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Another test set.

Started by Stephen Furley, June 07, 2009, 07:52:54 AM

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Stephen Furley

I've decided to bid on another engineer's test set that's turned up on Ebay; I haven't decided yet how much to bid.

http://tinyurl.com/p9z7na ( dead link 02-28-22 )

Seems to be in good condition, and it's got one of the old plugs that fitted the test points on the old Strowger exchange racks.

HobieSport

#1
In my modest experience I've found that test sets ("butt sets") can be had rather inexpensively. I paid $10 for a 1972 WE set and $15 for a 1950s WE set with the full finger dial in working condition.

-Matt

Stephen Furley

#2
That sounds about right; my 1950s GPO 280 Mk.2 cost me 6 pounds, and the CMC TRUB-L-SHOOTER was $16.51.

They're quite expensive to buy new, the Tempo DSTS2 that I bought for work which is about the cheapest and simplest one that you can buy new was about 70 pounds, and that didn't include the various test cordsets for it.  An ISDN one which I looked at recently was about 800 pounds list price, and they go for about 300 on Ebay.

I suppose there's not much demand for the old ones, engineers wouldn't want them, and I don't think many people collect them.  Most of them don't ring, though the Tempo DSTS2 does, and so wouldn't be much use as ordinary home telephones.  I rather like them they're unusual and don't take much space.

Stephen Furley

I won the set for 3.99 (pounds); the only bid.  Postage is a bit steep at 7.50 (pounds), but with so low a selling price the total is still good.  There doesn't seem to be much demand for these things.