Ebay Find. AE Touchtone Three Slot.

[mentalstampede]

For what it's worth, the NOS housing I bought from Jim last year does work. At the moment, anyway. The keypad switching sure is an engineering nightmare though!

Yes, Touch Tone AEs are very rare. I think Jim (payphone installer) has dozens of these for sale:
http://tinyurl.com/has6ex2
They are new in the box and also guaranteed not to work either!

Tony
There is nothing to clean. If you attempt to take the switch assembly apart you will be greeted by an explosion of coil springs.
Those payphones are great for answering calls, not making them. They also make very effective doorstops.

Stan S.

[RotarDad]

Stan - I remember a white 3-slot sold on Ebay a couple years ago, at least I think I saw one.  I remember it was a copy of a special version, perhaps one of these World's Fair units? Can't imagine many even knowing about this - was it one of your listings???

[Russ62]

Hi,   Actually, I repaired a couple of these, thus inexpensively adding variations to my 3 slot collection. One needed the oscillator coils touched up but my telephone tester has a DTMF frequency read out so I was able to do that. On both I cleaned the contacts by carefully dismantling, and sliding strips of card stock dipped in alcohol between wires that touched as each  button was pressed in turn, and also the leaf switches on the side. Replacing 2 damaged buttons was tricky as I had to carefully unsolder some contact wires with solder wick (they weren't welded) and replace the damaged buttons and reassemble.  These 2 phones had the original A.E. talk pcbs. that I had the schematic for, so  wiring wasn't a problem. However, I am still looking for a diagram for an LPC with the Teltronics prepay pcb, so I can wire that phone EXACTLY the way the phone company did it. although other ways would probably work.         Russell

[Stan S]

> I remember it was a copy of a special version, perhaps one of these World's Fair units? Can't imagine many even knowing about this - was it one of your listings???

Paul
Yup.
See attached.

The picture is a row of circular booths with rotary payphones in the hallway of the Administration Building. Robert Moses had his office in that building.

There's a group of Worlds Fair experts on Ebay who also have a website. They have huge collections of Worlds Fair photos taken while it was being built, while it was operating and after it closed and was being torn down.
They were generous enough to supply the pictures and the info. Unfortunately, nobody had pictures of the white Touch Tones.


I was at the fair. Went there specifically to see the new Ford Mustang! Had zero interest in payphones at that time.

Stan S

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Stan S, my dad felt the same way about a Farmall F-12 tractor with a Waukeshaw  engine!

Hey, they make (made) great engines!

Sadly, within a few months (if they haven't already) that plant will be closed. GE bought Waukesha Engine a few years ago, and now they are moving the operations to Canada!

[Stan S]

 I am still looking for a diagram for an LPC with the Teltronics prepay pcb, so I can wire that phone EXACTLY the way the phone company did it. although other ways would probably work.         Russell

Russell
A few years ago I was determined to find technical and advertising information from Teltronics. I did a lot of investigating and came up with the following information.

Teltronics was started in Florida by a fellow named Jerry Yachabach and his brother. The company headquarters was the family garage. They manufactured after market 'state of the art' (at that time) replacement boards for AE 3-slots.
After a while the business made a few bucks so they were able to hire a kid to do assembly work- probably part time.
The kid's name was Regis (Skip) Mellon.
As time went by 'Skip' went to college and received a degree in electrical engineering. He stayed with Teltronics and I believe became a partner.
As luck would have it Teltronics was in the right place at the right time with the right products and did great. They were approached by a 'fortune 500 company' who wanted to acquire them. They had the good sense to sell.

Here is where the story really gets interesting! Jerry Yachabach and Skip Mellon decided to start another company to manufacture complete 'Customer Owned' payphones. The year was 1983. They called the new company PROTEL!

I called Protel and spent over an hour on the phone with Skip Mellon. Very interesting guy. He enjoyed relating the history of Teltronics and Protel. I also got in touch with Jerry Yachabach. He was retired and only has an interest in playing golf and his grand children. He didn't want to talk about Teltronics or anything to do with the payphone industry. In fact he couldn't believe that there were people still interested in Teltronics products.
My search for old technical and advertising information ended in failure. They saved nothing.

Russell
Before I go. Will this help you?
See attached.

Stan S. 

[andre_janew]

Stan S, my dad felt the same way about a Farmall F-12 tractor with a Waukeshaw  engine!

Hey, they make (made) great engines!

Sadly, within a few months (if they haven't already) that plant will be closed. GE bought Waukesha Engine a few years ago, and now they are moving the operations to Canada!

Christian, many farmers would disagree with because they replaced the Waukeshaw engines in their tractors with Farmall engines.  To them, the Farmall engine was the better engine.

[RotarDad]

Stan - Thanks for the revisit on that phone, and some World's Fair history.  I'm pleased to know my memory hasn't failed me yet!!  The Mustang was a huge deal then, in a way most cars since can never match - they were (and still are) a 60s icon.  My Dad had a '67, and my sister later bought a used '71.