead on September 21, 2008, 07:20:31 PM
A 202 with the subset in the living room, and a 302 downstairs. I'll probably use the black Trimline that I've had since 1970 in the spare bedroom.
Can't find by dial Princess, misplaced it and packed it away during the move in '04. Probably in the garage's rafters (I hope it didn't get left behind)
I have a tan 701B Princess if you want it.  There is a chip where the handset cord goes, but the phone works fine.  These need an outside ringer, as there is none in the phone.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Partyline4 on February 01, 2018, 09:12:56 PM
I've always had an old 302 next to the bed with a magnavox caller ID system for it....

I keep a all dates matching 1970 red trimline in the bathroom...

I used to have a Bellsouth payphone outside in the woods just for kicks, until a tree limb crushed the top...

The 302 actually sounds better than most 2500's I've had....
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 280Parka on June 11, 2018, 07:25:15 PM
Since I'm one of two partners in a small architectural practice, I was able to install a Panasonic 616 and several dial phones, mostly WE 500's with a couple of WE 565's for the partners (I have a couple of WE 2500's as backup, but nobody has asked to trade yet).  I've set it up so that the "old" RCA office phones are still connected in parallel so that we didn't have to face a full mutiny.  I'm still trying to work out the ringing with the 616 because it's pretty crazy when all of the ringers go off at the same time in a wave throughout the office.  The "experiment" has been going on for a couple of weeks now.  We'll see how it goes...
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: oldguy on June 11, 2018, 10:20:16 PM
That sounds like fun. My wife doesn't like all the phones go off in cadence either.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Pourme on June 12, 2018, 07:19:40 AM
Quote from: oldguy on June 11, 2018, 10:20:16 PM
That sounds like fun. My wife doesn't like all the phones go off in cadence either.

My grand kids enjoy that....It's the fun part!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Markgregory on August 01, 2018, 04:12:54 PM
I have 8 working vintage phones hooked up including 1920's to 1930's desktop models, candlesticks hooked up to wooden and metal ringer boxes  and 2  payphones (automatic electric and Bellsouth Single slot). When the phone rings in my house you can forget about paying attention to anything else. Ring, ring, ring, all over the house and garage.  😝 Visitors really enjoy testing the phones. It's fun.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: HarrySmith on August 01, 2018, 05:37:59 PM
Welcome to the forum. You have found the best forum on the net. I usually warn new members about Phoneitis but from your post it would be a moot point for you, looks like you are already addicted!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Partyline4 on October 08, 2018, 01:33:37 PM
I'll snag a 202 or 102 every now and then on fleabay and hook it up for a daily driver. The sound quality on some of the older ones is just terrible, though. The bullet style trannys almost never work correctly, or produce too much static. Even the 2500's and 500's can be a little shotty on our POTS. Just sounds muffled at times if you understand what I mean.

The AE 80 I have that was my great grandfathers is still in perfect order, and the sound quality rivals the phones of today!



Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tubaman on October 08, 2018, 02:20:49 PM
At the risk of totally destroying my credibility, here's our bedside phone.
I have the full set of these (Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Kermit, Winnie the Pooh).
They're fun and practical.
I'll say no more.
::)

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bob S on December 13, 2018, 06:51:00 AM
Hi yesterday was my fist day on the forum. I was overwhelmed with the information I have been getting. I attached pictures of the phone I have had hooked up for a couple mouths now People are amazed that I can make and receive call on it. The bell ring on incoming calls and I will hook up magneto to ring bells when on hook. Thanks to Every body here
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: oldguy on December 13, 2018, 11:12:50 PM
Looks like a fun phone Bob.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Bob S on December 14, 2018, 01:31:56 PM
Thank You I had the phone for a long time and found out how to install touchtone pad and it gets a l lot of attention.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dc4code on December 16, 2018, 02:14:28 AM
I used to not have my phones connected all the time but now I consistently have two or three connected to the C*NET, NPSTN, or the PSTN.

I actually made a lot of friends using my WE500 set!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: andre_janew on July 22, 2019, 07:06:23 PM
I have a black WE 1554 in my kitchen that is used every day.  The network has a 1964 date on it, the case is from 1966, the handset and cord are from 1967, the receiver from 1965, and the transmitter 1964.

