"Concorde Blue" 700's

[gpo706]

Right, I've got my 746 "Concorde Blue" (more like dark-blue-green) up and running as my bedside phone for a while, it has a weird bell adjuster on the bottom, it got connected through a matching blue lineset cord and to a matching blue terminal block (that cost some money on ebay folks).

Now, even before this most rare (apart from the brown ones) sets I had previously acquirred a 706 in the same colour, and it's been gathering dust because I tried to take the dial surround off after a few glasses and it just snapped into bits.

Also the handset wire had a split in it.

So I managed to get a new 700 blue curly cord for it and replaced it, works fine.

So i have to DO SOMETHING with it now, rather than being a dust gatherer on the shelf, so its cleaned up with anti-bac wipes and get the "Mr Sheen" treatment all over, case, dial, caps, handset cord etc...

Its all good, even looks a little better after the Mr Sheen stuff.

But I need a blue line cord and I fancy a blue dial wheel to go with it so goes here:

http://www.abdyantiques.co.uk/

So thats about £11 for those two, now just need a dial surround, but that will come later.

Ever wonder how you buy a decent looking phone then spend more than you had on the bits?

I must be nuts, but it is looking good now, and gives me a sense of satisfaction having it up and working again.

[Greg G.]

I remember seeing an Israeli phone on Ioffer that looked a lot like the grey/brown 746 (#7209).  It had a cone-shaped plug on the end of the line cord.  It was $50-$60 including shipping all the way from Israel.  I think I remember the seller said it was from the 80s.

[bingster]

I think one of our members bought one of the Israeli versions on ebay.  Was it McHeath?  It was a yellow phone, as I recall.

[LarryInMichigan]

I have a (badly discoloured) yellow British GPO 746 which I bought from an ebay seller in Florida for $15 plus shipping and a black Israeli (Telrad) 706 which I bought from an ebay seller in Israel for $5 plus $15 shipping.  The Israeli ones works very well, thought the dial had some rusty parts and stuck until I cleaned it.  The British one came with an electronic transmitter capsule which stops working after ten minutes of so of use.

I believe that McHeath mentioned that he had an Israeli 7xx phone.  From my limited experience, the Israeli versions are nearly identical to the British ones.  The unusual connectors on the end of the line cord I believe are uniquely Israeli.  They are essentially coaxial, with one conductor on the inner diameter and the other on the outer.

Larry

[gpo706]

Larry - that coaxial lead sounds weird, it would be easy to replace the cord to US (or UK) with a 4 spade tipped end and whatever socket on the other end.

I'm considering getting a chevron backplate and alpha-numeric dial surround to finish this one off for good, if the colours match OK.

[bellsystemproperty]

I just bought one of the Israeli ones, the shipping was only $11. I think the US and Israel must have some kind of shipping agreement. Hopefully it will arrive okay, it is unique because it is dark brown and then lighter brown.

http://tinyurl.com/28b74hl

All it looks like it needs is the untangling of the handset cord.
I believe this is based on the GPO 746, right?

[LarryInMichigan]

Kyle,

It looks like you got a good deal, and the shipping sure is cheap.  I have paid more than that for shipping within Michigan.  I like the two-tone.  The handset cord is a bit stretched out.  The loops can probably be reversed to make it tight.  Otherwise, the phone appears to be in really good condition.  The phone is probably almost identical to the British GPO 746, except that it was made by Telrad in Israel.

The seller sure listed it in a strange place.  I never would expect a phone like that to appear the the "Disneyana" area.

Larry

[Greg G.]

I just bought one of the Israeli ones, the shipping was only $11. I think the US and Israel must have some kind of shipping agreement. Hopefully it will arrive okay, it is unique because it is dark brown and then lighter brown.

http://tinyurl.com/28b74hl

All it looks like it needs is the untangling of the handset cord.
I believe this is based on the GPO 746, right?

Looks like you'll need to modify the line cord, it has that same plug I saw on the other one.

[LarryInMichigan]

The connector was the standard Israeli style.  My Telrad 706 also had one.  It held together by a couple of screws. 

Larry

[gpo706]

Yes its a 746 "two-tone grey" although they can look more brown if faded.

You can buy a brand new replacement cord for it though they are buggers to get off.

[LarryInMichigan]

Mine came off easily.

Larry

[gpo706]

Sorry - the line cord is easy, its the handset cord thats a scunner.

Though I can avdise how to if needsbe.

[AE_Collector]

Yes its a 746 "two-tone grey" although they can look more brown if faded.

I always wanted a 746 in two tone gray (Elephant Gray isn't it?) and also one of the two tone green ones. Thought that they both were good two tone combinations. All I have is a couple of 746's in Ivory however. 746's are not seen in North America very often.

Terry

[McHeath]

I do have an Israeli 706 that I bought last summer.  Shipping was a whopping 5 dollars from Israel to California, which has to be a record low price.  It's an interesting phone, combining some features of the early 706 Mark I and the later 746.  (It was made in 1978)  Guess that's because it was made in Israel and as is often the case with licensed products the latest upgrades are not always kept up with.  It works very well, though I did do the modifications that upgrade it to work better on modern lines.  

[LarryInMichigan]

McHeath,

What were the modifications?

Larry