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: tallrick on August 07, 2019, 10:14:10 AM
All  my phones are Western Electric or ITT and I have 5 working payphones in WE and AE single slot housings with Protel boards. 23 extensions 8 ATA boxes and a 1A2 key system operate over 40 phones.  Each room in my house has at least 2 phones and there are 4 outside.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Telephones_etc on August 07, 2019, 10:27:24 AM
Currently have three hooked up: 302 and a 554 in the bedroom, and a 500 in the living room
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: SunriseEarth on September 23, 2019, 02:08:46 AM
We moved into my DH's family home after his mother passed away.   The house maintained POTS for the house alarm, so I can use my rotary phones without any extra equipment.  However, I'm only using one.   My yellow 702B is on my nightstand (with the nightlight, of course) and I'm currently using a red 2502BM in my office.   Most everything else is either on display or awaiting it.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: caltx01 on March 07, 2021, 02:05:08 PM
My WE 202 sits on my computer desk next to my Apple iMac - talk about a diversity of technology!!

I use it every day - love it!

Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on November 12, 2021, 01:00:01 PM
I change the phones I use, a year a go it was pretty different, most of my phones was US made, now they are German made.... with some exceptions, The wall telephones are pretty stable. 'in the basement my AE 120B payphone just stays, almost never in use, but you may call all around in the world for a quarter, and if no-one answers, you get your money back. In the living room we have a glowing wall version of the AE-Starlite phones. Maybe the only one plugged in to 230V 50Hz :-)  Another one who will always be there is the tabletop from Siemens, The ZBSA11. The very first rotary telephone used in Norway, but that is just connected to my rotary PA(B)X with a ip line...
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: eagle on March 17, 2022, 10:39:17 PM
I am a CallCentric subscriber so that I can have multiple extensions around the house -- specifically so that I can use my old phones.  I currently have a Trimline in the kitchen (extension 101) and a Princess in the office (extension 103).  Once I get my candlestick working, it will become my office phone.  I have a phone display in my mancave, and a spare ATA so that I can have two more "demo extensions" in the mancave/office.  I plan to cycle those through several of the phones, or it can be used to demo any working phone that visitors want to see.  Most of my phones work, and my goal is for all of them to work.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on March 18, 2022, 07:43:59 AM
I have struggled a lot to get it working, but I have my 1946 mechanical exchange on a Callcentric line, and rotaries in several rooms.  (The exchange was designed around WWi and does not have as much as a diode or other semiconductors. Buzzer making dial tone, and another vibrator making ring frequency.  Since Callcentric do not have Norwegian numbers we have one mobile adapter for the regular phone too. No copper lines any more  >:(


Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: MMikeJBenN27 on March 18, 2022, 01:15:08 PM
Glad that most of us actually use them, unlike so many car collectors, who never drive the thing, and then if they try to, it has so many issues that it can't be used for anything more than yard driving.

Mike
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on March 18, 2022, 01:28:47 PM
it's also good to keep them in use to keep the fingers nimble to always avoid any dialing timeouts.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Etienne on March 18, 2022, 04:21:05 PM
I regularly change the phone I use, too. It started with a RFT W38/58, then a GPO 312, then a Siemens M28, the GPO 312 again, a PTT 1918 only for 1 week, a Swiss M29, and now a Siemens M36. I did not like the metal 1918 handset, it had a resonance that is absent from Bakelite ones. I suppose it is one of the reasons why telephone manufacturers developed them before any other Bakelite part.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on March 22, 2022, 02:56:40 PM
We got a new computer man at job so I could not resist. I deed use some of my ownt ime to be sure to be able to reach him if the network goes down :-) ... or at least a joke with a jung man. he had never used one of this kind before.  :)   3 floors between us, but the cable was available  ;D
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: 19and41 on March 22, 2022, 03:09:07 PM
That ought to get him thinking.  ;)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Darkstar2006 on November 11, 2022, 09:23:04 AM
living room WE 51C w/554c (replaced chromed out AE40)
kitchen red 554 '71 ( replaced black NE 554 '57)
master bedroom WE 302 w/chrome finger wheel)
spare bedroom D1 w/634a (replaced North Telephone desk set w/SL ringer)
last 3, bedroom, office and family room modern TT
Until I installed the 51c w/554c and the D1 w/634a all phones rang. those two hogs with their 2-500 ohm coils sucked the life out of my REN capacity. had to buy a line booster.   
 
I love the sound and so do my old friends
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: dsk on November 14, 2022, 08:46:11 AM
I hve to change phone from time to time, this one in our livingroom at moment.  Had to put in a transistor capsule to get good sound. It's my only working English phone.  The circuit is a little complex, but it works fine.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: markosjal on November 14, 2022, 07:41:17 PM
As I have over 60 working restored phones now, I have set up a "rolling tester/display area in my living room, with an extension of that line in my bedroom in another display/test area. That line has its own number and that number I am always happy to share with other collectors. It is +13605530134 Of corse if it rings too much I will have to change that a number but if you want to call and know what the phone is of that day, I would be happy to tell you. I usually change the phone every 3 weeks or so. This gives me the chance to test each phone.  This allows me to test any 2 phones at a time.

The phone pictured actually has a working electroluminescent disk but is not powered in the pic. I made a separate attachment of an old pic of that

Of course it is a VoIP line that is rotary compatible and I am always happy to help others in the forums here to do the same. I have now actually sold Antique phones bundled with VoIP service that has an end-price on par with Ooma's monthly price (after you calculate Ooma's taxes and hidden fees).
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: markosjal on November 16, 2022, 11:41:45 PM
Swapped my phone out today my mustard ITT that came from the Philomath, OR rural telco
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: markosjal on November 18, 2022, 04:36:28 AM
Ok I just added a wall jack a (cheap plastic generic) WE type .i can it the 2wire DSL filter on it and mount my GTE type wall mounts. It too rings from my antique telephone Line as an extension . Right ow I have the mustard ITT 500 and this 1958 yellow 554 . I jumped today when it rang because it was so loud with the two of them . That is how a phone used to ring!
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: MMikeJBenN27 on November 18, 2022, 11:08:57 PM
I use our's all the time, as we don't have Japanese phones in our house.  I have a pre-war ivory 302, post-war red and green 302s, a black 5302, a black Uniphone, an ivory North H6, a gold 202 Imperial, a rare SILVER 202 Imperial, a green 202,a black Kellogg 5100, a black Red Bar, a grey Connecticut "Toaster Phone", and dark beige, dark blue, green, red, and yellow Soft Plastic 500s, a black EARLY 500 with the clear dial face that is painted in back and has the 425A network, dark beige, yellow, black, and green Soft Plastic 554s, a Kellogg aqua 554s.  The black one is 1955, which makes it one of the first 554s made, as it came out during 1955 rather than in time for the beginning.  It has a black-painted, rather than chrome, cradle.  I have a yellow soft plastic Stromberg Carlson Cut Corner 1543 and a soft plastic dark beige cut corner 1543, and a red soft plastic 1553 wall Stromberg.  All three have the solid handset.  Actually, too many!

Mike
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Robert Gift on January 09, 2023, 06:23:32 AM
Three Princess® telephonæ from thrift stores.   May not be very old. Wilhave to look.   
The Western Electric has |*| and |#| buttons.   What year would that be?

Disappointed that when I arrived home I discovered thathe AT&T Princess touchtone has no light. Has Western Electric metal base.   CS2702BMG    85046
Plugged it in hoping that it would light from internal LEDs.  Nothing.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: MMikeJBenN27 on January 09, 2023, 08:25:56 AM
Now you need a nice 1940 or 41 Chevy station wagon!

Mike
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Robert Gift on January 09, 2023, 10:10:08 AM
Quote from: markosjal on November 14, 2022, 07:41:17 PM... The phone pictured actually has a working electroluminescent disk but is not powered in the pic. ...
Did you make that electroluminescent disk?
How is it powered?
Would love that for our dark windowless WC.
Thank you.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: poplar1 on January 09, 2023, 01:52:34 PM
Quote from: Robert Gift on January 09, 2023, 06:23:32 AMThree Princess® telephonæ from thrift stores.   May not be very old. Wilhave to look.   
The Western Electric has |*| and |#| buttons.   What year would that be?

Disappointed that when I arrived home I discovered thathe AT&T Princess touchtone has no light. Has Western Electric metal base.   CS2702BMG    85046
Plugged it in hoping that it would light from internal LEDs.  Nothing.

CS sets are retail sets, sold by Kmart, Sears, AT&T Phone Center stores,etc. The CS2702BMG Princess has opaque buttons and no dial light/night light.

If you want a Princess with LED dial, you will need a 2703 Signature Princess. These were lease sets, never sold. They do turn up for sale, though, on Ebay
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: poplar1 on January 09, 2023, 06:06:04 PM
Quote from: Robert Gift on January 09, 2023, 10:10:08 AMDid you make that electroluminescent disk?
How is it powered?
Would love that for our dark windowless WC.
Thank you.

Looks like a factory dial light. Both Sylvania and Almost Electric were owned by GTE.
Light works on 120VAC but with a limiting resistor at the wall AC outlet. (Older Starlites had a separate  120 VAC cord coming out of the back of the phone. Don't recommend that model for bathrooms.)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Robert Gift on January 10, 2023, 12:48:50 AM
Quote from: poplar1 on January 09, 2023, 06:06:04 PMLooks like a factory dial light. Both Sylvania and Almost Electric were owned by GTE.
Light works on 120VAC but with a limiting resistor at the wall AC outlet. (Older Starlites had a separate  120 VAC cord coming out of the back of the phone. Don't recommend that model for bathrooms.)

We have the Princess® telephone on the toiletank to lighthe commode closet.
Buthis would look wonderful if no 60-cycle flicker.   
I.nstalled a GFCI outlet behind the toileto provide power for the AMDM Toilet Seat Bidet.
(Considered starting Bob's Bidets  You can pay us Tuesday for a bidet today! )
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on February 18, 2023, 05:50:27 PM
Good to see this thread is still going. Currently, I have no antique phones hooked up  :-\
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Doug Rose on February 18, 2023, 07:55:46 PM
Good to see you back Brian....Doug
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: KnowMoreTax on April 12, 2023, 10:10:42 AM
I use my WE 302 on my desk every day and occasionally my GPO 232 in the bedroom. My AE 40 Nile Green is packed away and for show only.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: BDM on April 12, 2023, 10:19:32 AM
I've been looking at a Panasonic TA824 or TD308 so I can get them up and running again in the house. I miss hearing those classic bells
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: texbodemer on May 04, 2023, 07:23:30 PM
I use mine hooked up to a Cell2Jack Bluetooth gateway. This is much more orange in person,  by the way
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: ka1axy on September 24, 2023, 08:08:19 PM
Ooma VOIP line with my old copper number hooked into...
Panasonic KX-TAW848 with 8 hybrid and 8 analog extensions...
2 Panasonic digital extensions (KX-T7736), and 5 analog extensions currently active. The remaining extensions are pluggable into an RJ patch panel which can connect them to outlets throughout the house as needed.

The wife likes the 302 audio.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: markosjal on September 30, 2023, 01:27:47 PM
Quote from: Robert Gift on January 09, 2023, 10:10:08 AMDid you make that electroluminescent disk?
How is it powered?
Would love that for our dark windowless WC.
Thank you.

It is the standard Automatic electric Electroluminescent disk powered by a home made power supply (just resistors and fuses)
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: segaloco on October 20, 2023, 01:15:29 PM
Since sorting out getting a handset working with line-in/out on my computer, I'll "plug in" my WECo 302 and call friends over stuff like Steam on occasion. I'm currently in the midst of a move but this'll be the first new place I move into since really picking up steam on phone stuff, I'm already speccing out a little intercom system, I want to see if I can get a network rigged up through my computer so that in the future I can, say, take a call at my desk phone, but then go transfer around as I'm walking about the house. Difficulty is I'm actually not much of a phone call person, I don't even own a personal cell and I keep the work one in a desk when it's not work time, so it's not like such an intercom will suddenly have me calling everyone and their grandma...but figuring it out is the fun part.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: Telefon on March 26, 2024, 10:44:52 AM
WE 302 on the desk beside me, green 554 (just like the one I grew up with) on the wall nearby. Both connected to VOIP using a Google number. I also have a few 500s and 554s throughout the house that I can connect when I feel like it.
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: MMikeJBenN27 on March 27, 2024, 07:36:11 AM
Just put new cords on my rare blue 304, and yes, I have the ringer hooked up to the M and RR terminals.  Phone works perfectly and looks great as well.  I don't have a cell phone any more, so all I use are my "classic" phones.

Mike
Title: Re: How many of you actually use your antique phones?
Post by: ReneRondeau on March 27, 2024, 10:59:29 AM
I used to have several antique phones connected but now I'm down to one (an AE payphone). I had bought a dial gizmo to allow pulse dialing from it but it stopped working after a couple of months. So I can answer on it, but not call out. But I never do that since there's no caller ID, and it's far from where I can see ID on our cordless modern phone. Since 95% of the calls we get today are spam / scam, I rely on caller ID to filter the calls.

I have a very early ringer box on the line instead of using the electronic ringers on our landline. However, as time goes by we use the landline less and less. My wife doesn't use it at all anymore -- she's entirely dependent on her cell.

I miss the days when I had old phones all around the house, and at my office at work.